Long Riders

[Too Tall]

Tell me about your longest bicycle ride EVER! By longest ride I mean to say with no sleep. There is no point to this other than tell a good story :)

*The story lamp is lit.

[scrooge]

Tell me about your longest bicycle ride EVER! By longest ride I mean to say with no sleep. There is no point to this other than tell a good story :)

*The story lamp is lit.

What's sleep? Does 25 minutes count?

[Too Tall]

Nah. "Sleep" as in a few hrs. not a catnap.

[Tom]

What if I can't tell whether I'm asleep or awake at any given time?

[weisan]

The wife would testify from a legal standpoint, I never stop riddin' even in my sleep. :cool:

[Sandy]

You, my man, are a truly long long distance rider, in more ways than one.



Sandy

[jdoiv]

back in college, from Knoxville to Cades Cove in the Smokies and back. Got back to the apartment and realized we went somewhere in the 120 mile range. Didn't feel like a century and only stoped for water once or twice. Was a very early Sunday morning ride. Crossed over 3 or 4 ridgelines on the way.

I remember the guy I did the ride with was into brevets and was training for PBP. We were riding down this little country lane next to a gurgling stream/river and came upon a small baptist church. We could hear the choir singing as the mist was rolling off the stream. The light was just breaking through the tree canopy overhead. It was gorgeous. My friend looked at me and said, "Why go to church when you can be this close to God?" It was a religous experience. I felt very connected to my surroundings and at peace with the world.

We got to the base of the climb up into Cades Cove and I had to drop him since my bail out gear was a 39x24 and he was on a triple and wanted to spin up. I put the hammer down to keep my cadence high and rolled up the climb at a respectable 16mph until the final push. Got to the top and waited a few minutes for him to catch up. We refilled our water bottles, turned around and reversed our course. Made it back to Knoxville suprisingly in good shape and suprised to see the avocet tell me it was over 100 miles. Felt good all the way back except for the last ridge. That one hurt a little. Got into the apartment, took a shower, opened a can of Milwakee's Best Light (hey it was college and I was poor) and promply fell asleep on the couch.

Man, those were the days. No real responsibilities and able to go ride for hours on end.....

Just thought I would share my story....

John

[Sandy]

So Too Tall, what is the longest one that you did? Was it with the Queen? I bet your longest is really loooooooooooooong. Perhaps the longest in the forum.


Sandy

[spiderman]

were cake in 7 hours flat...
compared with the drive back across the state
and the subsequent drive home to northwest iowa
arriving home at sunrise the next day!

[keno]

at this year's Open House the ride I was on was endless.

keno

[boulder_courier]

2003 Colorado Brevet - 400km (250 miles) 13 hours 45 minutes w/ 4X10 minute check points. 2 weeks later did a 600km brevet (400km in 16 hours, slept for 4 hours and then rode 200km in about 8 hours).

[Argos]

"Back in the Day" I rode from my house in Long Island to Montauk Point. I got there early, around noon, and had a slice of famous ('cause I tell people about it) Montauk Pizza.

Well, I had a train Pass but didn't feel like waiting 2 hours for the train, so I rode back. It was about 145 miles round trip. I miss being 15 and being able to disappear all day long.

[dauwhe]

My longest ride was the Westfield (Mass.) 400k brevet this summer. 257 miles total. I wrote up a long, long ride report for the randon list, but it's so long I can't post it here! Just as well...

Dave Cramer
Brattleboro, Vermont

[saab2000]

My longest ever was from Brussels to Bad Muenstereifel in Germany. I don't know how far it was, but it was a pretty epic ride. It rained all day. Rode my Peugeot, Vittoria CXs and all. The ridiculous things we will do for love amaze. At least I got some........ :beer:

This ride occurred in 1991, during my Euro days. I was still racing and had pretty good fitness.

[chrisroph]

July, 1984, To Helen Beyond, 207 miles. The ride circled Mt. St. Helens in a clockwise direction. We started in a national forest compound and left very early in the morning. We initially rode several miles of gravel and then came to some single lane tertiary forest roads that wound their way over the western flanks of Mt. St. Helens. It was a cool and cloudy early July day but we could see the aftermath of the eruption, huge tracts of trees all knocked down like toothpicks and laying in one direction. There was a lot of climbing and descending and climbing and descending on remote roads without any cars. It got very cold and started raining. Many riders, including Gary Klein, abandoned because of the conditions. My compatriots and I pressed on. The most memorable moment was descending a steep slope in the rain and seeing a sign that said warning, steel grate bridge ahead. I slowed to a crawl and rode across a jagged slippery steel grate bridge which crossed a gorge. My friend Michael, who wore glasses and never saw the sign , came flying down the hill and hit the bridge at 35mph. He stayed loose and off the brakes and made it across. He was riding a ciocc. I still have a bike exactly like the one he was on and its a beautifully handling machine built of columbus sl. Another memorable moment was ascending angel's ridge 145 miles into the ride. It was comprised of one 19% stairstep after another. You could not see how many of these wicked little walls loomed ahead because the climb meandered around a hill. My freind Bo cracked and abandoned on that climb, which we still call devil's ridge. It was a memorable and exhausting ride.

[wanderingwheel]

I rode two 600k brevets this year, San Luis Obispo and San Francisco. Don't ask me any details about them, I can't recall much of either. I tried to ride the second one straight through, but that proved impossible.

I also rode the Gold Rush Randonee, the longest stretch being form the start in Davis to Adin (~315 miles). The ride started at 6pm and I got in the fast group. We arrived at the first waterstop at mile 50 at 7 and spent half an hour there. The next stop was at mile 100 and we arrived there at 11. This is not the way to start a 750 mile ride. When I reached Adin, it was 6pm, still plenty of light, but I was all but asleep and spent a luxurious 10 hours off the bike.

