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There's another side to the story... because of my body's proportions (5'7.5", long body) the Dahon Speed P8 offers me an alternate position, which allows me to go faster: I can lean over with my elbows relaxing on the handlebars for a racing position. The Downtube has shorter handlebars, so I don't know how the stability feels if I were to try it on that.

Lucky07

Just bring a rope. We'll pull you!

slvoid

Know anyone planning 18+ for the 145'er? I need someone to drag my fat ass out there!

jyossarian

Yeah, they weren't kidding.

slvoid

Hooked up with a bunch of crazy triathletes at the beginning, so we were hauling at a good 23-25mph for the first 70 miles or so. Ended up getting a flat... then another flat... then another flat. Ended up finishing in a little over 8 hours.

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No carbon wheels this time?

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Grats to Matty and Steve for finishing!

slvoid

They're reynolds carbon clinchers.

cparekh

Well, Glen screwed this up royally for the 66 milers. He didn't have enough trucks to haul the bikes out to Mastic-Shirley for the 66 mile start. This resulted in hundreds of bikes being left at Penn Station while the trucks went out to the 66 mile start, returned to Penn Station, and then returned to Mastic-Shirley. We waited for 4 and a half hours for our bikes to arrive at the start! In fact, we were taken by bus to the Westhampton rest stop for the start, so we only got to ride 50 miles, or so.

Because we didn't start riding until 2 PM, all the rest stops were closed along the way, and there was no food at the finish. We didn't get a shower or a beer, because there was no time, and they ran out of beer too. In a similar fashion to the 5BBC Montauk ride, I did get a bun to munch on for the 4 hour ride back to Penn Station. I was about to gnaw off someone's leg, because all I got to eat between leaving Penn Station at 7:15 in the morning and arriving home at midnight (after riding for several hours) was a couple of those Larabar samples and a handful of potato chips.

Glen has offered all of us a full refund, but I don't think I will be doing this ride again unless, at least, my next year's entry was free as well. It's just not worth it to do a ride that requires transportation for the bikes. When we arrived at Penn Station after the ride, hundreds of bikes were piled against the wall in complete disorder with no one watching them. I saw $8,000 bikes getting tossed about by people looking for their bikes. No blankets on the bikes (which were paid for as an extra charge).

It's all so frustrating, because Glen did such a good job last year, and I recommended this ride to a lot of friends, and they had a terrible time, because they didn't get any food, no rest stops, no shower, no beer, and their bikes were tossed around.

Oh well.

mattyknacks

Thank you. I was worried that I was gonna crap out (which I almost did). Thanks for all you guy's support on my first century. I know I held some of you up, and I know some of you guys slowed down to keep an eye on me. All you guys are great.

stevesurf

Eddie that was so well said, but I'm happy that Matty completed his first Century ever (way to go Matty!!!) and even his girlfriend is dressing up like a podium girl.

Some brief impressions: I just got back after the 2nd to last truck delivered more bikes and I got mine, but don't let that influence you; this was a well managed ride. There was so much food after, and at the rest stops and Glen is of course to be commended. There were even showers, which made the 2nd big trip home very pleasant. This was my fourth Century in about 12 years, and I hadn't done one in 4 years, so it was a very powerful experience. I have not felt pain like I did in quite awhile, but that's ok...

Henri, Mark (notean) , Charlie (Avatar) and Matty started out and I immediately felt the effects of pulling an all-nighter after returning from Chicago. Jyossarian joined along the way. Everyone pulled for each other, but it was going to be clear that I would begin to feel real pain from 50-75 miles, at the end of which a spoke blew uip and I had to fake the Ksyrium ES adjustment and pull the spoke out. It worked.

Those last hills at Mile 94 and on were killers in that they were very decieving, much like Oro Valley on the El TOur de Tucson Route.

At the end, I met Slvoid and Wifey who told me they had flats and flats; I felt like giving them the 5 CO2s I lugged - very cool people

Matty would push, then I would and it because quite the challenge just to keep our line and keep hydrated. By mile 86 I started to have mild crap in the left, slight knee tighness in the right, extreme nech stiffness and pain and foot numbness (both feet).

