Folding Bikes - Post your long distance folder rides here!

I thought it would be fun to have a thread about longer distance rides on folders or small wheels bikes. We often get questions from newbies about whether small wheels are capable of longer distances, so let's tell them about our experiences.

Long distance is very much a relative term, and it's also a function of the bike's design. 10 miles on a Strida would be long distance in my opinion :p, whereas 100 miles on a Bike Friday or Moulton would be de-rigueur. So, let's leave it to the writer's discretion as to distance. Just share with us your stories!

Hmmm....I've done 44 mile runs (Portsmouth to Bognor Regis & back) recently on both my Jetstream and my Cadenza (no real different in comfort or speed between the two), 2 hours or less each half. In a couple of weeks, I'll be doing a lap of the Isle of Wight on the Jetstream (67 miles, much of it climbing, much of that severe..), and a few days after that a London to Brighton night ride (same distance, one or two big climbs). Looking forward to all of them. Thirty mile runs are getting to be pretty regular, and not taxing. Yesterday, after getting back from Bognor on the Cadenza, I felt I could comfortably do more. Yes, these runs would be easier on a lighter bike (I wish the XP was still 9 kg, but I'm glad I've got the DualDrive's range), but not necessarily on one with bigger wheels or a fixed frame. A Viner Maxima (or equivalent) or a Moulton NS would be my weapon of choice, if I had the £££££, but I'm happy with what I've got too.

Don't know if this qualifies as long or not but I went out Saturday morning with my folder to ride 3 km to go pick my car up from the bar.

It was so nice that 3 km turned into 48 km somehow or another.

John

http://homepage.mac.com/hagensieker/.Public/katsuren_ride.jpg

Not really long distance, but did 46 miles of scenic Marin (Northern California) Easter Sunday on my TSR .. roughly 2200' climbing.. all back country roads .. the beauty of having a folding bike, or separable in my case, came as we met in the planned launch area only to have team leader decide she wanted to start from another location (which has severely limited parking).. she wanted everyone to go in one car.. the roof rack was filled with the road bikes and if I wanted to go, I got a spot behind the seat.. so I pulled the king pin, undid the cable connecters, and split the bike in half so it would fit in the abbreviated space.. got to the destination. put it back together in a couple of minutes and away we all went.. :thumb:

I did TOSRV East (http://www.crw.org/gallery/TOSRV2007/Index.htm) on my Bike Friday NWT in 2007. The name is an homage to the famous spring ride in Ohio. In this case it means Tour Of Scenic Rural Vermont. The route changes some from year to year, but it is always back to back centuries (Saturday: 100 miles north. Sunday: 100 miles south) in the Green Mountains.

The guy who organized the ride was very leery when I showed up with a folding bike. He runs the thing as a one man show and really needs to have the riders ready to do the distance. I didn't do rocket sled times, but I had no problems with the ride. He was pretty surprised that I was "still smiling at the finish".

Speedo

Don't know if this qualifies as long or not but I went out Saturday morning with my folder to ride 3 km to go pick my car up from the bar.

It was so nice that 3 km turned into 48 km somehow or another.

John

http://homepage.mac.com/hagensieker/.Public/katsuren_ride.jpg

I like your style - safe driver, happy cyclist.

Mrs LWaB and I did the Dunwich Dynamo in 2004 on Bromptons, nearly 200 km overnight.
1200 km Paris-Brest-Paris in 2003 on a 1965 Moulton Duomatic Stowaway with 16" wheels. In 2006, a Super Randonneur series (200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevets) on the same bike with a fixed wheel.
1200 km PBP in 2007 on a Pashley Moulton TSR30 with 20" wheels.

Some previous threads:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=307126
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=433735
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=262624
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=213506

June of '08 rode from Buffalo to Albany along the Erie Canal on my Dahon MU P8. Towed an Extrawheel trailer. Longest day 92 miles. Total trip 470 miles. By the last day, butt sore, hands numb. Great fun ride!

I've done several 50-mile rides on my Birdy, I have also climbed Page Mill (notable local climb) on it twice. :D

We've done 41 miles (Stillwater Corridor bike trail from downtown Portland, OR to east of Gresham and back) and 42 miles from the Ventura Keys to Mira Monte (just short of Ojai, CA) within the last year on our Fridays.


I rode my previous bike, a Boardwalk D7, 25 miles in the 2007 Portland Bridge Pedal, and my Boardwalk S1 21 miles on the Stillwater Corridor the same year.

We are in our mid-60's. The only longer ride we have ever done is from the Ventura Keys to Ojai, CA on our then Schwinn Miradas That was about 30 years ago.

