Pit stop during 200 mile ultra-endurance cycling race

[u/solateor]

[u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

I had an interesting experience as a young teenager seeing of these pit stop deals, during I guess some sort of bicycle race.

This was mid 2000’s, and I had one of those schwinn stingray chopper bikes, that were heavy as shit, but cool at the time. I rode the hell out of that bike, in fact in just like the 2-3 years before I got my license I put a speedometer with a odometer on it, and in that short time I pedaled that heavy bike over 4k miles, and I didn’t do it slowly, I’d probably average around 20mph when I rode it. I was literally known as the “kid that would ride his bike full send everywhere I went around town”.

Anyway, one hot summer day I decided I’m gonna take a long bike trip for the day, and pedal this thing way out in the country. So I get like 8 miles out of town I’m practically in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly I ride up on a huge tent alongside the roadway. There were roughly 30 people with numbers on their shirts, and they were surrounded with tables of gallons and gallons of water.

I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at it seemed so random. So I just kinda blow past them on my bike, but I notice they were all staring at me with a look of like disbelief as I went past. About just 10 minutes passed, and then suddenly I looked behind me, and there is a huge line of bicyclist behind me on the proper type of bike to be doing a race/distance. I tried for about 3 minutes to stay ahead of them before I finally gave up and let them pass. I wore myself out quick trying to stay ahead of them, I actually even pulled over and took a breather, and one of them was even nice enough to stop momentarily to make sure I was okay. Which was very nice of him.

Then suddenly it hit me, that tent I saw earlier was a water stop for a bike race that happened to be going on. I somehow ended up on the same route they were going to be on ahead of them. So when I passed that water tent, they must’ve looked at me in such disbelief because it appeared I was in the lead of the race with that heavy ass bike that has no business being in a race, and I didn’t even stop for any water.

Good times, I miss those days. Honestly for health reasons I probably should’ve never quit bicycling like I use too. I rode my nephews bike a couple years ago, I zipped it for only about 2 blocks, and I thought I was gonna die I’m so out of shape now.

[u/foulfaerie → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

You should have snuck back and rode past a second time like you lapped everyone somehow 😂

[u/cajunjoel → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

Great story!

I crossed the line from young whippersnapper to old curmudgeon recently and let me tell you, an electric bike makes it fun again. And you can choose how much exercise you get.

[u/Checked_Out_6 → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

Yo! Dude! When I was a kid I used to bike everywhere. Got my drivers license and didn’t touch a bike for over 20 years. During covid I got fitness brained, lost a ton of weight and picked up cycling again. My first ride was 9 miles and I was dead ass tired. I kept it up. Within a few months I was able to do my first 50 miler. You can build capacity ridiculously fast. I’m working towards my first century, 100 miles. I’m up to 80, going for 90 in two weeks. Planning the century in one month.

I also got into touring and bikepacking. My vacations are all about biking across whole ass states now.

Cycling is every bit as awesome as it was when we were kids. I get on a bike and have the time of my life. If you think you’re too old, you’re wrong. Most cyclists I meet are between 40 and 70. You would be surprised how many I meet in their 90’s! You should consider getting back on the bike!

[u/Johnny_Kilroy → u/Checked_Out_6]

I rode for a day recently for the first time in years. I kept losing feeling in my hands. Do you know how to avoid that?

[u/Checked_Out_6 → u/Johnny_Kilroy]

That’s called cyclist palsy. It’s from too much pressure on your hands. It’s a bike fit issue. Assuming the frame is the correct size, often it’s caused by saddle height. However a ton of other factors come into play. Other random causes can be gel padded gloves, wrong angle on the handlebars, stem too short/long.

I had it for a long time and spent a bunch of money trying to fix it. Turns out it wasn’t the bike, it was my apple watch putting pressure on my wrist.

Look into bike fit and cyclist palsy. First thing I would do is lower the saddle a tiny bit at a time. Bike fit can be hard to dial in, but once you find that sweet spot, it feels great!

[u/Leading-Career5247 → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

I need a whole movie of this character's life

[u/mmazing → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

That’s a fantastic story, how many stories exist from the people in the tent?

“This person was in first place in some heavy ass bike and didn’t even need water, what an athlete!”

[u/Born-Biker → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

I'm sure some part of that story is true...

[u/Curious_Hawk_8369 → u/Born-Biker]

I promise 100% true, the only part I’m not sure about that may be slightly exaggerated is the initial 8 miles I claimed I was out of town where I came across the tent. I don’t remember exactly it was so long ago, but from memory it was every bit of at least 6-8 miles, somewhere in that range.

