Road Cycling - Your longest solo ride...

What's the furthest you've ever ridden solo? You start off on your own, finish on your own, perhaps even left the house unsure of how many miles you'd do that day, but were feeling particularly good, and just went for it! Let's hear about it :)


Dax

100 miles

I had a goal to do a solo, unsupported century. I did it.

Originally posted by RegularGuy
100 miles

I had a goal to do a solo, unsupported century. I did it.

Me too - I left my house, kept riding untill I hit 50, turned around and came back. I've done a few longer rides, but they were with others.

About 55 or so. Almost all my rides are with other people, so there aren't too many opportunities to put in the miles by myself.

185 miles/300km. It was a mini-tour to Grand Coulee Dam and back, took 23.5 hours.

A few metric centuries, my time for riding seems to be dwindling.

50 miles - a week ago last Thursday on my MTB. I cycled down from Faversham over the North kent Downs into what's known as the weald of Kent, through small villages such as Pluckley, Biddenden and Smarden - they're beautiful villages (think a Miss Marple or Midsomer Murders story ;) ). I carried onto Tenterden, a lovely small town just this side of the Kent/Sussex border before heading back skirting the edge of the marshes South of Ashford.

Richard

Solo? About 60 miles is my guess. Pretty pathetic but all my weekends allow for.

Did 125 miles one day on a solo tour of New Mexico....fully loaded. There's not
much reason to stop in NM. :)

120 km in just under four hours.

One "magic" day in May, I did a 210k solo ride. When I got home it felt like I could have continued forever. I was back home eight hours after I left, with a rolling average speed of 28kph.

/Csson

Solo? 30 miles. No big deal except to me. It was a personal best and that's what counts.

111 miles. From Delta Junction area to Tok, Alaska. Legs were a hurtin'.

Dave

Hi all,

106 miles...really flat course...

Ride safe....Dudley

92 miles this year, ~140+ miles a few years ago. In two weeks, i have the chance to do the Lotaja, a 211 mile bike ride from Logan UT to Jackson Hole WY. I think im going to pass this year...

About 90 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing. Decided to try riding from Silicon Valley out toward the coast. Didn't realize I would be doing that many miles. I was really beat by the end of the ride.

I've done around 200km in a day with others lots of times but until I read this thread I never realised that I've never done any big days solo.

It's almost Spring. I guess I'll have to remedy the situation sometime soon.

1 day- summer- 155 miles

1 day- winter- 40 miles? with snow

multi day- (1 1/2 days)- summer - 350 miles (4500 ft pass)
50 lbs gear incl. bike

multi day- winter ( 6 days)- apx 290 miles (3200 ft pass, 14 mile climb out of Columbia River, apx 190 miles and 4 days in snow)
230 lbs with gear incl. trailer and bikes, 410 lbs with me,

Ride Far
Pat

2 65 mile runs one to my sisters house one back the next day.

Single Day

230km from Toronto, Ontario to London, Ontario

took me 8.5 hours at 27km/h


Multi Day

600km from Toronto, Ontario to Montréal, Quebec

took me 24 hours at 8 hours (200km) per day at 25km/h

Originally posted by oceanrider
Solo? 30 miles. No big deal except to me.

Exactly the way I felt about my 21 mile ride Saturday.:)

40 miles. eveything else has been with at least 1 other rider. guess I need to get riding more :)

Solo? do you mean not on a tandem or with no other people?

Does it count if you left with people but after the first half hour you were by yourself?

2002 Randonnear 600km 32:30. Saw people but not any other riders after the first 30 km

50 50 50 , they have all been 50 miles, because most of my routes are roughly the same length give or take a mile or two, when I get home I check how much further I have to go to reach 50( normally 2 or 3 miles ) then go past my house the required amount to reach the desired 50.

Sad I know and it's about time I went a bit further, so I pledge that the next time I go for a long run I'll hit 60.