My longest single session ride was the 'Oppy', the annual Fleche-Opperman trial. We did 430km in 24h (http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=hurstbridge&daddr=Heidelberg+Kinglake+Rd+to:Glenburn+Rd+to:West+Bridge+Rd+to:Break+Oday+Rd+to:Broadford+Flowerda le+Rd+to:Goulburn+Valley+Hwy+to:Drysdale+Rd+to:Drysdale+Rd+to:Euroa+Strathbogie+Rd+to:Murchison+Viol et+Town+Rd+to:Bendigo+Murchison+Rd+to:Toolamba+Rd+to:Midland+Hwy+to:Welsford+St+to:Echuca+Kyabram+Rd +to:Murray+Valley+Hwy+to:-36.359375,144.706421&hl=en&geocode=%3BFUx7wv0dkOGoCA%3BFUbZw_0d90mqCA%3BFW5xxP0dXumqCA%3BFZSAxf0dPwWqCA%3BFWZgx_0d0m6oCA%3BFU4H y_0dRpymCA%3BFdwzz_0dqpKrCA%3BFQw0z_0dIKKsCA%3BFY7Izv0dNs6tCA%3BFYry0P0djISvCA%3BFaq40f0dbOakCA%3BFS oi1P0dVKmpCA%3BFdzi1P0duoiqCA%3BFQzV1P0dP5aqCA%3BFWo61v0dREejCA%3BFRiK2P0dTr2gCA%3B&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=17&sz=9&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16&dirflg=h&sll=-36.716871,144.799805&sspn=1.213122,2.8125&ie=UTF8&z=8).

It was the most difficult ride for me. At 100km in Seymour I was already feeling that things weren't going well for me, no appetite. At 200km, about dusk, I thought things were looking bad. It also started raining then, and never let up for the rest of the ride. After 250km, just after dinner with me unable to eat much at all, the team unknowingly rode away from me for a while; I just saw their blinkies growing smaller in the dark rain but I didn't have the strength to catch up. They discovered I was missing after a while and waited for me. For the rest of the night I constantly had to fight the urge to throw in the towel. At 300km I bonked but thankfully there was a scheduled rest stop coming up so I kept going till then and then crammed myself full of fruit cake. By then I was literally falling asleep on the bike, very interesting that was. At 400km a rest stop with showers and 30min of 'sleep'. I felt refreshed and recovered by then and was able to take some big turns at the pointy end for the last 30km.

Mrs LWaB and I did the Dunwich Dynamo in 2004 on Bromptons, nearly 200 km overnight.
1200 km Paris-Brest-Paris in 2003 on a 1965 Moulton Duomatic Stowaway with 16" wheels. In 2006, a Super Randonneur series (200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevets) on the same bike with a fixed wheel.
1200 km PBP in 2007 on a Pashley Moulton TSR30 with 20" wheels.

http://deephousepage.com/smilies/respect.gif

Wow. Incredible accomplishments! I'd love to read more about your Moulton Stowaway rides. Do you have a ride report or blog anywhere?

I did a century last weekend with my 20" Dahon SmoothHound, with 6200' of climbing. The highlights were:

- Climbing up Tunitas Creek Rd (beautiful 2300', 10 mile climb) that was part the of Tour of California this February.
- Coming down, I joined a fast paceline with the local speedy club (Alto Velo). Double rotating paceline was about 25 riders strong. I jumped in with my little wheels and kept pace nicely (25-27mph). Those snooty guys in their racing kits were not amused, I'm sure.
- Riding back, we hit headwinds of 20mph or so. 'Twas not fun. We were struggling to keep 13, 14 mph on the flats. Ugh.

I'm planning to ride a century next month with my Tikit. It'll be a first on 16" wheels for me. But after reading that LWaB did Paris Brest Paris on his Moulton Stowaway :eek:, I don't think that'll be hard.

Coming down, I joined a fast paceline with the local speedy club (Alto Velo). Double rotating paceline was about 25 riders strong. I jumped in with my little wheels and kept pace nicely (25-27mph). Those snooty guys in their racing kits were not amused, I'm sure.

That had to have made it more fun. ;)


I'm planning to ride a century next month with my Tikit. It'll be a first on 16" wheels for me. But after reading that LWaB did Paris Brest Paris on his Moulton Stowaway :eek:, I don't think that'll be hard.

Which one?

Which one?

