epic ride or just good stories

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bro chrisroph 's ride story was really cool he has been riding for many years and i know a lot of you cats have too . so lets hear some tales of the road from some of you old timers .. i admire you cats who can keep the fire goin some of you cats have been riding for 30+ years and that is cool imho
cheers

bro you cats started on 10 speed and your back on 10 speed

[Len J]

bro chrisroph 's ride story was really cool he has been riding for many years and i know a lot of you cats have too . so lets hear some tales of the road from some of you old timers .. i admire you cats who can keep the fire goin some of you cats have been riding for 30+ years and that is cool imho
cheers

bro you cats started on 10 speed and your back on 10 speed

in 1973, I graduated from HS and needed to get down the shore for senior week......but I had no car, had to work well past when all my friends were leaving for the shore so the only choice I had was my Schwinn varsity (a tank POS but it was all I had).

So I get up early in the AM........put on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, pack a backpack, get on the bike and ride it to the old Chester/Bridgeport ferry, about 20 miles away. Toe clips and sneakers round out the outfit.

I buy a map on the ferry and plot my route while we are going across the Delaware river as I watch the sun rise. (Planning, we don't need no stinkin' planning!)

I have no idea how long it took or how fast I went. I do remember it was hot & humid & I took several wrong turns. I also remember that when I got to Ocean City NJ, I rode 3 times around the island to make sure I hit the 100 miles. I also remember how it felt to have not only done it but also the looks on peoples faces when they heard I did.

The beer when I arrived may have been the most satisfying drink I have ever had.

Longest ride prior to that had been about 25 miles.......ain't youth great!

That ride hooked me on riding..........I had done a lot of short riding prior to that, but that one "set the hook".

I don't think I've ever exceeded that feeling on a bike.....I've matched it, but never exceeded it.

Len

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nice story bro .cheers
it's funny that the rides I remember are the one's most people wouldn't go out in rain and cold.. start with 12 riders 7 turn back and it's you and your bro's out there ..for some reason i'm at my best in wet cold and wind ..okay your sayin cold .. well in the winter 40 degrees and a hard rain with a big wind can make for a hard day ..but those are the days i remember best .cheers

[coylifut]

when i was 16, a handful of my friends bought bikes and feeling left out i went down to the bike gallery and bought a entry level trek. That was 1979. Getting the $ out of my parents was no problem because i told 'em i wanted a bike and not a car. Being the youngest of 8, and the only one left at home, it was music to my their ears. I didn't get a liscense to drive until I was 18 and commuted extensively, but that's another story. My parents and I had a fairly unique social contract. if i maintained an A average, i could come and go as i pleased, do what ever i wanted - no questions asked. if i got Bs, i was supposed to be home by 11 and report my where abouts. They were flat tired of raising kids. Being that I maintained the A average and my parents had a very modest place at the lake and were gone just about every weekend, i roamed freely.

One Friday in July, a friend and I decided to ride to my older brother's house near Garibaldi Oregon. The total distance was about 90 miles, but we didn't know that before we started. We each stuffed sleeping bags between our handlebars and one of us carried a tent on a back rack and the other a small back pack attached with a bungy cord. Off we went. Our cycling attire was gym shorts, t-shirts and tennis shoes. I remember the weather being beautiful the whole day and we quickly crested the coast range and made it my brother's house without issue.

The next day, we headed North along the coast stopping at several towns to eat crab louis and clam chowder. They didn't have power bars in those days. We ended up in Astoria and then pedaled inland a ways and poached a camping site not to far from a country store along a rushing river. The ride was about 60 miles. Some local thugs showed up and we could smell some pot burning which was no problem, but left after they pulled out a gun and started shooting botles atop rocks in the middle of the river. We transfered our quarters to a County Park a few miles up river. There was a sizeable company having their annual picknick and we crashed the party and ate Salmon cooked on a cedar plank burried under ground. I also remember eating 3 slices of chocolate cake and driking Orange Crush out of glass bottles. Although we looked quite road weary, no one ever asked us who we belonged to.

The third day was about 90 or so miles back to town. What I remember is how bruised the balls of my feet were. The next week I got some real cycling shorts and shoes. When I got home my dad said "I was wondering where you were, I should have known you were out on your bike."

[rounder]

Good thread. Thanks!!

[saab2000]

Memorable rides in my life - In no particular order.

- Janus Gourmet Tour - 1982 or so. 15 or so. Hung with the fast dudes for 50 miles and then bonked. Major bonk. Would've eaten grass. Cramps. etc. sucked. But was addicted! :banana:

- Various real centuries. Bonking and cramping, but loving it in the early-mid '80s.

