Machka 

Bruce Berkeley rides nearly 10,000km in January to set new Guinness World Record | road.cc

"London-based cyclist Bruce Berkeley has set a Guinness World Record for riding the longest distance in a month. Once ratified, it will be the second time in a year he has got into the record books – last June, he set one for the most distance covered in a week.

The mobile bicycle mechanic, originally from New Zealand but living in the UK for more than two decades, rode 9,750 kilometres during the month, at an average speed of 29 kilometres an hour and with 45,000 metres of climbing thrown in." ...

hueyhoolihan

ultimately the goal is, i suppose, "the most kilometers in a lifetime" record.

good news. won't live to see it broken. bad news. awarded posthumously.

MNBikeCommuter

That would have required eating about the equivalent of 47k peanut M&Ms, give or take a few...

StephenH

As pointed out in the article, there are a number of people that have ridden more mileage in a month or week, which makes it kind of a pointless "record".

Machka 

Maybe so, but still I find it inspiring ... this (and more) is what can be done. I love reading/hearing about people who push their physical boundaries.

bikenh

Sorry, been a while since I've been on the subforum. Follow Steve Abraham and Kurt Searvogel is you want to follow real riders. Of course they won't make it into The Guinness Book Of Worthless Records as their requirements won't allow them to unless they are billionaires. Guinness is nothing but a pathetic joke...allow a guy riding in 1939 to say he rode 75,062 miles in one year and take his word for it. Yet now if someone wants to put spottracker on their bikes and upload gps data at the end of the day you won't except the record...unless they have video cameras tucked away everywhere and bunch of crazy ass officials following along...yadda, yadda, yadda, that Tommy didn't have back in 1939 recording his ride...Guinness is a Worthless publication. All its about is recording unhealthy record attempt, like how many hot dogs can you stuff down your mouth in five minutes or something along those lines. Totally a worthless, unreliable publication for anything but junk data.

Follow Steve and Kurt, yes I'm from the US but I'm pulling for Steve. Kurt is being too much of wimp about everything. Won't ride the cold, is staying in the flat terrain with sunny skies. Kurt in my opinion is a wimp. Steve will have the record even if he doesn't because he is doing real riding and not trying to take the easiest way about getting the miles. 600 feet of climbing on a 75 degree sunny day in Florida versus a 40-45 degree day with 6000 feet of climbing in England. The real biker is Steve.

Steamer

Huh. Really?

bikenh

Yeah. Take the easy way out and have all the sweetest conditions possible...of course it's going to be a cakewalk to make the miles. When you have much colder temps and a ton more climbing each day and less daylight than you have a lot more thrown at you. I live in the north and I know the difference between biking at 75 degrees and 35-45 degrees. It takes a lot more energy to go the same distance and it creates a lot more wear and tear on both you and the bike. Steve will have the other hinderance come summer, he won't ever get any truly hot days for riding. Up in England the average high around his place is like 65 degrees. Steve won't get a break all year long on the attempt, Kurt is going to ride around the United States looking for the easiest riding he can find...watch his track log and see if I'm right. So which is mightier, the one who makes more miles or the one who has ridden harder miles. Harder miles wins my vote.

Machka 

First of all ... I am following Steve, and have been since he started.

Secondly ... @bikenh ... I suggest you do what they are doing before you start calling anyone a wimp.

Steamer

Umm. I don't disagree that Steve is riding in harder conditions and terrain.

But in my opinion that does not make Kurt a 'wimp'.

You need to grow up and attain the valuable prize of perspective.

anotherbrian

Steve Abraham was interviewed on The Bike Show before he began his attempt.
A Year on Two Wheels | The Bike Show - a cycling radio show and podcast from Resonance FM

Interesting interview, along with a lot more background on Tommy Godwin and the existing records than I've seen on the net before.

I think the whole thing is absurd and a waste of a year of life, but people will do what they want to do. Having a crew of 200, and never intentionally going over a 130bpm HR, sounds like easy mode though. :-)

RomansFiveEight

If it wasn't FOR Steve; Kurt's take would be a lot more impressive. Don't for a second fall into a trap of believing Kurts effort isn't legendary. 80k miles or so in a year is nothing short of incredible.

I'm with you a little bit. Rumor has it Kurt is getting some miles on a recumbent; suspiciously there are periods where his rides, even uphills, are suddenly 55 or 60 mph for 20 minutes which coincides with the speed limit of particular roads (ahem...), and he's mostly riding in flat terrain in good weather. Climbing in a 200 mile day when I climb in a 7 mile 30 minute ride. I definitely think Steve is putting out the bigger effort. But that doesn't mean Kurt isn't putting out a huge effort. Even flat and in good weather; a double-century is a once-in-a-lifetime ride for a lot of people; tons of folks on this forum haven't ever done it (I'm definitely on that list), and few have done it more than a few times. Kurt is doing it every single day. That's downright incredible. The thing is, none of this stuff (other than him occasionally hitching a ride in a car to deal with a mechanical issue and not seeing fit to turn off his recording for those jaunts; that does irk me a bit) stops his effort from being legendary. It's just in Steve's shadow.

It's okay to be MORE impressed with Steve's effort. Quantifiably; he's riding much harder. Tons more climbing and in any weather. But that doesn't mean Kurt's effort isn't impressive.

DXchulo

I don't get the criticism of Kurt, either. It's a mileage competition. It's not an elevation competition or a who-can-suffer-the-most competition. Like it or not, it's the smart thing to do to keep the climbing down and keep the weather as good as possible.

