I mentioned some posts back that I'd be riding the Seattle to Portland event and, well, I did just that this past weekend on my Swift. It was the longest ride I've done to date, with 98 miles on day one (6.5 hours of riding + 1.5 hours for stops) and 102 miles to the finish on day 2 (6.5 hours of riding + 2.5 hours for stops -- I decided to hit every stop on this day). I opted to carry all my gear rather than deal with the luggage van they provided and didn't find the extra weight or the paniers to be that big of a deal.

The Swift rode like a charm and nothing worse than 3 chain drops occurred over the 200 miles. These all occured when I'm on the extreme ends of the rear casette (I've got a dual drive) and probably are due to minor adjustment needs. Once realized I steered clear of those gears. I think I got real luck because I was #1313, which got a lot of comment on the route! The Scwalbe Duranos I'd put on a few weeks earlier had had 400 puncture free miles of training prior to the ride--I feared a flat in the worst way and brought several tubes, just in case. But no punctures, a smooth ride, including in a terrific thunder and hail storm on the morning of day two. These tires are far more comfortable than my old Primo Comets. And I didn't even bother to pump them back up on day 2. Great tires so far.

I easily managed 15mph and had long stretches of 18mph+ on flats and climbing during the two days. The only limiter was when I found myself alone on the course with a headwind. Once back with a group all was well. The biggest issue was somewhere to mount a water bottle, but that was solved with a cheap Murano clamp-on attached to the handlebar stem that worked a charm.

Other folders on the ride that I saw were all Bike Fridays - about 10 of them. And I got a lot of comments about my bike, only 2 derisive, all the others boiling down to "cool!" especially when I passed people.

I don't know if the Swift is the best bike for this ride nor in the end really care. It is a great ride and in the end the only thing I suffered was numbness "down there" due to needing a true fitting for my B-17, and a persisting clicking noise down by the bottom bracket when I pedalled at times. I might consider the paniers in front next time to distribute things a bit better.

It was amazing riding with thousands of others, enjoying the scenery and realizing I could do it several decades past my 20s. If you haven't gone on a long ride on your Swift, try it!