Can You Ride 100 Miles On A £100 Bike?

[19wisconsin64]

What happens when you take a successful pro racer and give them an inexpensive bike and have them ride 100 hilly miles on a hot sunny day? There are so many parts of this video that I can relate to....like running out of gears or stopping on the side of the road before a tough climb.

Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhl2av1bmrE

Love this video!

[intheways]

Funny video! Reminds me of everything I put up with before I got a real bike.

[weisan]

https://live.staticflickr.com/8413/30359510276_c3ba1ee2a8_b.jpg

[Peter P.]

I DID ride a £100 bike on a Century-back in the 70's when I was 15 years old! Actually, my bike then, a birthday present for my 14th, cost $148.

All I had was a 14-28 freewheel with 40-52 chainrings. And I rode in cutoff jeans and sneakers!

It's too bad her £100 bike was too large for her. Had it fit better the ride might have been more enjoyable.

Nevertheless, it was a great video and a fun exercise.

[fiamme red]

I rode over 100 miles more than once on my Schwinn Varsity. I wasn't fast, but I was persistent.

[ridethecliche]

Those brake levers make me nervous just looking at them! Eek!

[makoti]

I DID ride a £100 bike on a Century-back in the 70's when I was 15 years old! Actually, my bike then, a birthday present for my 14th, cost $148.

All I had was a 14-28 freewheel with 40-52 chainrings. And I rode in cutoff jeans and sneakers!

It's too bad her £100 bike was too large for her. Had it fit better the ride might have been more enjoyable.

Nevertheless, it was a great video and a fun exercise.

I once did a 3-day, 185 mile trip on a Peugeot that cost $285. It was too small, too short, bars were too narrow, and the seat was too low. I thought it was a good plan to eat beef jerky and Chessman cookies on the ride, and only carry one bottle in the 97 degree heat. Luckily, I rode it with someone equally unprepared, so we managed in our ignorance.
I kind of know how she felt, except that she had actual fitness & we had not a clue.

[nalax]

Her shoes cost more than 4 times more than the bike. She should have done the ride in cut off jeans and t-shirt with gym shoes.

[ultraman6970]

Great video... she should have done it with caged pedals and old style cleats :D That would have been interesting to see how she was dealing with that because noticed clearly she did not like d/t shifters and probably took her a while to figure it out how they work. That makes me thing that old pedals would had been a big of an issue for her.

Either way, great video :)

[wc1934]

I DID ride a £100 bike on a Century-back in the 70's when I was 15 years old! Actually, my bike then, a birthday present for my 14th, cost $148.

All I had was a 14-28 freewheel with 40-52 chainrings. And I rode in cutoff jeans and sneakers!

It's too bad her £100 bike was too large for her. Had it fit better the ride might have been more enjoyable.

Nevertheless, it was a great video and a fun exercise.

It did look too big for her but she rode a lot in the drops, so she must have been ok - (no gloves either - hard core).

[gasman]

Kudos to her. That seemed hard especially in the heat .

Fun video

[unterhausen]

I rode over 100 miles more than once on my Schwinn Varsity. I wasn't fast, but I was persistent.

A '70s Schwinn Varsity cost about $1000 in today's dollars.

[fiamme red]

A '70s Schwinn Varsity cost about $1000 in today's dollars.I haven't watched the video linked by the OP, but I guessed she bought a used bike that had cost considerably more than £100 when it was new. From the fact that someone mentioned that the bike had downtube shifters, I assumed that it was more expensive than a Varsity when it was new (the Varsity had stem shifters, of course).

There 's someone who does RAGBRAI on a unicycle. That impresses me a lot more than riding a century on a cheap bike.

[gasman]

My Schwinn Varsity Sport- I bought it 1966 at a cost of $69 ($567 in today's dollars)

Mine weighed a ton but it did have downtime shifters. 10 speeds and drop bars with some kind of weird plastic bar wrap.

I never covered more than 60 miles on it in one ride. I'm pretty sure trying to ride 100 miles now would be possible but only just.

[paredown]

I did Vancouver to San Francisco on my old bike boom French bike--summer of '69--crap saddle, Simplex shifters etc--all 28 pounds of low performance. And I had to keep up with my brother on his PX10, and our friend on his nice Carlton--both with light wheels and tubies... And of course, running shoes and ordinary shorts.

Talk about riding yourself into fitness! Hundred miles a day; ten day trip...

And the thing is--although those prices would translate into a decent price in today's dollars, bikes were relatively a lot more expensive. My "Olympic" cost somewhere around $150 Cdn in 1968--but really it was about the equivalent of what you would get at Walmart for the same price in today's dollars.

[J.Higgins]

What happens when you take a successful pro racer and give them an inexpensive bike and have them ride 100 hilly miles on a hot sunny day? There are so many parts of this video that I can relate to....like running out of gears or stopping on the side of the road before a tough climb.

Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhl2av1bmrE

Love this video!

That girl is lovely. Very nice to listen to as well.

