Chilly Hilly 2006 --- John Childs and Tyler Cox

Riding Advice
1

The 33.3 Mile Chilly Hilly Bicycle/Unicycle Classic

I should be doing my homework, but…

John Childs and me, Tyler Cox, went on the Chilly Hilly ride today. It’s an annual 33 mile bicycle (or unicycle in our case) ride around Bainbridge Island, an island (hey, didja know it was an island?) here in western Washington. I’m tired, have homework to do, and my croch, feet, and hip hurts - so I’ll both let the pictures and John do the talking, with some captions of mine.

PHOTO NUMBER ONE
This was taken about 10 minutes into the ride, at a place we stopped to let a huge bike group pass. As you can see, it’s my uni on the left and JC’s beast on the right. JC once again brought along his snake from last year’s Chilly Hilly. It was overcast, but it was not too chilly and definitely not raining.

PHOTO NUMBER TWO
After a strenuous 14 miles, we reached the Chili and Hotdogs reststop. We played around here for a few minutes while my dad, the support guy who took advantage of the cheap coffee, took lots and lots of photos. We got tons of great comments, and I would not exaggerate by saying 200+! At this rest stop is where we got interviewed by the Seattle P.I. (Post Intelligencer). The lady was really nice, and jotted down quite a few notes. You can see us mentioned…probably…in the P.I.'s website tomorrow morning.

PHOTO NUMBER THREE
Here’s a pic of us putting at least 0.1 mile on the clock while riding in circles around cameraman dad.

PHOTO NUMBER FOUR
This here is the happy frog monster thang. During the whole ride, John was saying “have you seen the frog?” like a billion times. I thought he was joking about him burping a lot, but then I saw this and all the connections in my twisted little mind linked up. And a telegraph in Frich, TX was goin’ beeeep beeeep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeep… :wink:

PHOTO NUMBER FIVE
This is John riding across a neat dock we found along the water section of the road. I even commited the crime of “Bodily Fluid Expulsion at the End of a Puget Sound Viewing Device” – law number 1923963820 if you didn’t know.

PHOTO NUMBER SIX
This photo sums it all up - rain at the end of the ride, a lot of croch pain, and a painstaking, brutal, and downright close race to the finish…or not…John let me take 1st easily, even though he was ahead most of the ride. I just told him I was too good to be in his presence…

This was a sweet ride, and I must brag that I made it all the way up “The Hill” with no falls nor walking, and also took the loooong route (33 mi) instead of doin’ it sissy style with a measly 23 mi. This was for sure my farthest ride to date; a big step up from my previous record of ten miles. I didn’t train at all, nor did I have any kind of time to prepare because of a last minute decision to go even though rain was in the forecast and only John was going! Harper, Tom, Steve, Doc, Pete, Irene, and all other Seattle riders—you missed a stupendus ride! I can’t wait to hear your comments, JC!

The full gallery with movies and lots more pix can be seen here: http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=178199

-Tyler

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Woot! Big fun.
We came, we conquered, and did all 33 miles with about 2600 feet of elevation gain along the route.
A little bit of sprinkles for the last few miles was no big deal. Not like either of us is going to melt.
A great day for an early season ride.

3

Way to kick its butt, gentlemen. Thanks for representing the Seattle Area Riders so well…actually better than we would have collectively represented ourselves, since a few of us took the “pansy” 23 mile option last year.

Tyler, my already strong respect for your riding skills just doubled. That’s a very challenging distance with a lot of climbing, and you did it on a 29-er.

That’s what getting “new blood” into a riding club is all about. This year, you took the place of at least four geezers that rode it last year but couldn’t muster the energy this year for a repeat trip around the island.

Well done John and Tylerl!!!

4

From the Seattle P.I. —

[I]Besides Firmani, cyclists and their rides came in all shapes and sizes Sunday: tandems, recumbent tandems, towering 7-foot bicycles and unicycles.

While most cyclists hunched over to get as streamlined as possible, 12-year-old unicyclist Tyler Cox stayed straight and tall, even if that’s the only way the Port Orchard seventh-grader could tower above everyone else. It was his first Chilly Hilly and he wasn’t even winded when he reached the midway point of the course at Battle Point Park, but then he’d walked up the second half of the last grueling hill before the stop.

But before that, Tyler was sitting pretty, balancing with one hand on the seat as he pumped his legs like pistons and elegantly negotiated the island’s rolling hills.

“It’s kaboom, kaboom, not a direct circle,” Tyler said, (Note from Tyler - I wish they would have said “on hills” so people knew we didn’t pedal piston style on flats. Oh well…) with dad Jeff beaming up at his demonstration of the technique. “It’s all leg power.”

Tyler took up unicycling four years ago – a year after his dad bought the bike for him one Christmas – and hasn’t stopped, even though he’d broken his record at the halfway point (14.5 miles). Chilly Hilly picked up another fan.

“I love it,” Tyler said. “I can’t wait to finish it.”[/I]

From the Kitsap Sun —

PICTURE BELOW
Caption:
Chilly Hilly bike riders John Childs, left, of Port Townsend and Tyler Cox, 12, center, from Port Orchard pose for photos along the route with the Bainbridge Island landmark, frog rock.

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5

it would have been cooler if it was around an island, but o well

6

Tyler,

Not a good idea to post a criminal confession on the web for all to see. :roll_eyes: One day when you become famous, some journalist will dig this up and prove to the world that Tyler is a scofflaw. Know any good lawyers?

