Century Ride Suggestions

I've never done a century ride before, and am wanting to do one this summer or early fall.
Anyone have any recommended rides?

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Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on September 26, 2011 at 5:38am

I agree with making your own routes. If find it more interesting, and it allows you to become creative combining different train (illinois amtrak allows bikes on trains if you book ahead on their site)..trails or roads. Sure, it can be fun to ride in a group, but A), you have to pay, and second, you don't get to decide to make a detour if you liked to go somewhere besides the posted route. Kind of like a Cruise in a way.

Also, something that's been touched upon...is being prepared to change for flats (pump, extra tube, patches). Depending on what kind of bike you have, an allen key set or an adjustable wrench can come in very handy. Of course, other things can go wrong, and if one's not very experienced, it might be a good idea to have somebody who knows, and check the bike out for you first.

Something has been tremendously helpful for me is the Google Maps app on my cheapo android phone (have a mount on my handlebars). Sure the routes suggested aren't always great, but if there's decent coverage, you can get through a lot of areas without getting lost.

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Permalink Reply by Jamie Elenbaas on September 26, 2011 at 5:41am

Julie - sorry I didn't see you (among the other 5498 riders). Whew! that was a tough one. Wind, rain, and more hills than I remember, but at least I didn't have to contend with any dogs. Stayed with friends in the area and rode to and from the event, so it was a total of 125 for me yesterday.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on September 26, 2011 at 4:44pm

Cool video made at ACC with a Contour Camera.

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on September 26, 2011 at 5:20pm

Pretty good video, but what the heck is that camera mounted to? It's going pretty fast, especially for a recumbent (if that is in fact what it is).

Wait! Just did some basic internet detective work (within the 15 min. edit window of this post) and found out that whoever made this video was in something very similar to this:

http://www.bluevelo.com/quest_velomobile.html