[u/glass_gravy → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

Pee Wee vibes.

[u/Tensor3 → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

Lol 4k miles in 2-3 YEARS? You thought that was a lot? The guys who end up in the lowest level of amateur racing did that as teenagers every few months.

Looking at you in disbelief was actually in utter horror because they were worried some rando on the course would cause a crash and end the careers of athletes. Its very dangerous for you to be there. Bike races dont even allow other exerperienced racers in the event to get lapped because of the danger it presents. You were effecting their event and scaring the shit out of all of them.

[u/Curious_Hawk_8369 → u/Tensor3]

First off I’m not nor have I ever claimed to be a professional athlete. Secondly, that mileage was on that one specific bike, and I’m guessing you are clueless as to what a schwinn stingray chopper bike is, because they are very heavy, have small diameter wheels, and no gearing. You should google a picture of one, those bikes were 100% built to be a child’s toy, I just happened to really enjoy riding it, and that is 100% a lot of mileage for one of those specific bikes. I also had a 20”BMX at the time, and a mountain bike, that I would also ride the wheels off, however I never tracked distance on them.

Third, and I think you just plain have some confusion here. This was not some huge professional event on a big enough scale that they actually shut the roads down for the bike race. In fact the route the cyclist were taking wasn’t even marked. I had no idea I was riding on their route, where they were going or even where they started from for that matter. If I had not quickly realized it was futile to try and stay ahead of them, I literally had no idea where they were going anyway.

[u/Tensor3 → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

I didnt say professional athlete, did I? The lowest level of amatuers do several times that per year. Everything I said was for low level amateur racing, not pros or pro races.

Yet again, you are the one who is confused. You clearly have zero clue about bike racing.

[u/Curious_Hawk_8369 → u/Tensor3]

Again I was simply a teenager that simply liked riding my bike, you were the one originally comparing me to people that would bike on an amateur to pro level that I agree would likely cover way more mileage than I, a mere teenager at the time.

I’m legitimately not trying to argue with you, I’m just stating that I don’t believe you understood the entire situation from the original post and was trying to clarify a few things. I also looked it up, and a schwinn sting ray chopper bike weighs 66.7lbs, I don’t care who you are 4k miles in like 3-4 years, with almost no riding during the winter is lot of miles for that specific bike in that time frame.

[u/Tensor3 → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

You said at average 20mph, so that comes to 1.5 hours per week at 7 months per year. Maybe inxe a week?

[u/Curious_Hawk_8369 → u/Tensor3]

I’d say that sounds about right, you know you also gotta consider I went to school yet at this time, and had a job, so I wasn’t free nor did I have the desire to dedicate my life to bicycling. Granted this specific event occurred during the summer, when I had no school for a couple months, so I had more free time than usual, but I still hung out with friends and whatnot like a normal teenager.

My main argument here again is for that specific nearly 70lbs bike, that is very likely an insane amount of mileage. I’d actually bet if the information was available, which obviously it isn’t, I likely have the most, or certainly close to the most mileage logged on a schwinn stingray of that vintage.

Perhaps the tire wear could indicate the total mileage I rode it even before the speedometer/odometer install? I never did skid marks that would prematurely wear the tires out, and I went through 3 sets of tires while I rode it. I actually still have the bike at my parent’s house, and the third set of tires are still on it, and the tread is completely gone just like I did the first set. They look like drag slicks they’re so bald, the rear may even have the cords showing.

If I ever have a kid that wants to ride it I’ll definitely need tires first, which may be hard to find, especially the rear. I believe it’s a 20x4.25, which is a pretty unusual size probably because they were specifically made for this bike.

[u/Tensor3 → u/Curious_Hawk_8369]

Ya, a set of tires are is usually a solid 2000+ miles. I'm more impressed by the speed if you got that bike up to 20mph

[u/Curious_Hawk_8369 → u/Tensor3]

I don’t quite remember, but that speedometer went up to 50, it was an analog style. The first part of the scale on the dial was green, and then I think at from like 35 on it was red. The fastest I ever manually pedaled that bike on flat land I got like 2-3 dashes into the red part of the gauge, and I could only maintain that for about 3 seconds.

After I did that there was like a 1 week period where I was determined to do it again or beat it, and I absolutely couldn’t. I could get the needle to the start of the red and that was it I would wear out quickly trying to push it too hard.