Ex Pres 

I've not caught up to one a month, but I did do my second [organized] century for April, the Old Howard in Marion, AL (advertised as 101mi). Windy, windy, windy, but a good ride with a good bunch that dragged me around. I hung with them to mile 95, then a few cramps set in and had to ride the last 6 by myself into that nice headwind.

I didn't spot a single other downshifter on the ride. I was on my c85 7s DA "aero" DT equipped Gianni Motta. One riding buddy that always rides his '82 Klein even opted for a carbon bike. We C&Vers are all alone in the wilderness.

ThermionicScott 

Got in a hard-fought century (my first of the year) yesterday -- rode a 200k, and about 50 miles in, my handlebar bag started to press against my brake cables, causing my brakes to drag ever-so-slightly. By the time I realized what was going on, my legs were toast and I climbed hills at 5.9 MPH and was pedalling in the single-digits when I got to the finish.

Italuminium

I signed up pretty enthousiasticly in januari, but.... I rode my first 'century' yesterday, an annual charity ride. The route is actually 160 km, but since I refuse to play along with the imperial game (grow up America), I will only grudgingly admit that it is one. I've done this ride for a few years now, and this was the first time I decided to leave my modern bike in the shed and start out on the ALAN. What a relief! I was amazed how much more comfortable a vintage bike is over 100 km. I still suffered a lot, but that was mainly because I pulled some pelotons over large sections of the course and I was one of the few that actually came prepared for the ride. Mind you, this is a charity ride where it is actually considered bad sport to train, much like the early days of the Olympic games. Gentlemen competitors. But still, much less suffering than the years before and mainly in areas that were already in a bad shape due to way too much screen time over the past months (neck and wrists). No way I'm ever starting on a new-fangled bike again for a ride like this.

BTW, I used my 42 small ring and a 13-14-15-16-17-18 corncob in the back for 95% of the ride. This gearing was perfect for long stretches of +- 30km/h pedalling that is just right for these flatland charity rides. The only time I switched to the big ring was in testosterone-fueled spitting contests at the finish line or town signs

rhm

May, done!

Here is a screenshot from my nexus seven tablet, which recorded our progress on "my tracks."


I rode with TimmyT again. We got out of the house a little after 5:30 AM. The sun appeared on the horizon just as we passed the first open field a few minutes later, throwing our shadows a hundred yards to the left of the road. It was child at first, but once we got moving the temp seemed just about perfect. We rode over rolling hills and then down into the Delaware valley just north of Lambertville where we got on the towpath of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. There were a few joggers and dog walkers out, but we pretty much had the path to ourselves. Stopped for coffee and a muffin at Stockton, and continued on the path to Frenchtown, where we had a real breakfast. By this point the path was the old rail road bed, the canal did not reach this far north, but it's still a nice place to ride. But not for long. It turned to singletrack and proceeded to get wild and bumpy. Just south of Milford we cut across a field to the road and proceeded north on pavement.

The road from Milford to Riegelsville and beyond is especially nice, very narrow and flat. By the time we cut east and up into the hills we had gone over fifty miles. From there back to starting point we were on roads that are mostly familiar to me, but the weather was deteriorating. There were several descents that could have been a blast, but the roads were wet enough to be slick and I just wasn't in the mood to take chances. The higher up we climbed, the wetter we got.

Home at about six PM, total mileage 116. We were going to go for 200k, but cut it short on account of the rain.

I will edit and add photos later.

noglider 

You guys are die hards!

rhm

June, done!

TimmyT and I rode from my 'beach house' to Montauk Point and back. It was the longest day of the year, almost, and it sure felt like it! Total 145 miles, about 14 hours total. Stiff tailwind on the way east, and the same add a headwind returning west.
Tim was on his 1980s Ciöcc, I on a 1991? Counterpoint Presto recumbent. This is the longest I've ridden in one day on the recumbent and I ended up with a different set of sore muscles than usual. Really sore!

Saw lots of interesting things, such as a very racy recent model Cinelli set up to tow a Burley child carrier.

ThermionicScott 

Yesterday I put in my second century of the year. I've been slacking, but I think that's common among Midwesterners this year.

rhm

Oops, I never shared any photos from my May century. Here's a few!


The Delaware River.


The path on the old rail bed. Spring ephemerals everywhere!


The remains of an old bridge. Note the geese on top of the abutment.


The old rail road bed continues, but the path narrows.


The road continues next to the railroad.


The Roebling bridge at Riegelsville.


Climbing out of the valley.

After that it started raining, and I put the camera away.

rhm

I also forgot to add photos from our June ride.


Resting at Montauk Point.


Blind action shot, pointing the camera east behind the bike as we cruiese along Dune Road, which is on the barrier island. Ocean on the right, bay on the left.


Looking west, still on Dune Road. This is a spillover from Hurricane Sandy.


A creek. They mostly look like this. Bad photo because I the bike was moving!

rhm

Okay, with those formalities covered...

July, done!

Got out of the house 6:00 Saturday morning, and discovered almost immediately that I wasn't wearing my helmet. Oops! I went back.

Got out of the house, with helmet, 6:07 AM. The plan was to test ride a route I'm riding next Saturday with more people. Didn't take many photos...

I rode my Lambert with the S3X three speed fixed gear hub. First I rode up over the moraines to the north shore. Here's Long Island Sound. Nice day, huh?

Here's Long Island Sound. Nice day, huh?


Horton's Point Lighthouse.


The beach between Noyac and North Haven.


Lunch spot in Southampton. Highly recommended! (How's your Spanish?)

Mechanical problems began at about the halfway point. The threadless bottom bracket adapter in the Lambert started working its way loose. I tightened it with my finger tips several times before I borrowed a channel-lock pliers from a kindly plumber loading his tools into his truck after a job. I got it as tight as I could, which got me almost home before I had to tighten it with my fingers again.

