2009 bike mileage challenge

[striegel]

Originally Posted by Bruce

Logged an average of 8,387 miles over the last 14 years prior to 2009 for a total of 117,420 miles.

...

Wow, did you wear out a number of bikes in the process?

I'm up to around 540 miles for 2009 as of this afternoon's commute.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Does distance traveled on my elliptical qualify?

[Kohote]

Laziness and bad weather kept me off the bike in January and February.

March: 68 miles

[Lug_Nut]

My first trip of April came to an early end today. Some fool ignored the slight creak last week and had a left side crank arm come loose about 2 miles into this morning's commute. That fool also had begun the transfer of tools from the winter mountain bike to the summer road bike so no tools were available for roadside repairs. I had just finished descending a long hill and had to pedal with one foot back up the road I had just come down to get home. "Granny" gearing and good cleats did the trick.
March's displacement miles: a pitiful 86.01
YTD: 228.55
and my thumb still hurts from my mid-January crash/fall.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by Lug_Nut

I had just finished descending a long hill and had to pedal with one foot back up the road I had just come down to get home.

"Granny" gearing and good cleats did the trick.

I have the same problem with close-ratio gearing in bicycles as I do in cars. What use do I have for 9 cogs all one tooth apart from eachother unless I only ever ride on level land?

My road bike has a crazy wide-range mountain bike cassette (IIRC 32-11) and a triple crank. It came with a double crank and close-ratio cassette...I had to change out the derailers and probably some other stuff I don't remember.

[SloSaturn]

Very few cassettes come as straight blocks (one tooth steps) but they're grand when you're really on the boil and it's not "too" hilly.

BUT... whatever gets you out the door is alright by me.

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April begins with my first 64k round trip to work of the year.

[Mike T]

I've done only 108 km so far. The weather up here has been awful.

[Mike T]

Well after Thursday dinner time I will be at 216 km. It's still freakin' cold in the morning!

[SloSaturn]

Just got back from a point to point road/railtrail/dirt road/offroad race/enduro. As is customary among a few friends rather than taking one of the buses back to the start to get our cars, we rode back. Now I appreciate that our 34km return trip didn't offset personal transportation, we did however, avoid the 68km roundtrip afterwards to go and fetch our bikes. Can't help but feel there must be a better way, especially for those who live much,much nearer to the start like myself (I've about 15 minutes further drive to home).

[Mike T]

I've ridden 322.2 km so far in April and another 55 km will be served up tomorrow.

This is encouraging because my first ride last year, when I topped 3000 km, was on May 22nd. I was in Europe last April and early May, which was my excuse. I'll be there again this fall, but only for about 10 days. So I hope to exceed 3000 km by a fair margin.