Going Long and Hard.
- Thread starter Steve Vai
- Start date
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
I wanted to do this a few years back and researched the f*ck out of it. I saw you did it 😉. Do you have a write up about your experience. Who cares if it’s old. This long distance stuff is timeless.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Now that I have one under my belt to get it all figured out, I'll definitely race it next year and go straight through. The logistics are insane. I was going to do another post with all that anyways so, here.
We had one of our team mates drop us off in Philly. I rebuilt his bike and suspension on the house and we also bought him dinner and gas. We wore our overnight clothes into Philly so we had nothing extra with us to deal, with. With which to deal? Whatever. We mailed shoes and change of clothes to our hotel in Pittsburgh. We had Tom's sister, who lives in Pittsburgh, go to the local bike shop and pick up bike boxes for us. She also delivered those to our hotel. We set-up BikeFlights Labels for our boxes to mail our bikes back home. We took a train back into Newark. Our wives picked up up from Penn Station.
The timing had to be spot on for everything to work.
Things that sucked about our plan. Packing our bikes after riding for 16-hours. We were so shot we could barely get our pedals off. We also got finished so late nothing was open to eat. We ordered pizza to our room and ate it because we were dying, but after 2 days of eating gas station food, a meal would've been nice. Nothing is open in the morning in Pittsburgh so we also had nowhere to eat breakfast. A 7-11 stop with more garbage food to hold us over during the 10 hour train ride. I've only eaten salad since.
We had one of our team mates drop us off in Philly. I rebuilt his bike and suspension on the house and we also bought him dinner and gas. We wore our overnight clothes into Philly so we had nothing extra with us to deal, with. With which to deal? Whatever. We mailed shoes and change of clothes to our hotel in Pittsburgh. We had Tom's sister, who lives in Pittsburgh, go to the local bike shop and pick up bike boxes for us. She also delivered those to our hotel. We set-up BikeFlights Labels for our boxes to mail our bikes back home. We took a train back into Newark. Our wives picked up up from Penn Station.
The timing had to be spot on for everything to work.
Things that sucked about our plan. Packing our bikes after riding for 16-hours. We were so shot we could barely get our pedals off. We also got finished so late nothing was open to eat. We ordered pizza to our room and ate it because we were dying, but after 2 days of eating gas station food, a meal would've been nice. Nothing is open in the morning in Pittsburgh so we also had nowhere to eat breakfast. A 7-11 stop with more garbage food to hold us over during the 10 hour train ride. I've only eaten salad since.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I usually plan this stuff while it's fresh in my head. During the ride I was paying attention to what we went by and was trying to imagine going the other way. West to East I feel is considerably easier despite hitting those big climbs pretty far into the first day. After that I feel there's a ton of places to stop and the roads are easier to ride while fatigued. Although an advantage of having stops farther apart is that it forces you to keep moving. I think you can make it to York in a single push and then might need a nap.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
InstaDump.
Tuesday Shop Ride.
Fun custom build for my homie Chris Clark. He's doing a show at Google's HQ for Bike to Work Day. We stripped his old grey bike down and had it painted to look like one of the Google campus bikes. Came out so sick.
I've been staying after hours to get our higher end customer builds done. Like this Blur with Reserve wheels.
Probably be at the shop until midnight tonight, bring RedBull if you stop by.
Tuesday Shop Ride.
Fun custom build for my homie Chris Clark. He's doing a show at Google's HQ for Bike to Work Day. We stripped his old grey bike down and had it painted to look like one of the Google campus bikes. Came out so sick.
I've been staying after hours to get our higher end customer builds done. Like this Blur with Reserve wheels.
Probably be at the shop until midnight tonight, bring RedBull if you stop by.
audi666
Active Member
Here's a link
https://ridethejawn.wordpress.com/rides/
Yah I would agree with that. Getting the gravel done at the start is nice mentally and getting to the turnpike in the daylight is a game changer. Hope you have better luck next time with all the mechanicals!
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
I just had an interest in inviting you and Eric on a 6 mile ride with me and my boy... while pooping a moment ago...
Happy friday Jim
Happy friday Jim
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I am pooping while reading that and would enjoy this.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
So. Because I missed reg for the Princeton 300k I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna focus on doing 600's. The longer distance suits me better and will be more valuable prep for the ITI. At least I think that's right. We'll see how many I get through...
Here's a picture of my dog and my road bike.
Here's a picture of my dog and my road bike.
bigW
Well-Known Member
I’m punting on Princeton as the weather looks crappy for a 5am start.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
No. I did it last year. It's flat and south jerseyish.
huffster
Well-Known Member
Great shot!