I'm signed up for the Wine Country Century. I am planning to make that a nice, social, enjoy-the-view kinda ride. Want to ride the Birdy with me? :thumb:

I'm signed up for the Wine Country Century. I am planning to make that a nice, social, enjoy-the-view kinda ride. Want to ride the Birdy with me? :thumb:

Thanks for the invite, but I'm not big on organized rides.

Let's do a coastal pootle sometime soon though. :)

Wow. Incredible accomplishments! I'd love to read more about your Moulton Stowaway rides. Do you have a ride report or blog anywhere?


Careful, I'll need a bigger bike helmet.

No blog but there are a couple of short ride reports in past Moultoneer magazines. I might dig them out at some point. The bike shows up in Chip Coldwell's 2003 PBP ride report (http://frank.harvard.edu/~coldwell/bicycle/PBP/), taken the day before the start. The big thing in the rear bag is the PBP board game, "You've done the ride, now play the board game!" I've played it and come last three times, so actually riding PBP doesn't increase your chances much.

Another Stowaway brevet was Audax UK's Easter Arrow in 2004, about 375 km from vague memory. Also on that ride was Dan Farrell (Pashley designer) on his TSR prototype, so the team was 50% Moulton-equipped!

I flew to visit family in Texas and did the 60 mile 2008 Wurst Ride (http://www.wurstride.com/) on my Birdy. It was a really nice ride through some beautiful countryside, it was nice to see that Texas isn't just horrible sprawl. And it ended in New Braunfels for the annual beer & sausage festival - that beer was wonderful after 60 miles :D

I also do 30-50 mile rides in Marin regularly. No problems keeping up with friends on "normal" bikes...

I and the Pigg E (girlfriend) went from Saigon, through Cambodia, all the way to Bankok. More that 700ks on highly modded Downtubes FS (2 week span).

We practiced at the hills of the Gatineau (damn nasty, only 18 pounders tackle that course... most of them looking at us like we're nuts). I must have hit the wall 4 times during that circuit, and remember shaking from sugar shock.

My last trip in SE Asia 3030km in 27 day ride ,the long distance in one day
my pictures
www.colmanlerner-zenfolio.com

In September 2009 there is the London to Paris ride on a folding bike.
I have signed up to the 4 days of 60 miles per day - on my Brompton.
See:- http://www.foldingbikechallenge.com/index.php
I have also created a Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=75179230840&ref=ts) group for the event.

Last week from Thursday - Sunday I rode 200 miles in Louisiana as part of Cycle Zydeco. It was a supported tour, so I did not carry panniers. It was quite flat but also quite windy on a few of the days. I rode my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket Pro and had a great time.

Next weekend I'm going to ride a century on my PRP. It will be my first century.

I am going to remove my previous post in this thread telling of our longest rides.

The other participants here have done nothing but embarrass us with their "centuries" and other unthinkably long rides. It's bad enough being chided for riding such funny bikes; we don't need to be derided by other folder riders who have far stronger butts than we do!!!

I am going to remove my previous post in this thread telling of our longest rides.

The other participants here have done nothing but embarrass us with their "centuries" and other unthinkably long rides. It's bad enough being chided for riding such funny bikes; we don't need to be derided by other folder riders who have far stronger butts than we do!!!It's only people with inferiority complexes who ride folders. Then they try to see who can ride the furthest. :)

as soon as i get my Tikit I will embark on an around the world unsupported solo ride!
...well, maybe I will just start with a pre-packaged BF tour of Vietnam with my GF (she has a NWT) :)

Long story short, had planned to do a ~50 mile loop half on-road, half off-road on the Birdy yesterday. Because the trail ended up going through private property, I had to backtrack the whole route up to that point and ended up doing much more climbing than intended.

66 miles, ~9000'. I was regretting not having yet gotten around to replacing the stock saddle. :rolleyes:

600km in 10 days on my UGADA Tikit :), my GF on her NWT.
we went to West Sumatra and Malaysia. The last two days we did a metric century and a mile century back-to-back! Legs were a little sore, but no other complaints really.
We were each carrying around 10kg in our panniers.

IF you can discomfit snooty scorchers, that makes things extra fun.:)

i was regretting not having yet gotten around to replacing the stock saddle. :rolleyes:

yuck!!!!

a few years ago I rode my 20" Bike Friday NWT from Phoenix, Az to Jasper, Canada (www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/2391)

In September 2009 there is the London to Paris ride on a folding bike.
I have signed up to the 4 days of 60 miles per day - on my Brompton.
See:- http://www.foldingbikechallenge.com/index.php
I have also created a Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=75179230840&ref=ts) group for the event.

So have I, but I'm doing it on this Mission Genie... if I can get the gears sorted, that is. See you there.