Both guys deserve a lot of respect. They've been doing a lot better than what I thought they would up to this point. It's amazing that neither one has had a serious setback so far. It's really made me reconsider what is possible.

bikenh

Odds, are Kurt will get the record, unless, as I'm expecting to happen both of them, they get forced to drop out due to the rules and geopolitical events that will erupt later on this year across the globe...no electricity/electronics, means no way of sending in your data and no way of verifying what you say you have ridden.

Would Kurt still manage to beat Steve though if you put both of them in the same environment. I've talked with people that knows Kurt personally. From what I've heard, Kurt would have a ton of growing up to do if he were to try to compete with Steve on an equal basis. Kurt doesn't like riding in adverse conditions, aka, cold or wet.

I have to fess I've been thinking about something along similar lines myself for the past several months. I ride 20K miles a year so I know a bit about riding days like this, even fully loaded touring days like this. I did a 200 miler last summer, with 4000 feet of climbing and a 40 pound backpack on my back, riding a 53x19 singlespeed bike. Heck on the trip I had 4 days over 150 miles, two of them back to back. Could have had a lot more but I had one thing on me that was killing me big time...electronics...namely the laptop. If I wouldn't have had the computer on me doing 200 miles a day everyday for days/weeks on end would have been a cakewalk. Not only wouldn't I have been wasting my time on the internet in the mornings and evenings but I would have been carrying 10 pounds less of electronic crap with me as well and that would have increased my average speed.

Like I said, I thought about the mileage record concept myself. I wouldn't try for the official record, don't care about it. I would try to do something more sensible along the same exact lines though. I like to call it USACA-365. Solo, unsupported(no RV following me with someone to hand me out water bottles or anything like that) 365 day ride with a specific point to the ride...the USACA. The USACA is simply attempting to ride through each and every land based(no boat/seaplane necessary to get you there...like Nantucket and Dukes Counties in Massachusetts) county in the lower 48. Yeah, your talking an easy 85-100,000 miles in 365 days. This helps to avoid the problem Steve will have to deal with come June/July time frame when the boredom of riding the same roads every day starts to set in simply by always riding new locations every single day. Now you are on a sightseeing trip of the entire country, so you are getting something out of it and its not a complete waste of time like anotherbrian makes mention of.

I wouldn't say Kurt won't get something out of it. Unless he hasn't travelled all through the country. I know he plans on hitting each of the lower 48 this summer so he will get the chance to see the country. Now as much as he would if he were trying for USACA-35 but he will still get the chance to see plenty of the country that so many people never get the chance to see. How many people never leave the big city to see the country around them? Hence why I like the idea of USACA-365 far better than the idea of HAMR. It's still HAMR but now it serves a purpose of seeing the entire country while trying to break HAMR. Only to do it unsupported you pretty much can't take the electronics with you so by the rules of HAMR you can't break HAMR. So now I wouldn't have to waste my money on the electronics or the $300 entry fee.

Yeah, I think like a crafty little devil. I make up my own ideas instead of wasting my time making money to pay someone else to give me a challenge. I create my own challenges for free and go do them because I don't have to raise the money to pay for someone elses challenges.

DXchulo

What do you think is going to happen?

bikenh

moderator's note: I removed some things that were not appropriate outside the PnR forum

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kurt end up with the record, not because he is the better rider between the two of them, but because he is riding a smarter/easier strategy.

I haven't been surprised to see either of the two them have any kind of problems as of yet. I would expect Steve to run into problems earlier than Kurt, at least from the physical/mechanical perspective. Kurt would stand a much better chance of having car accident problems since he is riding, at least I tend to think any part of the Florida this time of the year is more heavily populated than 'rural' England. Kurt would have far less bike mechanical issues to be dealt with since he is riding in such flat terrain. I used to live in NW Ohio and now I live in NH. I see the difference in riding between the two areas and see how much of a difference you see in wear and tear on equipment depending on where you are riding. Not only is it wear and tear on equipment but also on the body. Steve will have more bike work to be done and his body will wear down faster. Granted I'm not sure what Kurt's full plans are for the summer and travelling around the country but I wouldn't be surprised to see Kurt try his darnedest to avoid the mountains and stick to the coast lines/Midwest farm country as much as possible. Like I said in an earlier post from what I have heard from people that know Kurt, he doesn't like adversity, he likes things easy.

By the way I like the idea, centuryperweek, and pulled it off back last week of July 2011 through third week of July 2012. Actually the first week, a 202 miler, also started a double metric per month that I kept up through the end of 2012. I originally had planned a big, 26-27,000 mile year in 2013 with no 100 mile days all year. I broke my ankle though on February 13th and like you last year, it pretty much canned most of my plans for the year. Good luck on both the century per week and the XC trip this summer. As long as you are in shape before you leave the 100 per day during the trip is extremely doable. I have been doing that each of the pat three years now on the bike trips I been on. Heck had the 200 miler day full loaded last summer.

Spoonrobot 

Share a link please. I've looked a a few dozen rides and the highest max speed I saw wasn't even north of 35 miles per hour.

DXchulo

Kurt also has the advantage of starting later. If it's close towards the end that will be huge.

So far Steve is averaging 27.8 feet of climbing per mile. Kurt is at 12.2. So Steve is climbing 15.6 more feet per mile. May not seem like a lot, but with the crazy mileages these guys are doing it's more than 1,000,000 for the year. (I just took the year-to-date stats from Strava, so they may be off a little.)

BTW, thanks for the encouragement. The injury motivated me to get moving on some of these goals I have. Who knows, we could all crash tomorrow and never be able to ride again. I applaud Kurt, Steve, and anyone else out there who is chasing dreams.

Machka 

Unfortunately it appears that Steve has encountered a bit of a snag ... he was hit by a moped. Not sure yet if he will be able to continue, or when.