Total for the day: 114 miles. Hot. I really got baked by the sun!

E1000

I'm totally new to the challenge, but is the goal to ride a century at least once, or total a month? Anyway, I started riding (first ever) april 28th and now have 781.9 km (486 mi) in total. My longest ride thus far is 55 miles.
Also is it a century in km or mi? I'm quite ahead if it's the first

rhm

We're pretty relaxed about the rules (that is, you get to make up your own rules) but the general idea is to ride a hundred miles in one day, and to do this every month of the year.

ThermionicScott 

Squeezed in another one today. The "75-mile" group ride came up 4 miles short, so a buddy and I decided to ride to another town afterward and grab food. I then rode to another buddy's place to smoke cigars and drink good beer and when I got home, noticed that I was only 4 miles short. So I rode around aimlessly until I had an honest 100 miles.

rhm

rhm

Four forum members (aixaix, nlerner, noglider, timmyt) joined me for a ride on Long Island. We did mostly the same route as I did last weekend, but the weather was different. We got soaked by a couple of rainstorms, which wasn't ideal, but it was cloudy and fairly cool all day except for the last hour or so, and we had a pretty unusual wind out of the east that, as usual, picked up in the afternoon. So in the morning when we were riding east, there was little or no wind until the last five miles. Then, as we rode back this direction, we had a good tail wind.

Total, somewhere's around 119 miles. I took some photos, which I'll share if I can find my camera, but don't get your hopes up; it was not photogenic weather.

noglider 

Right, but the scenery was beautiful, and it was a great ride overall. We also had no mishaps. No altercations, no mechanical failures, not even a flat tire. I ended up being the weakest of the gang this time, and TimmyT hung back with me at least once, and rhm hung back with me at least twice, especially during the last 10 or 20 miles, for which I'm grateful. A few times, I considered leaving the ride and getting a lift back home, by car or train. But after every rest or snack, I felt better and was able to proceed. I wasn't terribly fatigued by the end, and I wasn't very sore today. In fact, my housemate Al and I took a 12 mile hilly and vigorous ride today, and we had a good time in the hot sun and high humidity. See his new bike in this thread about it. And this is what he and the bike looked like after our ride.

rhm

August, done! (I can't believe I forgot to post this at the time! Sheesh...)

TimmyT and I rode basically the same route we had planned for the July ride, which got derailled by weather etc; and even so, we missed a turn (my bad!) and ended up taking a somewhat different route. I rode my Lambert, with the three speed fixie hub... TimmyT rode his Super Record Ciocc.



I took no photos, but here's a screenshot of the route.

Highlights... we picked some wild blueberries on the moraine. They were not very good. But they were wild blueberries, so the price was right.
TimmyT had an altercation with a guy driving a Rolls Royce. That was interesting. Then I broke a spoke, just riding down a smooth stretch of pavement I hear this PANG wiff wiff wiff wiff etc. Had to loosen a couple more spokes to get the wheel spinning.

rhm

September, done!

I rode my 1954 Alvin Drysdale sports tourer, which is is modern compared to some of the old English bikes I ride; 72° frame angles, Simplex Tour-de-France five speed gearing, downtube shifter. Here's the bike in the afternoon:



The great thing about those old English bikes is the dynohub lighting that lets me start as early as I like; this one doesn't have any, and I couldn't even find my battery lights, so I didn't start out until the sun was almost up. About an hour out I passed a little pond and saw a blue heron hunkered down on the water overflow, so I stopped asap and got out my camera. You know how it is with a digital camera; you push the shutter and wait for it to take the picture, and hope the subject doesn't fly off first. Well, just the opposite happened; I push the button hoping to get a photo of the blue heron in the foreground, and then I see this activity in the background, which proves to be a white heron.



Then the blue heron flew up and scared the white heron away; it flew up and landed in a tree:


And I rode away. Until about 9 AM I got to the sand roads of the pinelands, my average moving speed had been 16.5 mph or so, but it's been pretty dry lately, and the first sand road I hit was so soft I could barely ride at first. I let a lot of air out of my tires (27 x 1 1/4 paselas) and was able to go on.



When I got to the end of that road I leaned the bike up against a tree to pump the tires back up, and guess what I saw on the tree:



And soon I was underway again, now on one of the rare narrow paved roads through the pines:



I also tried some roads so narrow that cars don't drive on them; and these, it turned out, are pretty good riding as well, though not very fast:



By afternoon I was out on the pavement again, heading back north:



After a lunch stop at Budds Farm farmstand, and later a flat tire (it was a thorn, right through the tread of the tire, despite a tire saver!) I got home at about 4:30. Screenshot of my route:


and stats:

photogravity

^ Great pictures rhm. I'm quite disappointed I was unable to do this ride along with you. That Drysdale is looking great.

rootboy 

What a shot, Rudi. Beautiful.

JJScaliger

Beautiful bike, great pics, great report! Thumbs up!

rhm

October, done! 108 miles, headwinds the whole way (yes, really!) and we (TimmyT and I) were slow. Breakfast did not sit well. Saw lots of deer. Tried to find new and interesting roads, and... well, we did not fail entirely, but nor did we ride where we meant to ride. It was a nice day to be out riding, though!

Does this link work for anyone other than me?

https://www.strava.com/activities/88636308

shoota 

It works. Nice ride. I wish I could ride a century..

rhm

November, done! well... not done very well. I got out on December 1, which was supposed to be warm and mostly sunny. 20% chance of rain if I recall correctly. It proved to be warm and mostly rainy. Turned around at mile 47, by which time I was thoroughly drenched, and got home having ridden only 87 miles. Oy.

obrentharris 

Sorry to take so long in responding. Yes, it works fine for me.
Brent