Great ride! I used to ride a tandem bike on long distance road rides years ago, and after one of those, you REALLY have an idea of how good/bad your seat is! Distance riding is very enjoyable if you have a good seat. Kevin in Hillsboro, Oregon 2019 Sprinter 12 passenger 144WB, still under 1500 miles, Low Mileage Lutgard 1982 240D, High Mileage Hildegard, still in the shop
Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 19, 2020, at 5:50 PM, Dwight Giles via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > Great story of a GOOD ride > > Dwight Giles Jr. > Wickford RI > >> On Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 3:18 PM Floyd Thursby via Mercedes < >> mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: >> >> Fri Sat Sun I did a bike ride "Bicycle Across South Carolina" >> >> 48 miles the first day (Friday) on a lot of dirt fire/logging "roads" >> and other back dirt/gravel roads, not a lot of pavement. It had rained >> the night before so some of these "roads" were pretty soft and wet with >> mud and very soft beach-type sand. It was a struggle. Not much actual >> road so few vehicles the whole ride. >> >> Saturday was 54 miles on mostly dirt/gravel, some pavement, and 10 miles >> on the Santee dike (dirt/gravel service road on top), which contains >> Lake Santee that was built back in the 30s? to provide cooling water for >> a huge power plant. I am told that the power company maintains 40some >> miles of these dikes/dams, which is the largest amount anywhere in the >> world. They reinforced a lot of it in the 80s to withstand earthquakes >> but there was a large stretch that would have cost $500mil back then so >> they started buying up land downstream of a potential break to clear >> people out of the way. Saw a lot of farmland and some interesting >> sights back in the country off the beaten path. I had no idea all this >> stuff existed, I knew it was rural up there but it is REALLY rural! Not >> a lot of commerce other than farming. Saw very few vehicles so it was a >> comfortable ride. >> >> Yesterday was the last day, 50 miles mostly through the Francis Marion >> on dirt/gravel roads which were very well maintained so fairly easy >> riding but BO.RING! Did 1 mile on the Palmetto Hiking Trail which >> necessitated walking the bike along most of it except for a coupla >> hundred yards that was ride-able, sorta. A lot of that area was >> blackwater cypress swamp which is very interesting, the rest is managed >> pine forest, mostly loblolly pine to feed lumber and paper mills, but >> some of it is being replanted in the original longleaf pine. >> Interestingly enough I heard some birds but saw absolutely no wildlife >> in ~40miles through the forest. I guess there are deer and bear back >> in there but saw no sign of anything. Kinda weird. Hardly any vehicles >> once we got into the forest, so again a quite comfortable ride without >> having to worry about getting run over. >> >> After 149miles I had a blowout 3mi from the finish, managed to get a new >> tube in and rode on in. Lunch and cobeer (Fat Tire was a sponsor!) >> waiting so that was welcome. The ride was fully supported, we camped in >> 2 state parks and a city park, they had portapots and food and beer and >> restrooms/showers in the parks so that was good, hauled our impedimenta >> from one site to the next. Snack stops on the routes, SAG vehicles >> following along to deal with any problems. We bused from the finish >> site to the start for the first night's stayover, then rode back from >> there. >> >> My butt hurts! Gotta get a suspension seat post to take out some of the >> pounding. I rode my Trek 920 Touring bike, which is pretty comfortable >> riding (aside from the lack of suspension other than my butt), 29" tires >> so rolls pretty well even on rough terrain, has wider off-road tires so >> handles that aspect well. Kind of an all-around bike. Several riders >> commented on it and were thinking about getting one though they seem to >> be discontinued, maybe. >> >> Interestingly enough there are NO trail bikes available most anywhere >> for the last several weeks, people have been buying them out during the >> covids. I rode a bit with one woman who said she got the last mtb in >> all of Charleston area about 3 weeks ago, it was not a particularly good >> bike but it was working OK. After the first night of rain (setting up >> camp in the dark and rain! the buses were 2.5hr late picking us up...) >> we had great weather, high 60s low 70s, very low humidity, perfect >> riding weather. >> >> And did I mention I turned 66 (wtf? how does that happen???) on Friday, >> so this was a bit of birfday challenge to see if I could still grind out >> the miles, I guess I am not ready for the discard pile yet! Legs were a >> bit stiff this morning but I soon worked that out, don't feel too bad >> although I am hungry! Not like I need to replace any lost, uh, energy >> stores though... >> >> Oh, and I loaded my bike and impedimenta in the $700ML500 and carried it >> all up to the start site about an hour away, up past Max's >> neighborhood. Longest ride in it, everything was fine, so getting >> confidence in it. Gotta get a hitch setup for my bike rack, taking it >> apart to fit in the hatch was a bit of a pain but it slid in there well >> along with my other gear. >> >> Thanks for sharing! >> >> -- >> --FT >> >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> >> > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