So it shall be written
So it shall be done:D

I had a friend I used to ride with a few years back named Mark. I remember one saturday being at work at the LBS, I was a wrench there, and he rolled in at 8:30 to pick up a spare tube for a ride. He had already ridden for 30 mins to get to the shop. I sold him the tube and wished him a happy ride. At 5:45, I was driving to dinner with my family and saw good ole Mark chuggin back into town. He looked absolutely shelled. I slowed down and yelled at him and he pulled into a 7-11 parking lot. I asked if he had been riding the entire time since the morning and he said that except for a couple feed stops at 7-11's that he had been ridng the whole day. Mark rides with no comp and said he rode "Around 250 miles." I was humbled. Most of the local cyclists in town laughed at him cause he didnt race and pedalled too small of a gear (aka Lance-like).I am one of his bonafide fans.

BTW, my longest solo ride is 127 miles and I near about died that day.

Longest solo ride that I can remember since tracking is about
35.1 miles, but back when I was cycling 20 miles a day commuting
there were days I'd do over 40 miles.

Longest group ride was about 107 miles if I remember right.

Hopefully I'll be able to do an epic before the season ends.

A few years ago, 103 in one day unloaded. This year, 60, pushing 100 Lbs of bike and gear.

Tom

Are we suggesting going solo inhibits our riding.. I find when out alone, I have fewer restraints, therefore often I ride farther.
Longest solo a little over 90 miles... I really like the idea of just taking off and riding in some wilderness area on a credit card tour. maybe my family would think I forgot to return and made it to the east coast... Who needs people when you are traveling on a credit card.. Just the adventure of going somewhere on the bike keeps one company..

I've ridden all and all night one time, and more.

I usually can't find anyone crazy enough to ride continuously. Most racers don't want to train more than fifty miles and tourists are too out of shape or slow to keep up....

In June i rode one of the brevet routes, 400k, all in daylight. No one with me the whole time....

100.9 miles!!!

A cross border route (Scotland) on June 26th .

I enjoyed it so much , did the same trip the following week and
twice more since then.

Yesterday I did my longest ride ever- 114 km/70.8 miles in 4:40 of riding (a little over 5 hours with rests). Seems short compared to some of the previous posts, but I usually ride for less than 2 hours so this was a big challenge for me.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to get a road bike, which would be much better than riding distance on my mountain bike. :)

I've ridden numerous 100 milers by myself along with a few in the 125-150 mile range. My longest one day solo ride was June 27, 1992 when I rode 202 miles. I started at 5:00 A.M. and quit at 4:57 P.M. That's 11 hours, 57 minutes including all stops, rests, etc. My log shows the weather was in the mid 70s with a wind of 10 mph out of the NW and I was riding a Campy equipped Eisentraut.

I don't consider it much of an achievement as a guy I work with has ridden many 200 milers alone and at least one 300 miler. Ultra-marathoners do it routinely.

I think riding a double century is a BIG achievement. Congradulations! I rode a century once and for me that was a big achievement. Be proud of your acomplishments.

good ol canada. Here we got metric centuries.

Originally posted by Trsnrtr
My log shows the weather was in the mid 70s with a wind of 10 mph out of the NW and I was riding a Campy equipped Eisentraut.

I just bought my Wife a 1976 Eisentraut limited, campy equiped.
I'm just beginning to restore it. Very cool bike with mucho mojo!

Marty

Originally posted by lotek

I just bought my Wife a 1976 Eisentraut limited, campy equiped.
I'm just beginning to restore it. Very cool bike with mucho mojo!

Marty

My first Eisentraut was made in 1988 and had all the cool lugwork, fork crown, etc. The one I ride now was made in 1998 and is not as fancy, though the ride feels pretty much the same. The head tube decal with the rainbow trout on it cracks me up. :)

Originally posted by Trsnrtr
My first Eisentraut was made in 1988 and had all the cool lugwork, fork crown, etc. The one I ride now was made in 1998 and is not as fancy, though the ride feels pretty much the same. The head tube decal with the rainbow trout on it cracks me up. :)
The funny thing is I have ALWAYS lusted after 2 bikes, a
Sachs or an Eisentraut.
Of course there is a long list of other frames I want but
those 2 are the ultimate for me. (well a confente would be
nice too, yeah right).