- Winning my first Prime in '83. Won a Cabbage Patch Kid doll in a crit sprint.

- 85 Wolf River Century. Ride of a lifetime. Another 'race' of attrition. Thinking at about the 50 mile mark, "Andthentherewere20.Andthentherewere19......". 'Til mile 98 when I got sorta dropped because I actually stopped at a Stop sign when the others barely looked. My introduction to the sub-4 hour century. In the rain. Think team time trial. Pace line from mile #1.

- 1988 Superweek. Blur. Hungover for the whole two super weeks. Loving life. 21 and unstoppable. Rarely out of the top 20.

-1989 Oktoberfest in La Crosse, WI. "This-Is-Not-A-Race" takes on a whole new meaning.

-1991 gives me the most epic ride of all. Brussels to Bad Muenstereifel via Liege and some other places like Aachen. Sunrise-sunset. I have no idea of the distance, but it was pre-global warming and wore tights the whole way except the last 100 km or so through Holland and Germany. I was cold and wet and in love, which drove me to ride that far. Ate little cakes and cokes throughout Belgium and Holland and Germany. Still think about her. Sometimes.

- 1996 or so. Over the Klausenpass in Switzerland.

- 2003 - Pragelpass. Steep as the legend had it. Effin' hard. Seriously scenic. But got dropped for 20 minutes by the top by my South African bud. One of the last of my real epics.

I want more before it's all over.

[Bud]

Nice stories, all. Coy- that was especially cool. Makes me think about the fun crap I did when I was a teenager.

[L84dinr]

Hmmm a Fun Ride/Race. Don’t remember the time of year but it got hot! somewhere in North Central Oklahoma/South Central KS. shrug.

I remember we had one of those popcorn thunderstorms roll through that blew a tree down at the start finish line; knocked a hole in the windshield of a car and scared the crap out of a rider who was crashed out inside. (because of the heat, the fact he could sleep in the car was amazing).

Me and some friends from OU (CRRC club) went to the race, some doods from OSU who were affiliated with the Tulsa cycling club showed up; and some guys (cat 4/3 types) I knew from Wichita, KS were at the race. A small field. I didn’t have a license, but the non-licensed guys raced right along the licensed guys. I did ok and stayed with the cat 4/3 guys. As mentioned earlier it was a HOT day. The tar strips would just suck your tires down; like the road was holding you back. If I remember correctly it was a 60 mile race. Eventually it was me and the licensed guys from Wichita riding along, I had dropped the riders who were in my category; the licensed guys dropped me at the finishing sprint, bummer. After the race, me and my friends drove over to Derby, KS and I bought beer and Pizza with my winnings; 60 dollars for a prime and first place! What a trip, this was my third event ever, and my best finish ever.

There have been other races, but never with such a good ending.


Man, growing up in Wichita, KS we were always riding bikes. During the summer months we would have the weekends to ourselves. Wichita has the Arkansas river running through it and we would ride the bike paths all over. The only bummer about the bike paths was the goat head stickers. We would run HEAVY duty tubes and install flicker stickers on our bikes. Still, there were plenty of days when we walked bikes home.
We would ride neighborhood streets to get to the River bike paths and then head into downtown and ride up and down the parking garages, what fun… we knew about drifting way before the Japanese made it popular, Hah. We would lash our fishing poles and carry a can of corn and go fishing at the lincoln street dam. Catch and release Carp all day long, sometimes we would hook a channel cat. Larry wrecked his bike one day, I was on the opposite side of the river and somehow Larry dropped his pole, or maybe it was a small tackle box, into the forks! What a cool endo! Luckily no one was hurt and the bike was rideable. Sometimes we would cruise up the river a ways and fish the dam where the little Arkansas joined the Big river. Summers were fun! Larry and Gary, (twins, and still my best friends) had Schwinn LeTour bikes. We thought they were the BOMB! I had different clunkers, One from sears with Ram shaped handlebars.

When the city was building a new highway they had a huge over pass with dirt all over the place. We built up a little ramp of dirt and using the downhill side of the over pass we would pretend to be Evel Kneivel jumping the dirt ramp. I flew my bike WAY down the road. When I landed, the rear inner tube Burst and the handlebars twisted in the stem clamp. Don’t know how I stayed up right.

We had it made back then.

Thanks for the bandwidth, thanks for reading.

rtp

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bro why is it when we are young we are so tight with friends and goes away with the years .. it is rather sad imho nice story