jackbombay

Oh, this bike is a super slow heavy bastard, and to make it worse I added a plywood box attached to the bike with rips of 2x4 all held together and to the bike with steel tie wire. I'd bet its right close to 40 pounds, and super flexible.

I recently posted about being bummed that all the rides I signed up for this summer got cancelled, and how I just needed to HTFU a bit, and uhhh, this ride the culmination of that.

I'm feeling pretty fit, so I just went out and hammered all day, got a bit crampy from miles 70-85, but more water and food fixed it, finished the ride feeling good too, legs were down on power somewhat, but not crampy of hurting.

The bike is way too big for me, I have negative 1" of standover height, so I flipped the seat clamp around to get the reach about right.



Top of bear mountain,



Google sent me on ten miles of dirt on the ride,



I had a rugged headwind heading back south, luckily I was in these trees for 3 miles or so which were plenty tall enough to keep the wind away,



My sweet plywood box stitched together with wire,



The bike has a mechanical speedo/odo, it worked when I got the bike, but I oiled the drive cable and oil ran into the drive unit that contacts the side of the tire and made it stop working :-( Hopefully I can open it up and clean it out and get it working again, I was rather looking forward to checking my progress on a mechanical odo. I did a smaller ride a few days ago and its half way accurate, it recorded 10.4 miles fo 10.8 that I rode, I can grind down the drive wheel to correct the %4 error. Yea it also has a bottle generator and a light that work.

bikemig 

That’s a heck of a ride on a Schwinn Continental.

jackbombay

I flew out east for work, and there was supposed to be a better bike waiting for me, but there wasn't, and there has been a massive rush on any low priced bikes out here, CL has almost nothing and bike shops have sold ~%70 of everything in the store, its insane, this was all I could come up with, and, you'd fall over dead or laughing or both if I told you how much it cost! But I can't not have a bike for 3 weeks! I'm making my boss pay for it!

Piff 

Man, talk about proving the old saying "it's not about the bike."

How was the ride quality of the Continental?

gugie 

Best post of the year

SalsaShark

With this training you'll be able to ride non-stop on a bike that actually fits you properly. Nice ride!

Kilroy1988 

A very impressive feat! In fact, I'd be inclined to say that it's rather ridiculous, but I try not to point out the obvious...

Lascauxcaveman 

@jackbombay, that is all really impressive, and I hope you don't take this in the wrong way, but you are very stupid person.

branko_76 

and no toe-clips...

downtube42

I don't know what it's like to ride a too-big Conti, but in my view they are a comfortable ride. Heavy, obviously, but if you're racing nothing but the sun, that's not such an issue. You could ride hands-free all day, it's stable on descents, and the opposite of harsh.

Well done.

delbiker1 

Sounds and looks like a great ride. Good for you!

nomadmax 

Jack, you're my new hero, bumping Greg LeMond out of the top spot. You don't need to HTFU, you're already there.

jjames1452 

I have a friend that I met through bike forums that works in Cincinnati every year. I lend him a bike for the 3-4 weeks he is there. He took a liking to my Trek 720.

I respect the Continental. That was the Cadillac of 10 speeds when I was a kid. But, it may not be a bad idea to ask BF members in the area for a loaner. Much respect for the ride though!!

cycleheimer

Those bikes were ridden cross country "back in the day", especially during the bicentennial summer of 1976. Right now in the NYC area finding a deal on a used bike isn't easy, especially since garage sales out in the 'burbs ain't happening. Bikes sell within a few hours. The market had been a little slow the past few years. Not now, though. Nice ride up to the Bear Mountain Bridge. If you get a chance, check out the North County and South County bike trails on the other side of the Hudson. Flat old rail trails, and they get nicer as you go north.

jackbombay

The bike rides quite nice really, I don't think the tires are original, at least they are in good enough condition that I had no qualms setting out for a long day on them, I ran 90 PSI in the rear and 80 up front. This bike is a bit bent somewhere though as you have to lean it a decent bit to the left to get it to ride straight when no handed.

One thing that I'm pleasantly surprised by is the foam bar "grips", I know they are the hallmark of cheaper bikes, but man, these things are great! So comfy!

Was a beautiful day, started off a bit cool, but ended up right around 70 for most of the day, little bit of a small shoulder in some spots, but better than I expected for enough "shoulder room".

I'm flattered! I actually have modified the famous Lemond quote regarding the bike for adventures such as these, "It doesn't hurt any more, you just go slower."

I do have some arguably stupid, undeniably painful, big rides lined up this summer so I'm trying to get a lot of time on the bike to be ready for those.