Marty

40 km. I can't stand going solo. It's just not fun enough without the friends to laugh at your falls, or to congratulate you. Maybe I should try a century some day.

50 miles. It took me two days to recover. My riding technique was all wrong. Taught me a lesson though. My technique is improving now so I shall soon try again.

That's the spirt, Yusuf! Keep at it. Soon you'll be doing a century ride.
Barbie

Does touring count?

It's funny that unless I have a set destination, I don't do ultra-long rides.

For day rides, I rarely ride more than 80-120 km. Now that I ride with 2 children, it's more like 70-90 km for a day ride. The urban environment doesn't help: it's mostly nice (one picks up nice roads), but there are lots of stops and red lights. Night rides are often 50-60 km long -- in fact, I usually don't think in terms of "tiredness" or "long distance" unless I ride more than 50 km (that's 30 miles for people South of the border).

However, when I tour solo (and fully loaded), the average day ride is 120-150 km, and I have quite often rode 160 km in a day. My longest days were approx. 225 km between Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and Trois-Rivières, and between Trois-Rivières and Plaisance (near Gatineau). These were on two different trips, by the way, and on flat ground, but with some city mileage.

Regards,

Still getting into the swing of things and breaking in my new bike and butt...did my two longest solo rides this past Sunday (29.1 miles) and Monday (31.8 miles) in preparation for the Old Kentucky Home Tour this weekend. :D

Admittedly not many compared to most others...but ya gotta start somewhere...maybe do 40-50+ miles solo before November...

52 Miles in the N. Georgia mountains, Not killer miles but the Hills start to really wear you out.

Updating my post to this thread!

Yesterday I managed a ride of 109.23 miles, my maximum to date .
I felt really great the total trip, felt I could of continued quite a bit further, the only thing that detered me was that i had reached home, so i thought "heck" i have to stop riding some time!

Don't really do huge distances now but in the past max was 120ish miles. Neck and feet started to suffer by then

So far all my rides have been solo. My longest was 60 miles.

I intend to change my solo status this October when I'm going to ride with the Governor of Pa and about 1000 others for 2 days.

CAN'T WAIT! :D

63 miles on a gravel/dirt trail. I was on a dual-suspension, 28lb Gary Fisher at the time, so who knows how far I could go on a nice road bike on the pavement ;)

My longest ride was 212 miles. On my own, when I was 15. I rode from Birmingham (UK !!) into the Peak District, up and down a few hills, to Bakewell, and back to Birmingham. On the way back I was so tired I had to keep lying down. The last 5 miles were done in a wobbly haze.

Most of my rides are solo (since I commute). My longest seems to be in the middle with a total of 70 miles. It was my first ride over 25 miles in 7 years. Needless to say I was a little saddle sore. My big goal was to ride a loop and try and find a 50 miler for the youth group I help with. It turned out to be a little long for them. I would have gone further if I had the cooler temperatures and time (Temperature was climbing into the mid 90s at 9:30 and I didn't want to stay out and see 100+). I prefer solo because if the birds are singing out in the farms I can slow down and listen, or if I feel like taking it slow that day I can. On the other hand it is nice to have someone to talk to as well.

50 miles. I did it today. Igot up this morning and figured that I would do about 30 miles but I felt so good that I kept on going. About the 40 mile mark my backside was killing me. Boy do I need a new seat. Did it in about 3.5 hrs, that last 10 were really slow. I want to keep building on this mileage so as to be able to complete a century. I only get the weekends to ride right now, too many hours at work. I am thinking about getting a trainer for this winter.Anyway it was a good way to spend a Saturday morning. Have fun and be careful everybody.