Stacked wood

[SolarAndWood]

You skinny tire guys and your triple digit rides are nuts. I bought one while courting my wife and do the occasional 50 mile ride but I far prefer 5" of travel front and back on a trail through the woods.

 

[fabsroman]

babsroman, good to see you on the board. Good to see another biker too. Are you following RAAM? It looked like the record speed mabye going to fall this year but not so. Strasser slowed once in the mountains of WV. Still a good ride he had this year. The fight for second place is surely interesting.

I have a couple 30-40 mile routes I ride quite a bit during the summer and usually try to take a couple long rides. Was hoping to get in a 200 miler this year but doubt that is going to happen because of some physical problems. Then there is the hip which has not totally healed but is getting better. Then there is the weather this year. Wow. A wet year for sure.

On the longer rides, I definitely notice a big difference especially after 100 miles. Before I would be totally wasted but now after 100 sometimes I feel like just continuing on. Usually only the legs get tired and no sore spots on the backside, arms and neck. That is one reason I ride the recumbent now. But I still wish I had the Bianchi and could ride it. I ended up giving it to a 16 year old kid who lives not far from us. He was amazed how fast he could go in that bike. lol

I don't follow RAAM all that much. I have one ex-teammate, Kyle Pitman participating in it this year on team 4Mil. He participated in it last year too, but they drove the RV off the road and had to call it quits. I think somebody fell asleep at the wheel. A couple of guys I used to race against in 2007, 2008, and 2009 raced it. They were on Adventures for the Cure in 2009 and TeamType 1 in 2010. The guy I know the best is Adam Driscoll. He has diabetes and is a monster on the bike. Really nice guy too. He created the "Adventures for the Cure" team and they have training rides just down the way from me that I might eventually start doing once I get a little more fit.

By the way, I don't follow much of the pro racing scene either. All this PEDs stuff just has me disgusted with the pro scene. In the 80s I used to race against some of the big names when we were all juniors (e.g., George Hincapie, Jonas Carney (US Pro), Bobby Julich). I could never beat those guys. Hence, the reason I am planning on chopping firewood and they are/were racing as pros.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I too lost interest in the pro scene.

The accident you refer too with the RV rolling over, I believe that was near Durango, CO. I'm thinking we were in Pagosa Springs when we heard about it. The stories we heard though were worse that what actually happened. btw, one of our vehicles was also involved in an accident in Durango or just on the eastern edge of town. Seems someone thought the way was clear and broadsided one of our vans. That held them up for several hours and we had lost contact with them so caused some anxious moments for sure. Our bike mechanic was driving at the time and after the police report did the best he could to patch the vehicle up enough to drive it. The sliding door was shot. Then sadly, this happened to be the van I drove back to San Francisco. Man we had that thing loaded with gear! I also had over $15,000 worth of bikes which I had to put inside the motel room every night on the way back. It really was bad only one time and that was when I had to load those bikes in a pouring rainstorm. Then I almost lost them in Nevada when the roof rack started coming apart. Caught that one just in time. lol


Solar, we ride them for exercise but also because we happen to like riding.

 

[SolarAndWood]

also because we happen to like riding.

lol me too, just can't convince myself to sit on the road bike for more than 50 miles at a time where I have no problem with extended rides on the mountain bike. My wife has done a number of triple digit road rides already this year. I think we are just wired differently and there is nothing wrong with that. No different than the horizontal/vertical debate I suppose.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Methinks you have it right Solar.