Email Contact

Please, if you plan on showing up at the race, drop a line to:

randoneepa@gmail.com.

We would love to have a somewhat accurate count of participants, as we will have some t-shirts, and other goodies.

The list of riders is growing.................

e

Bike and Tire options, trail conditions

I've got a few bikes to choose from.

First the ghetto tourer. Built from a cast off hybrid, it is very comfortable and handles surprisingly well. It needs a new fork and chain, but otherwise is ready to roll.

The cyclocross bike would work, but it is fixed and over geared for a trip like this. Both things can be remedied, but I'm not sure if I'm brave/stupid/in shape/ enough to attempt this race fixed. I could always make some swaps with wheels gears etc with the touring bike, but why bother. I'll just ride the tourer if I want gears.

I could also ride the mountain bike, but it is also without gears, and has the rack/disc brake mounting nightmares to overcome.

I'm leaning hard in the direction of the touring bike, but if I can dial in my position on the cross bike and get the gearing squared away, I may think more about riding fixed, or at least single speed.

Tires

I am pretty settled on the 32mm Paselas I have on the touring bike. Wide enough for soft trail conditions and a loaded bike, not so wide that I'm going to feel too sluggish on the long climbs and the road. These tires will fit all three bikes.

I talked to a guy who took a pretty crazy trip in January down the Allegheny Passage to the C and O canal trail. He had to abandon the trip in Maryland after he was caught in a blizzard, but his experience on the PA trail was of interest to me. He ran into some serious mud, and spent a bit of time pushing his bike.

I've been told the trail will be resurfaced in the spring, but I wonder if this will be before or after our travels?

e

Liberty Bell to Route S

I now have a copy of this map:

http://www.bicyclecoalition.org/map/map.html

Looks like there is an easy route out of downtown Philly. The bike trail beside the Schuylkill River should take us into VAlly Forge and then on tho Route S.

New email address for contact info

randoneepa@gmail.com

New email address for communiqués.

There is a thread on mtbr's endurance forum about this race with excatly zero replies. Maybe it's time for an update.

e

Our predecesor

Here's some more linkage. There's a cool touring site called "crazyguyonabike" and I found this online journal of someone riding Bicycle Route S. Not as many miles as we plan to log, but it's good to see some pictures regardless.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journal/page/?o=aw&page_id=26066&v=30

-HoosierDaddy

Linkage

Penn Dot Bicycle Route S

http://www.bikepa.com/routes/

http://www.pahighways.com/other/bicyclepa.html

All maps for Route S as one big download

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/echeeve1/BikeRides/PABikeRouteS.pdf

Info on the route S to Pittsburgh

http://www.atatrail.org/

We are still working on the route from Philly to Route S. Anyone out there who can help? I would not mind if it was some mild off-road terrain.

Necessaties

What to bring on the journey?

I just started to think about this. Time will help to develop a finalized list. This is the approach I am planning on taking.

I am going to use a rack. Front or rear I am not sure as of yet. I am going to put them on the bike in the beginning of april and get used the ride. As far as what I am going to be carrying on the rack,the less stuff the better.

1. Clothing:
a. cycling shorts-2-3 pairs
b. rain gear
c. warm sleeping clothes
d. winterizing material
e. socks, socks,socks
f. a couple wool jersey should suffice for tops.


2. food
a. power bars and energy drink mix
b. pb and j's
c. snacky foods.

Enough food to get me to the next town that has a store.


3. Water. Crucial part of this. I might where a camelback, or at least have a bladder mounted somehow on the bike.

4. a thermas for coffee and hot things, it has potential of being freezing, prepare for that.

5. Sleeping:

a. there are two options as far as I am concerned. 1. carry a tent and sleeping bag and all the necessaties to camp along the way. 2. Sleep in a hotel.

I personally think that sleeping in a hotel is going to be the most appealing option. My reasoning for this is that we may be riding in the rain the entire trip. Once by body tempeture goes down I have a hard time getting it back up. Hot showers usually do the trick. Also there would be all the sleeping equipment needed already in the room for me and I didn't have to carry it on my bike the whole time.
If other people would like to throw in on the hotel that would be the best plan. It would be cheap and comfortable. Just a thought.

The next step is deciding where the first stop should be. Each person has their own approach but I am going to try to ride 200 miles the first day. I have not figured where this will put me but that is on my list of things to do.

I am now going to make a logo and try to get us some sponsorship. Tallk to you soon.

Carol

Crushing the Commonwealth

Things are still being hashed out here, not all of us in Stillers' land are thinking Super Bowl.

Crushing the Commonwealth or,
this is a long ride for someone with nothing to think about.


Last weekend in April, Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Route follows PA Bicycle Route S with connectors to Philly and Pgh.

Registration? Still pending

Entry Fee-something you would want after finishing the ride

Start-Liberty Bell

End-Point State Park

Distance-probably over 350 miles still working on that

Questions-post here

Warning!!!!!

This is an unsupported event. You get lost, get tired, break your bike, YOU need to get yourself home. No sag wagon, no aid stations, no drop bags. Think alley cat, now think much much bigger.

More as we settle on things.

T-shirts and spoke cards for all finishers, maybe some home brew if I get the time to fire a batch up.

As of now we have no super enduro folks who may attempt this ride in one long push. All folks interested so far plan on sleeping out at least one night, so this may be a bit more of a friendly contest than a full on hammer fest for the super fit.