What I really need was to get in a boxing ring an get beat up to improve my circulation!

I have to wake up in 5 hours, so its off to a sleep, the last time was Thursday night that I slept...

Again, Glen did a fine job with everything; the bike transportation just needs to be improved, perhaps a dedicated bike car on LIRR where the bikes travel with us. Also, he went out of his way to please every cobo of ride length and start, nice job, Glenn, but make it simpler next time.

Later/Steve

stevesurf

Thanks for saying that, Charlie...coming from someone that was so focused on the ride nad enduring pain, it's very meaningful!

On another note, we all missed Air...George is the glue that holds to group together! He showed up at 3AM to see us off - what a guy!!!

Anyway, the Ambien is taking effect....

Lucky07

Sorry, Slvoid, didn't see your note until now. I think I know the crazy triathletes you rode with. I did the 145 with them last year. They thrashed the hell out of me.

Urbanis

Okay, I'm another of the 66-milers and I can confirm that it was a complete disaster. I'm really happy the 100- and 145- milers had a smooth ride, and it makes me want to cry that mine was so disastrous by comparison.

The staff didn't manage to get all the 66 and 30 milers processed in time, so half of us missed the train. That put us two hours behind schedule. Then, when we arrived in Mastic, we waited for another hour for the bikes to show up, while half the people got bussed to another rest stop. Three of us who managed to get our bikes started the route. At the start, we accidentally went 6 miles out of our way, but figured out how to get back en route. We really enjoyed the first 17 miles, but then the SAG team picked us up to drive us to Montauk, because there wasn't enough time for us to get to the finish line by 6 p.m. (since so much time had been lost between train and bike fiascos). At that point, two of us bailed, seeing there was no point in being driven to Montauk just to return to Manhattan (and likely miss all the food and lose our bikes again), and took the Hampton Jitney home. I rode home from 86th St and 3rd Ave to Broadway and 207th, so at least I got another 7 miles in. :-)

So, basically, I spent the day being schlepped around Long Island for 17 miles of riding. cparekh, how do we get our refunds?

noteon 

Matty and Steve--too cool! Eddie and I ended up finishing together, and we couldn't tell where you guys or Henri were.

My wife's taking our twins out to Starbucks so I can get a little more rest this morning before I take over childcare duties. Think I'll let them get out the door, wait a few minutes, and go for a recovery spin...

Speaking of which, how come gin doesn't appear on any of the century recovery websites?

henria86

Matty & Steve,
congrats that you guys finished.... hhee next time out im getting u guys a few pitchers of beer...
had a great ride.. but got lost following a bunch of girls... an missed the driveway looking turn.. that killed most of my time.. but it was a great ride with alot of fun helpful people...
henri

noteon 

That was a really badly marked turn. I almost crashed into the guy in front of me when he noticed the marking at the last second.

slvoid

Thanks. It was nice meeting you too. Unfortunately I don't know if the CO2 would've helped. The zipp stem extenders didn't seat well with the CO2, which was the problem.

Air

Wow - I'm so sorry to hear about the 66 milers I wonder if a lot of people switched from the 100 to the 66 at the last minute which would have screwed up the truck situation.

Don't worry about the refund - Glen's on top of it and after sleeping for a day I'm sure you'll get an email about it. If you don't hear anything by Tuesday I'd say send him an email, otherwise it'll be grouped in with a mess of others.

Congrats again all!! Was thinking about you guys all day, wished I could have been there too

slvoid

Did they all have badass $12000 bikes with their names painted under the clear coat?

Thanks to the initial push, I eventually ended up finishing around the speed I was aiming for too.

Something happened this time. I was wearing my heart rate meter. Initially, my heart rate for the first 50 miles was around 160-170 cruising at 23-25mph. For the next 20 miles or so, it was around 170-180. Then after all my flats, I was feeling completely dead but had a slow leak that kept my rear tire at around 60 psi until I got that taken care of at a rest stop.

