146 miles on 2 wheels, but no engine

[Millietant]

I've been relatively absent from here for a little while, as life got busy, the weather hasn't been great and I was away on a little mountain bike riding holiday, with a couple of friends.

4 of us (aged between 60yrs and 69yrs) did the cycle ride together, 146 miles from the West coast of England to the East coast, over 3 days, climbing 11,000 feet. It was hard, on my chunky tyred, upright, definitely not "lightwight" mountain bike, but I enjoyed it almost as much as riding the FJ. Top speed over the ride was 45.4mph......not bad considering what I was riding and helped by a very steep downhill descent 

Here's a few photo's to give a flavour of the ride and the contryside (plenty of off-road and wilderness to cycle through).

The route details first, then Day 1 pics

[Millietant]

Day 2 pics

[Millietant]

Day 3 pics

Happy and proud that I managed to the whole ride without getting off and walking on any of the route 

[Motofun]

Wowser!  That's some serious riding.  50 miles a day on a mountain bike some of which was gravel?   

[Millietant]

Yeah, some of it was tough.....80-85 miles dirt/gravel, the rest asphalt. Unfortunately the longest and steepest climb was all dirt and gravel  

As my pals said....not bad for 4 grey haired oldies 

[Bones]

I know England isn't a big country but 146 miles or 234 km from coast to coast really puts it in perspective, we can travel more than that on a normal Sunday drive. Makes Australia sound massive with a distance from east coast to west coast of 2500 miles or 4030 km.

[T Legg]

That really does give you perspective.
 I remember one time three of us drove straight across the country nonstop from Reno Nevada to Gaffney south Carolina over 2,500 miles for work and never got within 100 miles of either coast. It took over 36 hours with no air-conditioning. It was a smelly car by the time we arrived.
              There was a lot of nice looking country packed into that 146 miles. Some of those hills looked big enough to call mountains.

[Pat Conlon]

Very impressive Deano!  Kudos to all

[Millietant]

I know England isn't a big country but 146 miles or 234 km from coast to coast really puts it in perspective, we can travel more than that on a normal Sunday drive. Makes Australia sound massive with a distance from east coast to west coast of 2500 miles or 4030 km.

Australia IS massive 

It's just that not many people live there !!

We also travel more than that on a normal Sunday drive (my commute to one of the offices I worked at was 143 miles each way - try driving that in a country with 434 people per sq km (Aus has about 3 people per square mile 

No you know why I'm so jealous of you guys 

[Millietant]

That really does give you perspective.
 I remember one time three of us drove straight across the country nonstop from Reno Nevada to Gaffney south Carolina over 2,500 miles for work and never got within 100 miles of either coast. It took over 36 hours with no air-conditioning. It was a smelly car by the time we arrived.
              There was a lot of nice looking country packed into that 146 miles. Some of those hills looked big enough to call mountains.

You're right Travis, I think all 5 of the highest peaks classify as mountains, but I couldn't tell my pals I was going to get them to ride up mountains....."hills" sounds so much easier.

I suppose I'm exceptionally lucky in that I've both driven and cycled extensively in the USA, so I have a clear understanding of the perspective. Although the US has a population density 12 times greater than Australia, it's still 12 times lower than the UK. We live on a very small, congested, island and that in itself creates significant cultural differences.

Although we watch basically the same TV, buy basically the same brands and generally speak almost the same language, that's where the similarities end. I absolutely love the feeling of space and openness, the traffic free (relative to home) roads and the much slower, less stressful, pace of life in the USA. Almost every time we visit, we make a 900 mile each way trip by car (Subaru Forester econobox) to visit family in Indiana and usually, I drive the whole way, taking around 13 hours with no food stops, only 2 breaks to fill up the tank - and that doesn't feel difficult at all. I'm usually amazed by how relaxing the journey is and love the variety in scenery. Over here, we get the same variety, just in much smaller distances.

Driving any +100 miles distances here can be a nightmare and is rarely/never relaxing (traffic density, narrow roads/lanes, faster speeds, average speed camera's etc etc), but luckily there are still places that are much less inhabited, which is why I love spending time up in the north of the country (where we rode).

That's my favourite place to ride my FJ too 

[Old Rider]

Very impressive considering that you got a new hip not so long ago!

[Sparky84]

 
Excellent Effort by All, and with no back up vehicle in sight ... or battery powered bikes




Btw, Aussies retain the Ashes ... god bless your weather

[Waiex191]

Wow Dean that is cool!