The thought crossed my mind, but my work my schedule is all over the place and I don't have a particularly secure place to keep the bike, its locked to the back of the cab on the the flat bed of F450 that is my daily driver right now, getting groceries in a 11,000+ pound truck is always good for a chuckle....

Actually, last spring I rode a century on those trails, on my 16" wheel folding bike, nice riding there for sure!





Depriving my brain of oxygen is a big piece of why I like to ride bikes, I can do that just as well on a Continental as I can on a modern carbon road bike, every bike has some admirable enjoyable characteristics to check out :-)

I'm double flattered!

With the seat clamp flipped to put the seat forward this bike actually fits me pretty well, I think it has a bit of a laid back seat tube angle so moving the seat that far forward corrects that, but yea, considering how good I felt on the bike yesterday right till the end I know I can put down some huge rides on my nicer bikes that are sized appropriately for me!

I've never thought of myself as being that smart before! :-P

That was a bit rugged, I did lament the absence of my clipless pedals and shoes for a bit during the ride...

OldsCOOL

Many bows of obeisance in your general direction.

Incredible ride. How’s your butt?

joesch

Very impressive ride on that extra heavy Schwinn Conti+. What tires and pressure?? Im guessing the hubs were still pretty smooth?

jackbombay

Thanks!

The original seat on the bike was a D+ or so, pretty bad for my butt, I went to a shop and they were almost sold out of seats, I knew this one wouldn't be great, but certainly better than what was on the bike when I bought it, this seat is a C+, maybe a B-, normally I spend more time out of the saddle but with my wooden rack and box on the back I had to ride in a very controlled manner when out of the saddle, so I didn't ride out of the saddle all that much. My butt feels fine right now, but as soon as I sit on that seat later today I'm sure I'll feel it.

Tires are panasonic 27x 1 1/4, 90 PSI in the rear and 80 up front, tubes hold air great. I haven't pulled the wheels to feel the hub bearings. The bottom bracket sounded like a dozen bird calls when I got the bike so I dribbled some 15/40 weight diesel motor oil (theres always a gallon jug in the work truck) into both sides of it and it got quiet immediately at which point it was clear it was also way too tight, I adjusted it with a pair of slip joint pliers and it ran fine for yesterday's ride. I also lubed the chain with the 15/40 weight oil, makes for a filthy chain, but its great lube and at $15 for a gallon compared to $8 for 3 ounces of modern chain lube the choice was easy, besides, the bike shops here are all sold out of chain lube.

Mark Isaak 

This is impressive in so many ways. 114 miles and 6700 feet of climbing on a 40+ pound bike?? Wow.

joesch

And still avg 14mph on that setup.

Hobbiano 

That box on the back would be perfect for bringing your dog. If he likes to ride. And you have a dog.

Amazing! Inspires me to get my old Super Sport rolling again.

bikemig 

I know that area. I've hiked all through Bear Mountain and Harriman. I've cycled on both sides of the Hudson and in upstate NY as well. NY has some of the finest bike riding I've ever seen. And there are some serious hills and climbs on the ride you did.

So is that Schwinn Continental a keeper, a permanent part of your fleet? Or was this just a temporary sort of New York dalliance sort of like a Sex and the City episode?

Do you mind saying how much you paid for it? No big deal if you don't but I'm curious how bad prices are in NYC during the pandemic.

Fahrenheit531 

Equal parts awesome and hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

jackbombay

Some great terrain around here for sure! I've been googling around for rides in the catskills, that's a bit more of a drive than I'd like from here, but I LOVE springtime with vibrant green foliage everywhere, and I'm sure it would be a ride I'd remember for decades to come, so a ~2.5 hour drive is tolerable in light of that.

Temp bike, I normally fly with my 1985 Dahon 3 speed folding bike, but my boss said he was going to buy a bike that I could use while here and then leave it with him for him to own, but the bikes he was looking at all got bought before he could get them, so when I showed up I didn't have my folder, and he didn't have a bike, and man, I've never seen CL so devoid of lower end bikes. I found a used bike shop online called Gallery 35, he said he had sold ~%80 of his stock over the last few weeks, this Continental was all he had that was even slightly appealing to me, and I was taking time off the clock to try to go look at bikes so picking one and getting it over with was really in my best interest.


$165. I should be able to wring it out of my boss though and then leave the bike with him.

bikemig 

$165 is a lot of money for this bike but it's not a crazy price given that it's NYC and pandemic pricing.

The riding in the Catskills is very fine. I'd check out some of the local clubs and see if you can get their routes. I know the Mid Hudson bike club does some riding there. Also check out the Gunks for bike riding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawangunk_Ridge