[Ti Designs]

Last winter a friend called me and said he was planning a ride I couldn't pass up - Boston MA to Burlington VT in a day. I've been known to run a long stupid mountain bike ride on July 4th (4:30AM 'til the fireworks), but never with so much mileage or climbing. just the same, I couldn't pass it up. We left Boston at 3:00AM and got into Burlington just before 8:00PM. We hit the first major gap climb in Vermont with just over 200 miles behind us. It turned out to be 245 miles...

[Ray]

The IDEA of really long rides sounds sort of appealing, but I've never finished a century and even remotely thought "this would be a good time to do another one", so centuries and the occasional double metric are as long as I ever ride. The most difficult / epic day was in the middle of a weeklong tour across Pennsylvania. This was during my second year of riding and I'd only done one century to this point. Every day on this tour was about 75-85 miles, with a century tossed in on the fourth or fifth day, when everyone is basically already shot. Needless to say, this tour was the most difficult riding I'd ever done, by far. Still is to this day. By the time we got to the century, we'd had two days of brutal climbing and then one or two flatter days. I remember the day before, trying to treat the 75 miles we were doing as a "recovery" ride, so I'd be relatively fresh for the next day (and cogitating all day on the insanity of THAT concept). The century started off with torrential rain, which eventually turned into searing heat and humidity in bright sunshine. Lots of tough climbing, a couple of sections of incredibly frightening near-freeway conditions riding in the gutter with loads of traffic passing within a couple of feet at about 80 mph. The last ten miles of that day were nearly hallucinagenic. We went past the Hershey amusement park at about 90 miles and I was sure I was seeing things. I was unspeakably fried and was barely conscious for the last 10. Then the next day was 82 very tough miles in unbearable heat all day. THAT was one of the worst cycling days of my life. The only consolation was that we ended in my home town so I got to sleep in my own bed that night.

None of this double century or 400-600-1200 k brevet stuff for me. 100ish is plenty. And long rides for more than two consecutive days are no longer on my agenda either. I like to ENJOY riding and at some point these epics can turn into a real death march type of atmosphere.

-Ray

[The Spider]

did 132 miles, what made that interesting was we only planned to do 40 odd...it just turned into one of those days which just kept going. Great weather, great company, great road and food...it had it all.

It's the rides that you bite off more than you can do and somehow hang on that etch themselves onto your brain (maybe to warn you in the future!).

[Tom]

OK, now that people have posted their long rides that are way longer than mine I'll chime in. 125 miles to the farm a couple of times. That's the short way and this summer I'm thinking of a better route... something like over to Vt. 9 and up 100 and kind of overshoot a little and come back in from the north or something.

[Too Tall]

The first long ride I ever did was around the ages of 9 yrs. when I'd wander out of the Maryland suburbs into Washington DC for a tour of the monuments and than back before anyone noticed. I rode a Raleigh "Sports" with a B66 saddle. Those weekend outings were about 50+ miles.
The longest single ride has to be our second PBP where we rode to Brest turned the "corner" and decided to keep riding to Carhaix which is about 430 miles and slept for about an hr. on a haystack...well actually Queen slept and I stared at stars...bats...flying monkeys! I remember the time check in Brest because it was fast and recall it was in 26ish hrs. Maybe too fast.

Those are some great stories esp. like hearing about the epic and inspiring things. One of the coaches at the East Coast Coaches Conf. rode in this dilly of a ride: http://www.deerfieldcycling.org/index.htm Looks great non?

Keep em' coming.

[Tom]

I can't miss that next year. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Wow. I'm there!

[TimB]

Of 152 miles a few years back. TT, you were 'on' this ride I believe, out of Upper Marlboro. I say 'on' because I believe we lost you at some point due to 1) your speed and 2) the error on the cue sheet. [I knew better than to trust the creator of the route, having experienced route abnormalities in prior outings.]

We started at 7am...had a sit down lunch of fried seafood (ugh) at about mile 90, then cruised on indigestion the last 62 miles. It was hot hot hot, and I ended up tending a severely dehydrated somehwat disoriented Mr Notto the last few miles back to the start.

The seafood was not my idea, and given the choice I would have had a quick stop and continued on. I suppose I could have done so; but it was a 'social event' as much as a ride...but those hush puppies sat heavy in my stomach the rest of the day.

When I was about 11-12 I was allowed to ride solo the 25 miles from my parents' house to my grandmother's lake home. This, along the edge of rural state highways, on my Huffy five speed. Man, I was living!

[zap]

Snipped

[I knew better than to trust the creator of the route, having experienced route abnormalities in prior outings.]



I get one guess as to who that was. :rolleyes:

My longest ride was somewhere between 110-120 miles. Did it solo during my first full year of riding. Took way to much time. That was the first and last time I spent more than 6 hours in the saddle.

[RABikes2]

Nah. "Sleep" as in a few hrs. not a catnap.
Oops...in that case, change my vote in the poll of 200+ to 300+. :D

RA

[dauwhe]

I can't miss that next year. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Wow. I'm there!

It was amazing--the best ride I've ever done, and one of the hardest.

Dave Cramer
Brattleboro, Vermont

[Sandy]

Oops...in that case, change my vote in the poll of 200+ to 300+. :D

RA

I get tired driving 300 miles. You the man!! Oops. You the lady!!


Sandy

[Too Tall]

Are we converging at Deerfield, MA next yr?
Wait a goll durn second....that's the week after BMB.
Hey, thought it would be a hoot to put up a pic. of two of my best Ultradistance friends Eric and Richie at the last PBP. Flash back to the 70's or what? Not. This is 1993. These guys are what you call timeless classics ;)