MS Bike Tour 10/3-4, riding the chopper 150 miles!

[FunkyStickman]

That's right, for the Multiple Scleroses Society, I'm riding my Rat Chop Suey bike 150 miles in 2 days! Now you know why I built it with a Sturmey 8-speed rear hub!

Here's the bike, in all her RatRod glory

Here's some "saddlebag" bottle cage mounts I fabbed up, and a bracket for the pump, too

If you want to donate to the MS Society, click here! I still need about $85 to reach my goal.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/ ... r_id=11180

 

[waterboy]

I've worked as a mechanic on the MS 150 between Houston and Autin several times and it was a blast, but I gotta say if you are going to do a MS150 on a cruiser you are a way better man than me!! Good luck, Hope it goes well with no problems. What route does the ride follow in La?

 

[Wildcat]

I rode my old Raleigh on a MS150. The party they put on was great after the first day of getting soaked. I only did the 150K, and it was tough on the second day, because the wind was in our faces at 30mph or more all day. Even the high tech guys were dropping out, but I dropped it into 3rd gear and stood on it. I'm glad I started the second day as early as they would allow, it took 9 1/2 hours to go the 58 miles. That was in 2001, maybe I'll try it again next year on my Hercules.

If you have a hard time on day one, I would start day two as early as possible.

 

[Black Top Roller]

Nice to see someone else besides me doing some real miles on the Schwinn Choppers, hats off to a chopper bro and best of luck on that ride,wish I could join you.From what I'v seen the members on that "other" forum are to busy staring at their rides and not actually putting on any real blacktop under their wheels,trailer queens or spider motels--Bummer!! Set up with the Sturmey and decent bucket these bikes will go almost anywhere.
Cheers

 

[FunkyStickman]

I've worked as a mechanic on the MS 150 between Houston and Autin several times and it was a blast, but I gotta say if you are going to do a MS150 on a cruiser you are a way better man than me!! Good luck, Hope it goes well with no problems. What route does the ride follow in La?

Thanks, man! We're going from Hammond, LA to McComb, MS and back. I'm not going for a record, just going to try to make it.

I rode my old Raleigh on a MS150. The party they put on was great after the first day of getting soaked. I only did the 150K, and it was tough on the second day, because the wind was in our faces at 30mph or more all day. Even the high tech guys were dropping out, but I dropped it into 3rd gear and stood on it. I'm glad I started the second day as early as they would allow, it took 9 1/2 hours to go the 58 miles. That was in 2001, maybe I'll try it again next year on my Hercules.

If you have a hard time on day one, I would start day two as early as possible.

Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind!

Nice to see someone else besides me doing some real miles on the Schwinn Choppers, hats off to a chopper bro and best of luck on that ride,wish I could join you.From what I'v seen the members on that "other" forum are to busy staring at their rides and not actually putting on any real blacktop under their wheels,trailer queens or spider motels--Bummer!! Set up with the Sturmey and decent bucket these bikes will go almost anywhere.
Cheers

Agreed! I've had a blast riding this thing, it really is fun to cruise on, and it's not that much slower than my mountain bike, really. The 8-speed makes all the difference. I subscribe to bikes the same way I subscribe to cars: if it ain't racking up miles, then it's not being used for what it was meant for.

Thanks for the support! I'm going to try to get as many people as I can to come check out the forums. You know I'm going to have fun! I'm hoping to get some positive feedback from the rest of the participants.

 

[FunkyStickman]

I did it! I made it 114 miles until the event was called for severe storms. Here's some shots from the ride.

Starting line

The rest of the starting line (about 1200 riders total)

First rest stop, only 12 miles into it... 100+ more to go!

Rest stop, about 60 miles into it. You can see the pump bracket I made, and the "saddlebags"

Made it to the halfway point! 75 miles, 8 hours. The emcee at the finish line sat there and interviewed me for the crowd for about 5 minutes, because of my bike.

Here I am the next day, about 40 miles into the second half... more than 3/4 of the way total. You can see people have ponchos on, it was about to start pouring.

At this point, while I was eating lunch, the weather started getting so bad they decided to call the rest of the ride. So I made it 114 miles!! Next year, I will need one more low gear... still had to walk up a few steep hills, even with a 32T chainring. I averaged about 11.2 MPH for the whole ride.

The responses I got along the way were amazing... I was floored at how many people thought the Rat Rod Chopper was cool! I had no less than 50 people ask me about it. I had random people asking to take pictures of it at almost every rest stop. Comments like:
"Did you build that?" (yup!)
"How many gears does it have?" (eight! could've used a few more)
"That bike is hardcore!" (yup!)
"Love the bike!" (thanks!)
"You are the MAN!" (yup!)
"How wide is that back tire?" (80mm of sweet, sweet lovin!)
"How's that bike on the hills?" (flies downhills! uphills, not so much...)
"You made it the whole way on that bike?" (yup!)

And so forth... I couldn't have done it without the motivation of RRBBO4! Steve, thanks for everything you do here!

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

congrats to you. that is a major (crazy) achievement.

 

[waterboy]

That is FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!! Glad to see that you made it. I've been a part of several of those rides and have never seen anything like that before. Sorry to hear that they had to call it early, they had to call it after the first day here. They couldn't even think of trying to start the 2nd day, way to much rain. I think a large part of the route for the 2nd day was under water. There was quite a bit of flooding in our area this weekend!


CONGRATS, man you earned it!

 

[tikiharl]

Very impressive !!!! :wink:

 

[aka_locojoe]

Wow congratulations.

 

[FunkyStickman]

Thanks, guys! It was something else, I tell you. I'm already looking into improvements I can do to make the bike more ridable for next year! :shock:

 

[Fireproof]

Glad to see you made your goal of going on the ride Stickman . . . you were in my thoughts and prayers!
Are you sore tonight?

 

[aka_locojoe]

I admire you. Once had told the wife I wish I could do one of these rides on an old single speed cruiser wearing overalls and a straw hat. There was a guy at the swap this weekend who did the MS ride on a bmx bike. Here's a photo of it.

 

[FunkyStickman]

Glad to see you made your goal of going on the ride Stickman . . . you were in my thoughts and prayers!
Are you sore tonight?

Thanks! And yes, I'm horribly sore. But I made it. I can finally put my pants on without help today, 2 days later.

I admire you. Once had told the wife I wish I could do one of these rides on an old single speed cruiser wearing overalls and a straw hat. There was a guy at the swap this weekend who did the MS ride on a bmx bike. Here's a photo of it.

Thanks! That bike is nuts! I love the helmet and gloves, too! I at least had gears, but man... that's even crazier than me. I bet it was easier to climb hills with though. I couldn't climb at all, the way you sit on the chopper makes it impossible to stand. It's very similar to the "Crank Forward" bikes, so I've been hitting the CF forums to see what kind of setups these guys use.

You guys rock. I will definitely have to come up with something insane for next year.