24 Hour Bike Ride
A guy from .83, Chris Langston, organized a 24-hour bike ride yesterday commemorating his 27th birthday. Those who committed to the whole thing started at 9:00 in the morning, did a massive 84 checkpoint alleycat, and then spent the nighttime hours spinning on trainers at a warehouse space downtown.
I showed up there about 9:00 at night and hung around drinking beer, taking short rides around the waterfront, and marveling at the stamina of those who were participating in the full event.
At one point, a group of us went on a mission to liberate construction tape and orange roadwork cones in order to set up a phony “velvet rope” outside the warehouse space. It was fun engaging in a bit of rather harmless petty vandalism, especially trying to ride my bike down the street, slightly inebriated, carrying a plastic cone lifted from a new building site.
I also rode around the new sculpture garden a few times; it looks very impressive and I’ll be it will be really fun to ride through at night after the newness wears off and security gets a bit more lax.
Most of the 24-hour riders looked pretty spent; a whole day is a hell of a long time to be in the saddle; I think the longest I’ve ever ridden non-stop is about fourteen hours and by the end, I was useless. On the other hand, I was touring with around 30 pounds of gear and didn’t get the requisite ten-minute breaks very hour. On the other other hand, though, I wasn’t drinking beer and partying the whole time, either, so perhaps it all comes out as a wash in the end.
I did get a few ideas for what I might do on my own birthday ride should I hold it; I’m thinking a series of loops from home of varying lengths. We won’t do 24 hours straight, but if can aim for 3.27 hours that would be ideal.
I showed up there about 9:00 at night and hung around drinking beer, taking short rides around the waterfront, and marveling at the stamina of those who were participating in the full event.
At one point, a group of us went on a mission to liberate construction tape and orange roadwork cones in order to set up a phony “velvet rope” outside the warehouse space. It was fun engaging in a bit of rather harmless petty vandalism, especially trying to ride my bike down the street, slightly inebriated, carrying a plastic cone lifted from a new building site.
I also rode around the new sculpture garden a few times; it looks very impressive and I’ll be it will be really fun to ride through at night after the newness wears off and security gets a bit more lax.
Most of the 24-hour riders looked pretty spent; a whole day is a hell of a long time to be in the saddle; I think the longest I’ve ever ridden non-stop is about fourteen hours and by the end, I was useless. On the other hand, I was touring with around 30 pounds of gear and didn’t get the requisite ten-minute breaks very hour. On the other other hand, though, I wasn’t drinking beer and partying the whole time, either, so perhaps it all comes out as a wash in the end.
I did get a few ideas for what I might do on my own birthday ride should I hold it; I’m thinking a series of loops from home of varying lengths. We won’t do 24 hours straight, but if can aim for 3.27 hours that would be ideal.
posted by Professor Dave at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
Judging from your comments a few days ago, you'd cast a dubious eye at something claimed to be "rather unique." Wouldn't the same principle apply to "rather harmless?"
You know, I hadn't noticed that, but you're right.
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