Sort of virtual classic bicycle 31 day race

[Jude Ephesus]

Thank you Jude, it's been fun. See you at the finish.

I'll really be movin' when the chromoly Fuji is assembled. Time for some big wheel action next . Steel is the best!
View attachment 134734

.....and, speaking of steel, I’m running out of time to tune this puppy and run it!!!

Cool bike. Cooler story.

Many moons ago, a close personal friend and neighbor of mine was a huge fan of OCC choppers.

We devised a plan to make our own choppers, but first we’d experiment on bikes.

I scored a junk 20”, he found a junk cruiser.

Before we even got to cut or weld a thing, we ended up racing the bikes around the neighborhood. I ate his lunch, and he was thoroughly disappointed!

He realized over the years he’d packed on some pounds, so in lieu of building choppers we began riding bikes.

As he quickly grew bored of riding for no clear purpose other than to lose some weight, he needed an impossible goal.

Sure enough, he found one. The bike across Florida. At the time it was a professionally sanctioned event and was the longest single day bike ride in North America.

We decided to train for a year and do it.

We did: and we killed it!

Staying true to form back to where we started, I wanted to build a bike for the race.

Enter the steel, vintage Peugeot above. I found it at a garage sale with look pedals for $100. The paint was hideous white with rainbow combo I didn’t really understand.

It has cool down tube shifters and the controversial biopace chainring which I honestly loved and was stunned at the torque it gave me.

So, I Bought it, stripped it, painted it, tuned it, scored a computer, somewhat modern wheels and a saddle and took it to the race.

Amazingly, I’ve only really ridden this bike twice. An 80 mile training ride to get the bugs out a few days before the race, and once, burning across the state of Florida on race day.

I’m going to shine this old bug up and see if she’s got anything left in her.

PS: just found a decal set on EBay; should have them here by 9/15!

 

[hamqqea]

Cool backstory. That's a long race. You've been holding out on us.
I gave the biopace chainings a try several times. It didn't assist me. I think it helps certain riders over others. My style is high gear ratios low cadence with extended crank arm length. 165mm is recommended for my inseam. I prefer 170-175mm for added torque. I can hardly tell between 165 and 170 but notice an immediate efficiency loss on level ground at 175mm. Going single gear maintaining rapid speed long distance during this event caused me to reevaluate cadence. There was a performance boost with faster cadence lower gear when my stamina reached high enough levels. Something you might not realize is that I hold the bars low around the stem. I ride in that position for many miles to cut through air. Rarely hold the grips on the Huffy Rail. The ape hangers are for cruising

When you ride often, 15+ per day goes by fast. Another 18mi tonight. Feeling fantastic.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

Cool backstory. That's a long race. You've been holding out on us.
I gave the biopace chainings a try several times. It didn't assist me. I think it helps certain riders over others. My style is high gear ratios low cadence with extended crank arm length. 165mm is recommended for my inseam. I prefer 170-175mm for added torque. I can hardly tell between 165 and 170 but notice an immediate efficiency loss on level ground at 175mm. Going single gear maintaining rapid speed long distance during this event caused me to reevaluate cadence. There was a performance boost with faster cadence lower gear when my stamina reached high enough levels. Something you might not realize is that I hold the bars low around the stem. I ride in that position for many miles to cut through air. Rarely hold the grips on the Huffy Rail. The ape hangers are for cruising

When you ride often, 15+ per day goes by fast. Another 18mi tonight. Feeling fantastic.
View attachment 135091

Epic!

Thanks so much for the input; I’m not super technical like a bunch of riders, but definitely do keep a high cadence which may be why the biopace helps.

(I’m guessing also why the Galloping Ghost gear ratio is killing me)

I just sort of hop on and grip and rip.

After years of riding that trek 3900, my back did get awful tight and sore leaning over those drop bars when I pulled the Raleigh out.

It took several rides, but the back did adjust. Still definitely not like days of old, and an upright riding position is definitely preferred now, but I can handle 20-30 miles on the Raleigh without much pain in the lower back.

Thanks again and do good.

 

[us56456712]

Cool backstory. That's a long race. You've been holding out on us.
I gave the biopace chainings a try several times. It didn't assist me. I think it helps certain riders over others. My style is high gear ratios low cadence with extended crank arm length. 165mm is recommended for my inseam. I prefer 170-175mm for added torque. I can hardly tell between 165 and 170 but notice an immediate efficiency loss on level ground at 175mm. Going single gear maintaining rapid speed long distance during this event caused me to reevaluate cadence. There was a performance boost with faster cadence lower gear when my stamina reached high enough levels. Something you might not realize is that I hold the bars low around the stem. I ride in that position for many miles to cut through air. Rarely hold the grips on the Huffy Rail. The ape hangers are for cruising

When you ride often, 15+ per day goes by fast. Another 18mi tonight. Feeling fantastic.
View attachment 135091

The Biopace has fallen off in popularity but some of my friends ride ovals on their single chain wheel mountain bikes to try and overcome some of the range short falls of the one by drive train. The last I checked there was one rider who was still using ovals in the Tour de France, but that was two yeas ago that I looked.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Legend has it that the increased torque produced in the pointy section of the oval was why they were bad for knees. With a smooth cadence in a circle ring, torque is even throughout the pedal stroke. I started hearing that they were bad for knees in the early to mid ninties, and people are still using them, so it can't be that bad...

