165 miles on my Rambouillet from Madisonville, KY to Chester, IL. Noodles, B17 special, TA Zephyr 46/36/26, three bottles in cages and a Nelson Longflap with about 12-15 pounds of stuff, riding across the country (east-west) with three others.
It was a clear sunny day in July, over 100° before midday, very humid. Cicadas roaring in the state forests for the last hours. My cohorts faltering in the last 30 miles, they felt beat up by the ride, all were on Serrotta steel bikes fit up by the same guy with DA racing triples, bars below saddles. They pace lined behind me from Carbondale to Chester, I was still comfortable and felt like my legs had some energy. Grant said this was what kind of riding inspiring the bike's design. Been on the bike every day since Yorktown, VA and this was the day that made obvious the difference that the parameter of comfort added in performance. I already saw that my bike climbed (and descended) the Appalachian Mountains better, but until this day I thought I was just a bit stronger of a rider than the others. Grant said it would be comfortable on long rides and reassured me that the gearing was perfect. Not bad for a bike that arrived the night prior to my wife driving me to Yorktown. I had to take the other bike out of the car, assemble the Ram and ride a few miles to get the saddle and bars right then reload the car. "New" doesn't even cover how much of a frank test ride this was. Did I say Grant was right? He was. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 4:14:29 PM UTC-5, Jim Bronson wrote: > > So I typed up this long post to Lum gim fong, and then realized that he > was just asking about Boscos. Woops.... > > I'm going to post it anyway, so I can feel like my effort was justified, > even if it wasn't. > > ---- > > 1000K is the farthest I have successfully completed. I'm 2 out of 3 at > that distance, the one failing due to a mechanical that could not be easily > solved in a geographically remote area of Texas. (stripped crank bolt and > rounded crank arm interface). > > 1000K is easier to compartmentalize into seeming just a day longer than a > 600K. On a flat-ish one like I did most recently in 2014, I was in all > three days around midnight-12:30, so I got some sleep too and still > finished 9 and a half hours under the 75 hour time limit. It still seemed > a bit long on the third day, I was telling the guys and gals I was riding > with that "It just seems like we ride our bikes all day every day" but > overall it was a manageable distance and we finished that ride in good > spirits. > > I admit to wanting to quit my first 1000K in 2007 at times but it was the > point to point Portland to Glacier ride, so if I wanted to quit, I was > going to have to hitch hike in remote areas of Washington, Idaho and > Montana. Continuing to ride seemed like a better option at the time, so I > did. > > I have made a couple of attempts at 1200K, but failed in both, quit on or > end of the first day. It's really in my head. Mentally for some reason it > seems much more daunting than a 1000K, that extra 200K manifesting itself > as a 4th day on the bike gets to your psyche if you're having a tough > time. I was miserable in the cold and rain in France in 2007 without > fenders. I was 36 at that time and less mature, I really wanted to go > drink more wine and try to meet Parisian women, which of course didn't > happen. The second part, I mean. The other time, I got psyched out by > looming spectre of the Salinas Valley headwind in California in 2014 after > I slept in on Day 2, just decided to sleep in and go visit family rather > than continue riding. > > I also do better when I'm riding with people that I frequently ride with > with out of the Texas clubs, because I know their riding paces and habits, > how long they'll take at controls, etc. In neither 1200K I attempted did I > have those people around me save for one rider in California but she was on > a recumbent, so it wasn't a great match. Maybe next time I just need to > pay for a rando friend's registration and travel expenses that I know I can > get along with, won't quit the ride and will push me to keep going when the > going gets hard. > > > Jim > > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > signature goes here > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
