paste_me, from all the training rides you should be able to find a group of riders that are at a pace you want to ride at. One of my current riding partners I meet at Bike the Bend riding alone last year. We were riding along at the same pace. With 13k other riders there should be lots of possible riding partners.

Riding to Austin in one dst would be fun, but you would miss the social aspect on Sat in LaGrange and the finish at the Capitol.

Yeah, I would like to do it in 2 days but I would need accommodations. Since I am not on a team there wont be aynone there who sets up a tent for me n' all. I tried looking for a hotel room but it seems all of them are sold out right now.

I saw someone renting tent space in LaGrange. You can send two bags for free via the MS society. A tent and small bag with clothes and sleeping bag is what my friend has done in years past. Look around, you still have time. Good Luck.

get in touch with the MS150 organization itself.... a team is nice, but they DO make it possible for those riding alone.

Yes, my good friend ran the MS150 3 times in the early late 90's with friends. He called last night to give me some pointers. He was disgusted how pampered it is to run with a team. The team provides some much for little so money ( about the cost of a jersey ). There are lots of people not riding with a team, so not think it is a requirement. As a first time rider I wanted to go the team route for the large support they give. If I ride next year, then I will have more team options.

Why would anyone do the MS150 after they cancel it so often? Fake storms or swine flu and they shut it down. Total waste and crooked.

They key point to remember is that the MS150 is a major fund raising event for the MS society and the largest MS ride in the country. We are trying to raise money to cure MS and we get to ride our bikes.

Only last year did they have to cancel day one because the fair grounds in LaGrange were under water from all the heavy rain. It has rained before on MS rides, but when the conditions do not allow for a successful event, decisions must be made.

I didn't have any accommodations either and don't have a team. I am sending a tent in my luggage and a sleeping bag. That tent is huge...so there is extra room. Also the MS organizers said there might be space available in one of the buildings for sleeping if needed.

The one thing I have a question about is gearing for the hills? I usually ride very in very flat terrain and I am no speed demon so my usual gears are in the 50-60" class. i just switched to a 10s setup but i don't like the gears I get out of the triple at cruising speed but I wanted to keep the low gear (a 31" gear), however I have compact double that I could use that would give me my usual gears but a low of only a 35" gear. Can anybody comment on the hills for a first timer? My usual stomping ground is around Kingwood up to Coldsprings so I am used to very small rolling hills. I did the Continental Classic ride in March after the GatorRide and did ok but the hills added an extra 1 hour to my usual time for that distance (and it was the first time I ever had to use the triple crank.)

how do i send my tent with them? do it when i pick up my packet?

No foolin'. I had no idea.

The happiest week of the year for me, is the week after the MS150, when I can get the roads back to myself.

You get two numbers for two bags of luggage in your packet. Just put it in your luggage and drop it off at the luggage bus on Saturday before he ride. Then you pick it up in La Grange when you arrive and set it up. At least i hope it goes this way since that is what I'm doing.

Nice thread***** guy :-) Glad there's always one of you every year. Keep on truckin, you're a winner!

Yes you drop your 2 bags at the luggage truck with your rider luggage tags on them. Your luggage will then be available for pickup in LaGrange and then again in Austin. They also will return your luggage and bike to where you started from and/or bus you back to the start if you bought a bus pass ( the luggage and bike are standard ).

canopus - I could help better if you define your cassette and chain rings by their numerical ratings. My triple is a 30/39/30 and a cassette of 12-26 or 11-26 depending on which wheels are on the bike. On training rides I would use my 50-21, 50-23, or 50-26 to spin up the bigger hills. If I thought I was going to need to 50-26 before hand to get up the hill, I would down shift into my 39 chain ring before hand. I do not like to cross chain if possible. The puts more stress on everything before hand.

You will lose speed on the hills vs the flats. On the hills try to maintain your cadence not your speed going up the hills. I try and keep my cadence round 70-80 rpm.

You mention a triple vs compact. In most cases they will have the same big chain ring and a similar small chain ring. The biggest difference is there is no middle chain ring. I do not understand not liking the speed differences of the triple. Please explain?

thanks guys! you have been helpful! hopefully everything works out.

Aggarcia,

Thanks, now just bear with, cause I can hear everyone already saying to push those gear you whinny baby.
I have been running a triple crank, 30-42-52 and a 7 speed in the rear 13-15-16-18-20-22-24
I keep my cadence between 85-95 on 170mm cranks.
It looks like this (in inch gearing):

30 42 52
24 33.8 47.3 58.5
22 36.8 51.5 63.8
20 40.5 56.7 70.2
18 45.0 63.0 78.0
16 50.6 70.9 87.8
15 54.0 75.6 93.6
13 62.3 87.2 108.0

My usual gears are the 42-22 through 42-18 gears. Rarely do I hit the 30 in the front.

I switched to a Campy 10s in the rear and now have this for the triple (in inch gears). I thought I might have better range and maybe a little lower gear for the hills since I struggled a little on the Continental ride in March.

30 42 52
26 31.2 43.6 54.0
23 35.2 49.3 61.0
21 38.6 54.0 66.9
19 42.6 59.7 73.9
18 45.0 63.0 78.0
17 47.6 66.7 82.6
16 50.6 70.9 87.8
15 54.0 75.6 93.6
14 57.9 81.0 100.3
13 62.3 87.2 108.0

However the the missing 51 and 56 inch gears really hurt my knees this last week when I rode this for the first time. Also the chain line is absolutely horrible in all sense of the word. I can't stand it.
So I was thinking of putting on my compact crank which would give me this (inch gearing):

34 50
26 35.3 51.9
23 39.9 58.7
21 43.7 64.3
19 48.3 71.1
18 51.0 75.0
17 54.0 79.4
16 57.4 84.4
15 61.2 90.0
14 65.6 96.4
13 70.6 103.8

These are my three options since I can't get a 29 rear cog this week.
So my question is really how bad are the hills, say compared to the Continental ride back in march. Am I really going to miss that 31 inch low gear?

Now remember I am not that strong of a rider and can't power up hills like alot of people. I am getting better but still have a ways to go. I am thinking that the 4" gear loss on the bottom won't be so bad to get back my cruising gears that the compact crank would offer.

Your 7 speed must have been hard to ride. The triple is different gearing. The compact is pretty standard. There are two ways to climb hills - power up them or spin up. Most of my friends have the same compact and a 12-25, so close gearing. Put it into the 34-26 and just spin up the hills. It will take less effort and slower to spin up the hills, but this is not a race. When I get tired I just put my triple in the 39-26 and spin. Save energy and spin up the hills. This is not a race.

Holy cow that was a hell of a two days!

They had to move us from camp walmart to the kc hall saturday night.

Second day started off hard from all the butt-pain and the spray from the back tire makin things all wet. At one point on the ride I thought my brakes were dragging because it was so much work to go forward....I hadn't noticed that I was on a hill

A great ride for me though! Got to La-grange at 1:35 and got to Austin at 11:50. Beer at the end of the finish line at the team tents was the best part about both days.

Hope you all had fun!

I was in the same boat.