 

[Jude Ephesus]

13 miles on the Raleigh; notice old glory pinned straight out!!!

6.5 miles out into a 16+ mph dead headwind, 6.5 miles back with the same tailwind. I did have a mile or two crosswind on the way back, which I would have preferred on the way out!!!

424 MTD points.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

So, I pulled my Peugeot out last night to tune it for a ride.

As my son went off to college, I thought I would use his room a sort of a staging area.

Apparently, according to wifey, I “have plenty of bikes junking up our house” and was given a 24 hour ultimatum to relocate the bike “or else”

So.... I had to ride and lift tonight.... plus I have to get my littlest monkey at gymnastics..... so, not much time to tune my bike.

I’m hoping she doesn’t notice!

I added the keyboard thinking that would really throw her for a loop!!!!

 

[us56456712]

So, I pulled my Peugeot out last night to tune it for a ride.

As my son went off to college, I thought I would use his room a sort of a staging area.

Apparently, according to wifey, I “have plenty of bikes junking up our house” and was given a 24 hour ultimatum to relocate the bike “or else”

So.... I had to ride and lift tonight.... plus I have to get my littlest monkey at gymnastics..... so, not much time to tune my bike.

I’m hoping she doesn’t notice!

I added the keyboard thinking that would really throw her for a loop!!!!
View attachment 135226

Works for me, I don’t even notice a bike in that picture.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Classic.

 

[Captain Awesome]

So, I pulled my Peugeot out last night to tune it for a ride.

As my son went off to college, I thought I would use his room a sort of a staging area.

Apparently, according to wifey, I “have plenty of bikes junking up our house” and was given a 24 hour ultimatum to relocate the bike “or else”

So.... I had to ride and lift tonight.... plus I have to get my littlest monkey at gymnastics..... so, not much time to tune my bike.

I’m hoping she doesn’t notice!

I added the keyboard thinking that would really throw her for a loop!!!!
View attachment 135226

Mischief managed indeed

 

[hamqqea]

 

[MattiThundrrr]

These are not the bikes you're looking for.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

10 miles around the lake with wifey on the Galloping Ghost; 434 MTD points

 

[hamqqea]

10 miles around the lake with wifey on the Galloping Ghost; 434 MTD points View attachment 135468

Yesterday was beautiful. We're only a couple a hundred miles away from each other.
Seem like you have stronger winds which is a real drag

What is the tooth count on the sprocket and cog?

Sunset last evening... Riding with you in spirit... can't stop now anyway.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

Yesterday was beautiful. We're only a couple a hundred miles away from each other.
Seem like you have stronger winds which is a real drag

What is the tooth count on the sprocket and cog?

Sunset last evening... Riding with you in spirit... can't stop now anyway.
View attachment 135522

Thanks for the input; I’ll get a count tomorrow: the rear hub had internal gears....

 

[Jude Ephesus]

So, today was a lifting day, but my points are looking sort of lame, so I did 25 around the lake.

I actually wanted to log more miles yesterday, but wifey wanted to ride and only wanted to do 10, so.... I guess we’re at 459 MTD points.The

Ride was sort of weird: I usually get nailed by wind. 2 hours before I rode the wind was at 17mph. I was dreading that, but willing.

By the time I got the bike out, there were these wicked, ominous black clouds. And NO wind! Woooo hoooo!

So, I rode for like a mile, got down to the lake and the wind kicked up. Maybe 10-12mph. Whatever.

Ride was still substantially easier as I was on a paved trail vs open road. I can’t believe how much asphalt and debris slows you down. Just over an hour 10, I think the wind must have helped!

lol

 

[Jude Ephesus]

13 around the lake with wifey, baby Jude #3 and @1957searsbike 447 MTD points

 

[Jude Ephesus]

So, it was supposed to rain, I didn’t want to get the Raleigh dirty....

Wind was like 13/14 mph, and I didn’t really want to grind in that in the open road......

I split the different and did 25 around the lake on the Galloping Ghost.

Truth be told, the wind wasn’t too horrible.
I actually had a pretty fair mix of headwind, crosswind and tailwind.

I continue to be stunned at the quiet, comfort and reliability of this ride I threw together out of garbage parts.

472 MTD points

 

[Jude Ephesus]

25 around the lake +5 for the Peugeot.

502 MTD points.

So, I was super bummed: I haven’t really ridden a road bike in about 15 years.

I was hoping this would be an exhilarating cycling experience: I had winds at 13 that sort of put a damper on the experience.

All in all the bike did great. Sort of neat, no matter what you do; accelerate, high pace cadence, slow down, coast, shift, whatever, the bike is 1000% silent. A click on the shifts, but other than that, all I could hear is some super grippy continental tires clinging to asphalt.

I do think the bike is faster than the Raleigh, but not by much. Sort of hard to tell with the wind. My split time were slightly faster, but nothing substantial.

The riding position was tough. I did use the aero bars; to combat headwind, they did great, to grab a tailwind, they were great. My neck got sore after a few minutes though!

So, fun ride, but not the shocking difference I was hoping for.

It’s all good; I have a decal set on order and will spiffy up once the come in.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

Wifey doubled me up; 7 more miles to willow bay and back: 509 MTD points