Looks like you had a great time. Keep up the good work! (Did you get your homework done?) I wish I had your energy.

7

Great job Tyler and John. I’ll have to clear my calendar for next year, too many conflicts this year with the rest of us SARS.

When I finally checked my e-mail Sunday nite there was a Saturday e-mail from the Seattle PI newspaper asking about unicyclists on the Chilly Hilly. Glad they found them without my late help.

8

I just posted this in the articles thread.

Nice going gents.

9

What was you average speed? Some of us in the LA area are thinking about riding in the LA marathon, but the minimum required speed is 9mph. Should be doable, except maybe uphill! (Still waiting to hear if unis will be allowed. :sunglasses:

10

We didn’t ride it for speed, it was all for fun. I stayed with Tyler and didn’t go faster than he wanted to go. Tyler was on a 29er and I was on a Coker. Overall average speed with stops was a little more than 5.5 mph. Average moving speed was a little more than 8.5 mph. If you’re riding with an aim for speed you can easily do much better than that, especially if you’re all on Cokers.

11

8.5 mpg for a 29er is pretty dang good, especially if you can maintain that (i doubt it) for 30 some miles! good job though!
I would also think that even on a coker, with climbing at times, and depending on general road conditions, averaging and maintaining 9mph (the minimum requirement for the marathon using a bicycle) over a 26.2 mile course would still be still pretty brisk. That’s a fairly fast running pace. 10mph would put you in the “elite” running category, finishing the full marathon in about 2.5 hours! World-class runners are slightly faster, and they are RUNNING hard for the entire 26.2 miles! i highly doubt that a coker rider could keep up with them the whole way, but I could be totally wrong. :slight_smile:

12

If you’re riding in something like a marathon with a set maximum time cutoff you’re going to be riding with a completely different mindset than we were riding for the Chilly Hilly. In the marathon you’ll be conscious of how long your breaks are and you’ll make sure that you’re breaks are no longer than necessary. We really lingered at the rest stops and took other breaks just for fun along the way.

The best way to find out how you’ll do on a marathon length ride is to go on a 26 mile training ride and see if you can make it in under the cutoff time. One big challenge for a ride like that is how you’ll be able to handle the saddle time. If your crotch starts to go numb your speed will drop as you concentrate more on relieving saddle soreness than on keeping your speed up. Energy level for the last part of the ride will also be something to prepare for. Eat enough energy foods during the ride so that you don’t have an energy level drop near the end.

Hills shouldn’t slow you down too much as long as the hills aren’t steep. You’ll loose a few mph going up but gain a few mph going down.

13

I wonder what would happen if my average speed dipped below the “required” minimum; would an official pull me over and declare: “Sorry, but you’re only averaging 8.1 mph, so you’ll have to stop and leave the course”. I highly doubt that would happen; and I wouldn’t be entering the marathon to set any speed records, but rather for the sheer fun of it. I would also venture to guess that because of the unique-ness factor, that we (I’m assuming there will be other uni-ers with me) would also get some media attention as well. :smiley:

14

That’s great! :slight_smile:

Tyler: Have you tried to put shorter cranks on your 29er? :slight_smile:
I love my 102mm, and i ride in snow… I’ll change to 89mm when the snow’s gone, and go down to 50 or 60mm this summer…
Or did you just chose to use 125mm on a hilly ride? :slight_smile:

15

Why not just weld your pedals to the top of your axles? Or better yet, get a coker! I have 22mm cranks on my coker because it’s all about how damn FAST you can go, right? (yeah, right.) :sunglasses: :smiley:

16

hahahaahha i might try that for giggles

17

Good work, guys. You finished the 33 mile Chilly Hilly on unicycles, you made the Seattle PI and, most importantly, you made Raphael’s “but wait…there’s more” thread.

On a 29er…way to go, Tyler. That takes alot of reps and alot of endurance, You should be proud of yourself. And like a true SARs trooper, JC held back and stayed with him the entire ride. That takes alot of restraint and alot of patience.

18

Believe it or not, there were no problems at all during this ride and I didn’t have to stop and adjust “things”, so JC was no more than someone to tell me my super-cheesy hotdog was a “vaaaafer tin craaacccher!” :wink:

As for the cranks, I ride 125s all the time, but will change to 102s this summer.

19

What you all may be overlooking is that, for a younger (12?), smaller person, wouldn’t riding a 29er be almost equivalent to an adult (5’10"+) riding a coker? If there’s roughly a 7-10" height difference between JC and TC, and an 7" differential between the 29er and the coker, they would be about the same, relatively speaking. Would an average sized or smaller 12 year-old even be able to properly “fit” a coker, even with the seat all the way down? :thinking:

20

It is futile to make Monty Python references to Tyler because he hasn’t seen the movies yet or watched any of the TV episodes. I explained the fat man skit from Meaning of Life after Tyler wolfed down two hotdogs at the midpoint rest stop. I was afraid he might burst. Good thing he didn’t get the wafer-thin mint.

Note to Tyler: as soon as you are old enough to rent R rated movies you need to watch Monty Python’s Meaning of Life and Monty Python’s Life of Brian. But first watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s rated PG.

And in true geezer fashion Tyler couldn’t pass up a bathroom break. :wink:
It was just like riding with the geezer SARS crew.