Touring - My longest ride... ever!

Yesterday I headed out on my longest ride ever. I'll outline my little tour here for anyone who is bored enough to listen to me ramble on about it.

I looked up the route on Mapquest, and for those who have familiarity with central PA, the tour took me from Grantville (location of Penn National Race Track) to Lickdale to Lebanon, then on to Palmyra, then back to Grantville where I live. The route was ROUGHLY forty miles.

Around mile twelve I stopped at a gas station and picked up some water and a kool-aid burst, those things are great for a quick chug for a sugar burst.

I ended up taking a wrong turn in Lebanon and adding 15 miles to my trip, and so by the time I got to what should have been mile 30, I was at mile 40, and dead tired. Took a break at a gas station and relaxed for about 15 min. As I took off again, I saw something on my left... USED BIKE SHOP... yey! I stopped and saw a 10-15 year old Schwinn Traveller that I liked and happened to fit me like a glove. I went back later in the day to pick it up.

By the way, I rode this trip in a dual suspension P.O.S. Huffy department store mountain bike which is over 5 years old, has big wide knobby wheels out of true, a broken deraileur shifter, and a seat which doesn't feel hard until you experience being on it for over an hour.

So I finally managed to make it home, and in not too bad of time (4 hours 30 minutes) which I think is pretty good for what I was riding, and the fact that this was my longest ride by probably at least 25 miles. I can't wait until I am done overhauling this touring bike I got so that I can take it on a weekend tour or two. The reason I did this ride in the first place was to prove to myself that thirty miles a day on a tour would not be hard at all. I was right, I think with a decent bike and better fitness, and not having a job or anything else I could cover double that, 60 miles a day at least.

In short, it was a great experience, and I am not even all that sore today, except for the nasty sunburn I earned.

:beer:

Originally posted by jfk32
I ended up taking a wrong turn in Lebanon

Hey, you're in the US, right? Man, that was a long ride! :D

:beer:

Good going, particularly on a mountain bike with knobblies.

how were your hands and arms afterwards?

I've got my longest run of the year coming up on Saturday. A 65 mile charity ride, but I'm planning to ride to the start and ride back home afterwards, for a rough trip of 130 miles.

most I've done in one hit this year has been 55 but I've got all day so hopefully be ok.

Route is hilly though (to the home of Golf - St Andrews)

Congrats! It's always a major achievement when you do a ride that two months ago, you would have turned cross-eyed just thinking about!

When's the century? ;)

It reminds me my first metric century. I planned to add a few kilometers to a initial 40 km ride to eventually make it to my parent's house, a little over 100 km away.

I left on a suspicious road bike with dry, worn tires, no rear break and some front break. Only the front derailleur was working. I had two sandwiches, a small bottle of water and 35 cents.

After eating my sanwiches at the turning point (20 km), the wind was way too strong for my taste so I deciding to make it to my parent's house.

Boy I was hungry and dehydrated! I had sunburns on my thighs and blisters on my hands. At least, I had a good tailwind all the way.

I'd do it again. :D

Congrats, jfk! Keep on going!

Congrats, jfk32, on your achievement.
I'm familiar with the area. I work in Harrisburg and I live and ride about 30 miles north of you. I've ridden around Lebanon and Myerstown (east of you). Looks like some nice back roads.

Are you a member of the Harisburg bicycle club?

What tour bike are you fixing up and where do you plan to go with it?

Grats jfk, sounds like a great day :)

Thanks for all the great comments guys...

chewa - Yeah my hands were killing me. I didn't get any blisters because I just kept changing my hand position enough that I was okay. My arms weren't really that tired, but the back of my neck and my lower back was a bit sore, but not in a bad way.

Koffee - The century is already in my mind's eye... The biggest challenge is finding a non rainy day to ride in... I was looking at a special in our paper today, we have had rain 63 of the past 93 days, and only 8 non-rain days in May at all. How said it is. It was 60 degrees today and raining with wind, it feels like Winter, yet I am in the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, which means it should be SUMMER! :(

Erick - thanks for the words of encouragement, I do love the challenge of heading out on a long ride with sub-par equipment. It just adds to your mileage total an intangible amount of difficulty.

MikeR - No I am not in any bicycle club, I just started getting into this, I think that I might go and check it out soon now that I have a decent bike working okay. The tour bike that I am fixing up is a Schwinn Traveller, in pretty good shape. I just overahauled the hubs and cleaned up the drivechain pretty good right after I got it, its riding and looking smooth. New tires as well as the ones on it were dry rotted. Not sure that I am happy with only two front gears so I might get that changed. Lets see if you are about 30 miles North, I am pretty familiar with that territory, I had a girlfriend in the Tower City/Lykens/Williamstown area. I used to ride my MTB a lot on that one railroad bed trail that starts by Dauphin.

Well thanks again everyone and I will keep you updated whenever I hit the century mark someday. :beer:

I am pretty familiar with that territory, I had a girlfriend in the Tower City/Lykens/Williamstown area. I used to ride my MTB a lot on that one railroad bed trail that starts by Dauphin. Yes you ARE familiar with it. I live near Elizabethville. I have ridden from E-Ville, through Lykens, to Tower City and back many times - not a bad road ride when the traffic is light (Sunday mornings). I've ridden the Rails to trails route out of Dauphin with my kids - but not all the way to Gold Mine. It's a nice ride but boring unless you take a detour off the main trail.

My favorite area is the valley from Millersburg to Gratz. Beautiful farm land and nice roads on rolling hills. Another great route is along the back roads near the Tobias Animal farm between Halifax and E-ville. If you want to come up sometime we can ride.

As far as clubs - I'm a member of the Harrisburg Bicycle Club (http://www.harrisburgbicycleclub.org/) . I haven't been to one of there rides but their news letter and web sight are nice. I'm hoping to go on one of their rides soon.

I would take you up on the riding offer if I hadnt just moved up to school near Erie, PA. Eh well. I concur that the areas you specified are quite nice, although I never really rode up there. In fact I have not ridden many places because I just started riding! I have my old touring bike that I overhauled myself, and I am loving the way that it feels, its a perfect fit I do believe.

:-)

your bike sounds just like mine full suspension P.O.S!!! i am going to invest in a touring bike soon. i am gonna use the full suspension just for mountain biking