[choke]

In the 90s I rode CAMP - Cycle Across Missouri Parks - 4 times. It was a 7 day cross state ride which took a different route every year. The 2nd year there were two women just out of high school who were riding Huffy MTBs, knobby tires and all. I chatted with them a bit on the 1st day and neither had ridden more than 30 miles in one go before attending. They were pretty much the last people in every day but they did the whole ride....major kudos. IIRC that year it was around 415 miles total.

[unterhausen]

My Schwinn Varsity Sport- I bought it 1966 at a cost of $69 ($567 in today's dollars)

I have to admit my number was disingenous to some degree, they were way overpriced by the end of the '70s. You could get a much nicer bike for the same price, even from Schwinn.

I recently saw that the price of a Peugeot PX 10 was (IIRC) $110 when a U0-8 was $90. A lot of people should be mad with themselves for not coming up with the $20. Even though the tubulars might have been too much for a lot of people.

[vespasianus]

https://live.staticflickr.com/8413/30359510276_c3ba1ee2a8_b.jpg


Yeah, makes us all look like pussies.

What I hate about video's like the one the OP showed is that they do stupid things like add air to the tires right before the ride. To that end, she took the time to change the saddle and pedals but not the tires? Maybe putting on new bar tape or even spending 20-30 minutes riding the bike and feeling it out?

[jischr]

When gcn did their heavy vs lite wheel comparison I was expecting 32 or 36 spoke aluminum rims as the heavy. They should have use steel like on her bike. Even Si could felt a difference.

[fiamme red]

I watched a few minutes of the video. It's GCN's dependable and easy way of creating "content" and getting views by riding an old bike and asking, "How am I going to survive? There are no disk brakes, and the shifters aren't on the bars, OMG, I'm petrified that I'm going to crash!" :rolleyes:

[paredown]

I have to admit my number was disingenous to some degree, they were way overpriced by the end of the '70s. You could get a much nicer bike for the same price, even from Schwinn.

I recently saw that the price of a Peugeot PX 10 was (IIRC) $110 when a U0-8 was $90. A lot of people should be mad with themselves for not coming up with the $20. Even though the tubulars might have been too much for a lot of people.
My brother paid ~$250 Cdn for his PX10e in 1969--Normandy Comp hubs, Simplex Competition mechs, Mafac brakes and Stronglight cranks, tubular rims and a Brooks Pro saddle. A little later I was working for a department store (1971) and we had UO8s for around $125 Cdn.

The PX10 was the best deal out there for a good bike--he later raced that thing like the savage that he was. The guys who were seasoned racers nicknamed him 'The Ox"...

[C40_guy]

What I hate about video's like the one the OP showed is that they do stupid things like add air to the tires right before the ride. To that end, she took the time to change the saddle and pedals but not the tires? Maybe putting on new bar tape or even spending 20-30 minutes riding the bike and feeling it out?

Even with the LeMons races, where the cars have to cost less than $2K, the teams are allowed to spend extra on roll cages and race rubber. Safety first. :)

If I were riding a cheap bike on a dare, at minimum I'd change tires and brake pads.

[mcteague]

She really needed to install new tires and brake pads before the ride. Using the old, rotting stuff really stacked the deck against it. I would have cleaned and repacked all the bearings as well.

Tim

[wallymann]

It did look too big for her but she rode a lot in the drops, so she must have been ok - (no gloves either - hard core).

"she" is Manon Lloyd...retired world-class track cyclist rode for Wales/GB at world cups and on the road for trek-drops...methinks she knows a thing or 2 about cycling!

[Mark McM]

For the next video they should do the 100 mile ride on this bike.

After all, it is the best $100 bike!

https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/print/5.5/8/break/images/artworkimages/medium/1/bicycle-advertisement-1888-granger.jpg

[mcteague]

For the next video they should do the 100 mile ride on this bike.

After all, it is the best $100 bike!

https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/print/5.5/8/break/images/artworkimages/medium/1/bicycle-advertisement-1888-granger.jpg

Well, they did do the hour on a penny farthing. Lets have a moment of silence for Hank's nether regions (skip to 10:25) .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyqDOra2T3I
GCN's Guinness World (Penny Farthing) Hour Record!

Tim

[vespasianus]

Even with the LeMons races, where the cars have to cost less than $2K, the teams are allowed to spend extra on roll cages and race rubber. Safety first. :)

If I were riding a cheap bike on a dare, at minimum I'd change tires and brake pads.

Yeah, you would think that no? I mean, it would take say 60 minutes for someone to clean the bike, chain, cassette, replace cables, pads and housing and put on new tires.

[Davist]

She still averaged "just under 30k" which is about 20mph, faster than I can do on my wonderbike. As for changing tires, she was most likely on 27" which are hard to find at all, the bike shop she went to was a bit of a "vintage" specialist from the looks of it. fun video.

[tylercheung]

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/02/866952444/indian-teen-bikes-700-miles-with-injured-dad-is-hailed-as-hero-and-sparks-debate