Seat comfy?
Seat is good.
Better than the last ride!
This is insanity!!!!
Yes shorts. It was mainly the bars, no flat place except the grips. Your wrists were always bent. The bar tape is cotton with no padding. Two days on this was two much. The plan was to ride the govnor all 100 miles. With a change of bars it might be possible.
Tell me about the Univega.
They were built in Japan and are sought after for touring because they were well built. It may be Mytia built. I believe after 1982 they had center pull brakes, before that cantilever brakes. Early ones had no water bottle mounts as bikes back then had few braze ones. It may have high quality straight gauge tubing to keep it rigid with a full load. My 1982 has one braze on water bottle mount. I used river nuts and JB Weld to put on a second bottle mount. I also laced up a set of 29er triple wall mountain bike rims to old style hubs. It’s a 7 speed Mega range, triple in front, 700 c by 38 tires, with modern brake lever shifting And cross top brakes.
I had to stop briefly three times for food, electrolytes and resting my butt, arms and back. I stood as I was afraid if I sat down on the ground I wouldn’t want to get up. I almost fell over getting off to rest. The solution was to not stop. Despite the electrolytes I started to cramp a little towards the end, but not like I sometimes do in a race, pretty minor. I ate 5 sandwiches, a granola bar and 6 beverages. I ate tons the next day so I’m still 10 pounds heavier than I was last summer. The temps were from the upper 50s in the morning to upper 70sF, perfect for riding. My Univega gravel bike has all kinds of storage. Most of the time it seemed like I was doing 14 mph, faster on downhills but occasionally I would loose focus and drift almost to a stop. Then I would come to and peddle on. Despite the occasional lapse I did try and keep up a steady moderate pace. A lot of mental is required of me to do long rides. The last twenty miles were faster than I wanted to go because two freezing brief but intense thunder storms caught me. Very cold until they passed and I got sand in my mouth and eyes. Eye protection wasn’t enough. There was no rain predicted so this was not in my plans. I can ride 31 miles of this route on my 1991 Paramount averaging 16 mph fairly easily if you pay attention, don’t loose focus, attack the hill approaches and stand on the hills. I was in granny gear on the hills for the 100, just trying to preserve energy. The strange thing is I have a very hard time keeping up with my other 70 year old buddies on 20 mile or shorter rides but they can’t do distance. I burned a lot of energy unnecessarily by starting out on the single speed. What a joke, my original plan was to ride the single speed 124 miles. No way could that happen. It has no water bottle mounts and no place for food. Water was in my riding jersey, food in a fanny pack. I didn’t have near enough water as it was almost all gone when I switched bikes. I also went way to fast starting out. What was I thinking? The Univega shifty felt like riding a high end carbon bike after that debacle. I debated about switching to my Paramount but it was stored in the attic and I would have to use fanny and chest packs. The Univega was all set to go.
You can’t compare a stingray to a road bike, road bike gotta be easier and faster. In about 1985 there were two boys as neighbors. One of them started college and threw his stingray in the trash. I had no idea what it was but I took it and I stripped it, geared it down, replaced the 3 speed with a single speed, tossed the “stupid” banana seat and apes for BMX stuff, painted it red so my 7 year old son would like it. He was into BMX. He used it when we went camping. After he got his first mountain bike at around 12 years old I took it to the thrift store. I wish I knew then what I know now. The neighbor kid, Ron, eventually became an imaging tech at the hospital I worked at. I told him about what happened to his Stingray and he didn’t even remember owning it. After thought he said “well maybe”. That’s two of us who didn’t appreciate a true American classic. So much stuff I see on eBay now for a good price that I tossed. Dang.
Thanks Matti.
