What was your most memorable ride?



JoelinNH

New Member
Jun 22, 2003
9
0
0
45
What was your most memorable ride?

Could be a good one, a bad one, or just a really decent and uneventful laxed cruise. What's your story?
 
The Kremetart, a 180km stage race held in the Northern Province of South Africa. There you feel like a Tour de France rider. The support, etc. is GREAT.
 
Ride up a disused railway line 70km , through mountains and tunnels and very narrow bridges spanning across deep gorges in North Queensland.

Another ride was to The pilot (Kosciosko National park)
 
When me and my friend kinda get lost in the mountains. Finally we found ourselves lost in the forest without lights. Till then I have never drove and looking at the sky instead of the ground! That was a rush of adrenaline!
When we came home, my pal was all exited and thrilled about that ride. But he was only following my backpack! :D
 
1992: Our first long mountain-bike ride in the Cederberg mountains. It was supposed to a round trip of around 70km, over some fairly serious mountains. Turns out the mountains were a bit bigger than we thought, and there were lots of river crossings.

First, we missed a turnoff and ended up riding up a valley, having to ask a local goat-herder how to get out of there, and then carrying our bikes up the side of the mountain to get back onto the road we were supposed to be on.

Second, by now it was 6:30pm and the sun was starting to go down. No problem, it was all relatively easy dirt road to the end, until my chain broke. It was so dry not even the chain tool could budge any of the links. So there I was, pushing my bike up the hills, freewheeling down the hills, in the dark, about 100km from the nearest civilization.

9:30pm - absolutely exhausted (cos we'd only brought lunch, not supper!), couldn't ride anymore, collapsed in a heap on the side of the road. Starting to have thoughts of my skeleton being found by the side of the road 50 years later.

10:30pm - rescued by the first one of our group who'd finished and driven back in his car to fetch us. Can't stand without legs shaking uncontrollably.

Will never forget this one!
 
My best ride ever was the MS ride in Tronto, Canada. There closed down a local highway and there were over 10 000 cyclists. My team and I started at the rear of the field and passed everyone. I have never been in a pack that large and shall never again......
 
Every ride is memorable as far as I'm concerned. I go out every weekend 50 to 100K ... from my home and just ride. It is beautiful where I live even if there aren't any mountains. [north of toronto, canada]
 
I have been riding a Softride for a few years - but with flat bars. and it is a fairly heavy bike anyway.

I recently rode a friend's Raceline bike with dropdown bars. I had never used these before, and the ride so was fast....

I clearly remember barrelling past the whiole group UP a hill - passing everyone with almost no effort - and fast! I was probably going faster at the top of the hill and accellerating to boot. I had felt nothing like this before - it was probably better than sex! I spent the rest of the ride trying to hold myself back to the group pace - a very hard thing to do!

It was so good, I promptly went out and bought my Trek 2300. And the Trek is even faster than the Raceline, of course.
 
I remember years ago, the first place I ever saw a Softride. It was in an edition of Playboy with a model posing with it. What a sweet lQQking bike.....
 
Idaho, Schweitzer Dirt and Mud Fest

I'm from good ol Minnesota mind you, so I had 3000 extra feet of altitude to contend against. All my competitors were from Washington. Anyway, I got whooped. 14 out of 15 in my age class, but the memorable part was that I won a 70 dollar pair of Smith glasses. Made it all worthwhile.
 
well i cudda been the one i had last night as it was in the middle of a thunder storm, i cant be botherd to write about it again so go to www.mountainbikers.tk and go onto forum and you should be able to find it
 
My most memorable ride was my first century, last October-ish. My captain and I set up a 100 mile training ride in preparation for some other rides for which we had registered. We just mapped out a route that used off-road bikeways as much as possible. We rode about 20 miles west to the first off-road bikeway , then rode about 1 mile north on the bikeway when we were stopped by a parked police car and crime scene tape. There was a body in the river bed and the police were still investigating, so we had to turn around, and re-enter the bikeway north of the crime scene. After many miles, and a change of bikeways, we discovered the bikeway was closed for construction so we walked our tandem through a very sandy dirt path for about 1/2 mile, and then had to unload about a pound of sand from each shoe. We finally got to the beach bikeway, only to get a flat. As we were fixing the flat, we noticed a rather rotund couple having sex on the beach. With the flat fixed, we rode a little further, had a quick lunch, then rode on to the next bikeway and headed towards home. Being the stoker, I get to look around a lot, and as the bikeway ran past the backsides of some business, I happened to see a man exposing himself while standing on the dock of his company. A few miles further on, we got another flat. Finally, after 10 hours, we got home. It was an incredibly long day and ride, but certainly not one without incident.
 
I would have to list two rides--the first was the Wildflower Century in San Luis Obispo, CA. It started to drizzle while we were driving to the start. Fortunately, I had brought my wool arm warmers, jersey and leg warmers (I know, I'm dating myself). Not being a quitter, I started a ride where I never saw the black of asphault. The entire 100 miles was brown mud. We got rained on and hailed on for about 8 hours. Thank goodness for the guy at the 80 mile point who had a can of WD-40 to quiet my complaining Dura Ace freewheel (which I am still using 10 years later). What a ride! The only mishap was when my wife came out to greet me at the finish and stood in front of my bike. Due to the mud, I couldn't get my feet out of the pedals and I went Splat! on my side.

The second most memorable ride was the Grand Tour Triple Century. I did the first century in 6 hours, the second in 7 hours and the third in 9. I really wasn't prepared for the last 100 miles in terms of nutrition and clothing. the last 50 miles along the Pacific Coast Highway after midnight were surprisingly cold for June. I think I shivered my way to the finish in Malibu (22 hours total.)

I hope to do this ride next year at 45 and finish in under 20 hours. Stay tuned. David W. Are you game?
 
Most memorable ride was after a month of rain. I finally got on my bike and felt the wind in my face - wonderful!!!! Unfortunately, a school bus crowded the road, I hit the curb, flipped and hit the bricks hard. It was my most memorable ride - I thought about it at the emergency room, while getting my broken arm attended to, and being off work for a month. My arm is fine - thank you very much - but the doc has also discovered a neck injury.....though even that isn't going to get me to stop riding!
 
The arrival at the Mont Ventoux on TDF 2002 (or any arrival at the Mont Ventoux,really!)
And this year's wins of Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Lance Armstrong on the french high mountain stages.
 
By far my most memorable ride was a personal solo fundraising ride around the perimeter of Oahu.
One day during my usual commute to and from work I started thinking about a famine in Haiti and wondering how I could help...
Then it hit me that one thing I was good at was riding a bicycle! So, I mailed out a huge stack of letters to everyone I knew asking them to donate either on a per mile basis or flat rate to a mission organization that could channel the money correctly.

My goal was to ride non-stop for the 135 mile trip at a pace that would challenge my ability. I enlisted the support of a good friend who was a bike mechanic and had driven support for races in the past so that I could ride unencumbered as well as have the ability to switch to my mountain bike for the 6 miles of "unimproved" terrain of off Kaena point. Long story short is that I had a wonderful day of riding... finished just shy of 10 hours and averaged about 17mph on the road portion. Not TDF material, but pretty good for an average guy!

The great part is that I raised $600 to help the needy in Haiti! It's a great feeling when you can help others doing something you love...
 
My most memorable ride was almost hitting a rather large and angry swan in the middle of the road.