I was hungry and tired but for some reason, for the next 40 miles or so, my heart rate was only about 130 on the flats when I was pounding away at 22-23mph. I know it wasn't because I was "healthy" cause I remember being extremely tired, my body was in pain, I was out of it, and I was at a point where I felt my calves and thighs twitching as if they were going to cramp up at any given moment. I thought maybe it was my body canabalizing itself and no longer being aerobically efficient, which was maybe why my heart rate was so low.

sashae

I did the 66 as well, and have a similar report.

We were doing the 66mi ride, which meant drop your bikes at Penn Station to be trucked out to the start at Mastic-Shirley.

Problem 1. Registration was between 6-7am. A friend of mine and I were there by 625a and the line was hundreds deep. We didn't make the front until 715, where we were told to dump our bikes in a pile leaning against Penn, and "they'd get to the start." We then had to run for the train, making it on by maybe 1 min before the doors closed. A bunch of people missed the train.

Problem 2. We arrived at the start to an empty LIRR parking lot at Mastic-Shirley. 3 trucks showed and unloaded bikes... but not ours. Another truck arrived from Babylon with more bikes... but not ours. We along with a few hundred other people were told that "more trucks were on the way." About 30 mins later we were told that we were being moved to the next rest stop via bus, and our bikes would meet us there. It was about 11am at that point (purportedly 915a start.) About half the people in the parking lot were moved via bus, the other half staying there.

Problem 3. We get to the rest stop to find most of the food gone (nothing says "cycling performance" like a bowl of York Peppermint Patties), and no information. We waited. And waited. And waited. At about /2pm/ two trucks arrived after having apparently stopped at the 66mi start and fully unloaded then RELOADED the trucks.

Problem 4. We all get our bikes off of the jumble stacked in the back. The four folks in my group's bikes all received fresh scrapes/dings from being piled in, and we're told that we have to hustle to make Montauk or we'll be stuck overnight.

We made it to Montauk about 630, enough time to get a couple of beers and food (for a couple of the folks i'm with) and a shower (for me) before we have to hustle to make the LIRR back to the city. Upon arrival at Penn, we see a HUGE pile of bikes just leaned against the building -- but again, not ours. A bunch of people were sitting around on moving blankets on the sidewalk saying that they'd been moved 5 times over 13 hours, and still no bikes, so our day wasn't the worst. Eventually, another truck pulls up and has our bikes, ending the day at around 1130pm. Totally bogus.

The ride itself was beautiful, but the organization of the ride was a giant clusterf__k. I'd never do one of his rides again in a situation where I had to give up my bike to them.

Oh, and to the staffers unloading the bikes they'd thrown in the back of a truck to a bunch of people who'd been standing around in the sun for 5 hours shouting "hey, you win a prize!" when they gave a bike back to its rightful owner? Die in a fire.

The NYC Century is 1000x better run. I wouldn't do another one of Glen's rides if you paid ME $100 to do it. Arrogant scumbag.

slvoid

I think that unless you're doing the 100 or the 145, the rest of the distances are, at this point, fairly new to the scheme of things. The 145 has always been pretty straight forward. The 100, less. And it gets more complicated as they try to push the start forward towards montauk. I think this is his first 1 or 2 years doing the sub-100 mile starts. I wouldn't think about doing those again until he straights out the logistics.

timmhaan

holy crap. sorry to all those doing the 66 miler. that's a shame to hear about.

slvoid - maybe it's time to look into airless tires? haha.

slvoid

Haha, you're not getting me so easily on that one!

It was weird, a brad had gone through the tire BACKWARDS...

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The thing with the NYC Century is that if you have to go home, you just hop the latest subway and go home. Home field advantage.

Sorry to hear about the bad experience for the folks who did the 66.

I can vouch for the 100 being a success, though I wish they didn't just leave all the bikes in Penn Station like that on the way back. I'm not sure they had a choice in the matter because you can't just park a truck in that area. It did facilate things as I got home a 10pm.