Topic: Biked a century yesterday

[754]

Are you talking bicycle..?  ?..?

[Bankerdanny]

Duh, cycled, not the motorcycle.

I cycle year round. I usually do at least one century a year, but I have been busy with the Wing, my 550 project, and my MG and just haven't done as much cycling as usual.

[70CB750]

I was wondering

[Bankerdanny]

My fastest century (excluding rest stops) was a 17mph average for one I did in 2009.

My longest ride is 126 miles in '86 when I was 21.

In 2007 I did a 6 day 444 mile organized ride.

[70CB750]

Wow!  I mean, crap, you are different league, man.  I really started biking when I was 40 or so.  Century is about my limit.

[Bankerdanny]

I was 44 when I did the one in the picture.

There's an annual ride in NE Illinois called the sub 5 Century. The goal is a 20mph or better average including rest stops for a total ride time of 5 hours or less. This year several members of my regular riding group successfully did it. Another member in his early 60's is an iron man triathlete. When you ride with folks like that you have to become reasonably fast or get left behind.

[70CB750]

I believe your area is flat?

[754]

Thats great..
 I ran into a guy the other day that rode competitively for a lot of years..
 Did a century a day a few times a week when training.
 Said hls longest ride was around one of the Hawaii islands.. About 250 miles in 16hrs..
 Man that is hard riding..

[RAFster122s]

I biked with some friends and was going to ride in Tucson's de Tour but achilles tendonitis took me out during the build up. I quickly learned my tires, wider treaded were making the bike a lot harder to ride any distance. It was dramatic the change in rubber made.  Had a spoke break and cause a blowout and nearly wiped out one night biking home from work. $150 later I had a heavy-duty Sun rim laced with heavier guage spokes by the bike shop. Changed the shifters to trigger shifter and reconfigured the handle bars to cruiser style as I discovered the stem was bent so, new higher rise stem added as well. With herniated discs in my neck and carpal tunnel I needed a more upright riding position than I had with the stock Trek setup.
Should have bought a cruiser hybrid as that i what I ended up building. The cruiser geometry a bit better for easier pedalling when more upright as the seat to crank position is a little different.
Similiar to lower bars making you wanting rearsets, a more upright seating needs the crank to seat relationship shifting the crank further forward.

The highway I now live on is not very bicycle friendly. My older brother and sister live near a bike friendly road, that is as the main road to her subdivision leads to a nearby park/campground/recreation area.

[70CB750]

I ended the century with a broken spoke, luckily I did not know:)

My old man biked all his life, commuting from downtown Prague to the scientific institute he worked in - 30 miles a day -  when he was 63 he landed hard on his face and broke jaw and lost some teeth, he biked the Alps with similar crazy group when he was 65.

Now he is 80 and  bikes normal bike and electrical assisted when he feels lazy.

We always biked together when he comes, Skyline drive and such. But because of him, I never got into till I was 40 or so.  Started with an old Raleigh I found in a scrap metal bin

Sorry, talk too much as always.

[Stev-o]

We always biked together when he comes, Skyline drive and such. But because of him, I never got into till I was 40 or so.  Started with an old Raleigh I found in a scrap metal bin

You didn't bike as a kid? Before I got a car at 15, I rode a bike everywhere.

One of most memorable rides was the MS150, a charity ride that is done every year to benefit Multiple Sclerosis. It was a two day ride, camped overnight, and covered 168 miles from a Houston to Austin.
There were 5000 riders, quite an event.

http://biketxh.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?sid=3590&type=fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=22598
 

[70CB750]

I was a city kid, there was no need for a bicycle with metro, bus, tram.
I did bike on weekends at the summer/weekend cabin, just to go fishing or get ice cream and such, nothing what I would count as biking.

That BL MS looks like good event, how did you like the ride?  Did you haul all the gear for camping on the bike?

[Bankerdanny]

I believe your area is flat?

Where I live is very flat, which absolutely contributed to that 17.2mph average a few years back.

But the first few days of the multi-day ride in 2007 were along the Mississippi River Valley area, and it can get darn hilly. One day covered 80 miles with 4,000 feet of climbing and another was 70+ mi;les with 3,000 feet. You never get very high, so no issues with oxygen levels like riding in mountains, but 4,000 feet in 80 miles is still a lot of going up when you traditionally barely break 200 feet of total elevation change in a 100 mile ride.