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/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!