Amazing Experience

[PBWrench]

On Sunday I was 73 miles into a very windy organized century ride and about three feet behind my riding buddy. Suddenly pieces of his bike began flying and his saddle just missed my knee. It turns out that the bolt on the seatclamp of his Seven (Wound Up) post had sheared in half. My friend, who does a lot of cross-training and weight work, rode the next 27 miles out of the saddle, his only real difficulty being sore feet. Two questions: Have you ever seen a clamp bolt fail like that, and secondly, have you seen someone ride for so long out of the saddle?? It was a humbling experience for me seeing such a feat of strength!

[Louis]

Incredible.

[jimcav]

had my saddle come loose--stood to pedal, sat back down almost wiped out--whole saddel just tilted underme. luckily the retaining part stayed in the clamp (thomson) and i circled back and found the bolt.
so now i check those more frequently.
another time one screw came out of my cleats while MTB (eggbeater), i nearly killed my knee trying to unclip--the cleat stayed in the pedal and my shoe just pivoted on the one screw. I wrecked and had to take my shoe of my foot and yank it off the pedal. I was able to take a screw off something on my bike and finish the ride.
another time, i'd just bought a bike at veloswap. went out for a 20 mile mtb ride. turns out the carbon post was a tad small and the previous owner had just kept tightening the seat tube--crimping the post. sure enough, i came off a small hill and when my butt hit the saddle, the post just cracked and folded. I was luckily fine but had to ride the last 7 miles back to my car. luckily the route was mostly flat and not too technical.

[gdw]

I've seen four bolts shear off and had it happen once. My Shimano XTR post failed during an ultra MTB race and I had to ride 9 miles to a support area. It was not fun. I was fortunate in that the the bolt stretched, the saddle started to change its position on an extended climb, and snapped when I stopped and tried to tighten it.

[Birddog]

I know of a guy that rides RAGBRAI standing the whole way. His bike doesn't even have a saddle. I'm not sure if he still does it or not, but he's made the whole trip several times. It's usually in the range of 450 to 500 miles in 7 days.

Birddog

[Bradford]

I've broken a bolt on my mountain bike seat post and actually broken a post in half, but I'm a big fat load and most bike parts are made to handle my weight.

[Waldo]

A friend's seatpost cradle broke and he rode ~15 miles standing. He was in shape when it happened and he had trouble doing it. Also, my wife's binder on our tandem broke mid-ride, so I rode it back solo about 4 miles, left the bike at home, and drove back to pick her up. Talk about a long wheelbase...

[David Kirk]

The queen of this was mountain biker Cindy Whitehead. It was somewhere in California that she started a woman's pro race and a mile into a 50 mile point to point race her seat clamp broke. She tossed the seat and post and rode the whole way out of the saddle.

Oh..........she also won.

Hardcore.

Dave

[mcteague]

The queen of this was mountain biker Cindy Whitehead. It was somewhere in California that she started a woman's pro race and a mile into a 50 mile point to point race her seat clamp broke. She tossed the seat and post and rode the whole way out of the saddle.

Oh..........she also won.

Hardcore.

Dave
Damn you Dave. I was just researching this as I could not remember what race Cindy won. She won the 50 mile Plumline Challenge outside of Bishop, CA after she broke her seat off? One of the stages of this race included a 14 mile climb without your seat and seatpost.

Seeing the "Fat Tire Flyer" brought back memories. It was the first Mt bike magazine I ever saw.
http://charlie8060.fotopic.net/p26158878.html

Tim McTeague

[Louis]

I'm not a racer, I'm not very fast, and I know I could stand to loose maybe 10 more pounds, and I know I'm only in decent shape, horrible compared to many here, but having said that, this type of stuff is just mind boggling to me. On the really tough hills towards the end, when I know I can afford to do it, I sometimes stand, but it's not too long before I'm way above redline on my HRM.

I just can't imagine how someone can do this for extended periods of time. It must take so much more energy for your legs to support the mass that would normally be on the saddle. If someone can do this for a bunch of miles that suggests to me that they have a lot more in the tank that they aren't using if they are seated. What's the explanation, other than the fact that they are just miles better than normal humans? The physics don't seem to add up for me.

[Marco]

It really is amazing to think of this. To say that he rose to the occasion doesn't begin to tell the whole story.................

[Samster]

... The physics don't seem to add up for me.
use gravity to your advantage...

[david]

The queen of this was mountain biker Cindy Whitehead. It was somewhere in California that she started a woman's pro race and a mile into a 50 mile point to point race her seat clamp broke. She tossed the seat and post and rode the whole way out of the saddle.

Oh..........she also won.

Hardcore.

Dave

i remember cindy whitehead. didn't she have a brother, mark or something?
he was pretty hardcore also, as i recall.

[FATBOY]

the front bolt on my Thomson post popped once... let's just say that the front of the saddle shot up so hard and hit me somewhere so sensitive :banana: that I have no cool story to tell about how far I rode afterwards. I do , however, have a story about three of us standing on the trail laughing like idiots at the sound I made....

[RABikes2]

I know of a guy that rides RAGBRAI standing the whole way. His bike doesn't even have a saddle. I'm not sure if he still does it or not, but he's made the whole trip several times. It's usually in the range of 450 to 500 miles in 7 days.Birddog
My neighbors, who have done RAGBRAI 25+ years, have told the story about that guy.

[H.Frank Beshear]

I know of a guy that rides RAGBRAI standing the whole way. His bike doesn't even have a saddle. I'm not sure if he still does it or not, but he's made the whole trip several times. It's usually in the range of 450 to 500 miles in 7 days.

Birddog

That's Dean Mathias, he's a member of our bike club and does Ragbrai, Tomv, and several centuries a year and as far as I know has never used a saddle. He also runs a few marathons a year as well. I heard he broke the last ti frame he had and was talking to Calfee about a carbon bike.

[Erik.Lazdins]

I believe LA broke his seatbolt with about 20K to go in Liege Bastogne Liege in 2002 and finished 20th.