205 miles on my Schwinn.
 

Not my Continental though, my 3 speed coaster brake road bike, 1988 Schwinn Premis.

https://i.postimg.cc/MGVFhxpJ/A4AD5B...7C227C2191.jpg

Tommy Godwin is the most bad ass human to ever throw a leg over a bicycle IMO, he rode 75,065 miles in 1939. An average of 205 miles a day. His 2 bikes both had sturmey archer internally geared hubs. His biggest day in 1939 was June 21st 361 miles, the longest day of the year. So me putting down my longest ride on the same day as his longest ride, on a sturmey archer equipped bike, and matching his daily average was pretty cool for me, tying together a personal best along with celestial alignment and matching some KICK ASS historical ride info to boot. The hub on this bike blew up last weekend, and it was a real pain in the ass to track down replacement parts and get the bike sorted for this ride, I'm super glad I was able to pull it all together, because it had to happen *TODAY*!!!!!! I also painted the rims green while I had the rear wheel apart anyway.

I built this 3 speed with the dream of riding my fist double century on it, then I realized that putting in the extra 5 to equal Tommy's daily average for 1939 made a lot of sense, I did name the bike Tommy after all. I had planned to ride the Davis Double, as its sort of flat, 8,000' of climbing, but it of course got cancelled...

Tommy avoided hills as much as possible for his record attempt as they slow you down :-P I'm sure he could smash them, but not when trying to set the year record. When I planned this route with Google it came back at 9,400' of climbing, a bit more than I wanted but not too bad spread over 205 miles... But, Nestooka river road was closed when I got there, so I had to take the detour on bald mountain road and there was no cell signal to check the details on it, I just went for it, it ended up adding almost 5000' more climbing to the round trip, as my first gear is not very low, bike is geared 46/20, with a %25 reduction for 1st gear which makes the low gear 46/25 effectively, I spent probably 4 hours out of the saddle today, and on the way home from the coast my left knee started hurting, I presume from so much standing while pedaling time. I love to stand, and do it a lot, but today was just so much. Stopping and massaging my knee made the pain go away, for ~20 minutes, stop, massage, ride 20 min, repeat. I was way slower than I wanted today, got murdered on most of the strava segments, but it was certainly a beautiful l day out.

I think my knee would have been fine had I been on my carbon road bike, I think it would also have been fine if I only climbed 9,400' instead of 14k.

I also want to get rid of the 175mm cranks for some 170's, this bike could use some more pedal clearance too.

I did raise my stem about an inch for this ride, I figured with 14 hours on the bike a "french fit" wouldn't be a bad idea!

Here are some more pics,

https://i.postimg.cc/dtfN3D7K/0C44E0...391680630C.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/RFTbZRtP/3C69B0...8E6E600A0F.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/0yL4WrxC/95CF0B...6AAE76F7AC.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Kvjsmt8N/93BD6C...2A0703651A.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/sXzNz8MQ/C08B22...C6C781C220.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/x8TpJzy9/CD2FCE...47319010CC.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/zGW7f7Zn/4C8A88...C6D5D88D66.jpg

Kudos. 👍

Nice job and great story!

Congratulations!!

WOW! Fantastic! Congradulations! :thumb: :thumb:

Can you post your route map? Obviously you didn't ride in Eastern Idaho with all that ocean in the background!

Thanks! I really like the history around Tommy, this is one of the better websites I've found with info about his accomplishments, Tommy Godwin | Long Distance Legend

I think it would be great if people referred to a 205 mile ride as a "Tommy", almost nobody knows of him which is why I do like to bring him up when appropriate.

Ahhh, yea, I moved to Oregon a little while back, but haven't changed my profile yet!

Portland to Cape lookout state park, %60 of the asphalt was in VERY good condition, some if it had some rather coarse chip seal on it, but all in all it this route was exceedingly good, I certainly plan on biting off smaller sections when time allows.

https://i.postimg.cc/X74PGXkZ/BDA5E8...0A96642DB3.jpg

no front brake? i'm a worry wart. i run a front brake when i set up anything with a coaster brake. if the chain falls of you can't shift it back on, and you don't have brakes, so you're left trying to jam your foot between the wheel and the seat tube (like that idiot in san fransico who would ride a single speed coaster with no brakes at all...).

nice to see a lovely old Schwinn in use. I'm hoping to set up an old Miyata 1000 with a 2 speed kick back. debating if I should go coaster or reuse my MAFAC racers. Probably i'll use the MAFACs.
cheers!

Congratulations!!!
 

Wow!!!

What an accomplishment!

I too have come to appreciate SA internally geared hubs. My winter bike and commuter is a two speed kickback.

Again, awesome!!

I see one.

Wow!

I rode that distance in a day once when I was 20. Only about 3,500 feet of climbing that was involved on that ride - and was on a bike with 10 speeds. I was completely spent and very saddle sore at the end of it. My hat is off to you!

Very nice. What kind of training beforehand got you ready for 205 miles and 14k feet of climbing?

No front brake, I know its a bit risky, I may add a front brake, but it really would change the whole dynamic of the bike, having to use the coaster makes you have to think about foot position so much more. One thing that is certainly different is that you need to keep the cranks level while descending so that you still have decent braking power, I'm obviously used to hard cornering with the outside pedal down, there were some really good corners on yesterday's ride and there was just a bit of unease getting the bike properly tipped in with the cranks level.


It turned up in the "frame doesn't fit pass it around" thread, Mad Honk sent it to me for the cost of shipping, paint was in bad shape, I sandblasted it and repainted it with 2K paint. This is a made in Chicago Schwinn too, and it's actually my first Schwinn, it's a great addition to the herd :-)

That would be a great one! I'd be tempted to go with the Mafac's so braking and shifting are mixed into the same backpedal motion.

Thanks! I've been a big fan of SA hubs since the late 80's, I was only 15 then, but even at a young age I could see how cool they were :-)

The pic with the ocean in the background? Thats writing on the yellow tape, the only cable on the bike is for the 3 speed shifter.

Thanks! All the time out of the saddle climbing did at least save my butt a bit.

I'm a fairly casual rider in that I ride when I can and don't sweat it too much when I can't. Preferably I like to ride 6-7 hours a weeks or so, 500 miles a month or so, if I get that much time on the bike I feel I can get after big rides like this without too much worry about being fit enough. I burn a lot of calories when I work too though, which is no substitute for cycling, but its a lot more than nothing. I don't feel I spend a lot of time on the bike, but the time I do spend on the bike is fairly high intensity. I don't have a heart rate monitor nor a power meter, I feel I'm pretty good at recognizing how hard my body is working and can set the throttle appropriately to not blow myself up on longer rides as long as I know the mileage and the elevation change, this ride of course ended up having ~5,000 more climbing than I planned for, but I rode the first century easy enough and was doing the math that well before I got to my turn around point I knew I was in for a 14,000 day, not 9,000, I was feeling tough, so just kept on pedalling. More climbing than I wanted but it makes for some impressive ride stats now that it's done :-P

I'm 46 and weigh ~163 fwiw, I'm a bit new to road biking but have done a lot of MTB in my life and have always been active since I was a child.

I actually had not been on the bike much for the last 3 weeks, certainly more rest time than I would have liked, but I've had some really good results starting long rides from long rest periods, so I just went for it. I did have a buddy on standby as a car rescue if needed, there was no cell signal for many miles in the middle portion of the ride though, D'oh!