I’ve done it twice (once on a Coker). It’s fun, and there are breaks every 15 miles or so. It starts and finishes in Manhattan, hitting the other 3 contiguous boroughs. It’s pretty flat, tho there are some hilly patches, and occ’ly the ride is quite pretty, tho there are also urban stretches that are … uh, … interesting. Seriously, it’s a great ride.
And you can change your mind about how far to shoot for even during the ride bc there are places where short cuts begin situated along the 100-mile route. So if you fatigue midway, you can aim for 55 or 75 miles.
Oh, and I may be able to put you up in Manhattan the night before, so let me know if you’re interested.
David -
I am 99% likely in for this one. Trouble is, I don’t know if I’ll have my guni by then. I hope you’ll slow up for me if I’m on my ungeared 36/114s.
AJ, you’re going to come up to NYC for this? You’re nuts, dude. It should be great, though. Let me know ASAP if you’re coming, because then I’m definite.
So we may have a good # of riders for this event; that will make it a lot of fun!
And no, Steve, I won’t be racing off without you. Even on ungeared 36, you’re still fast! I’ll be happy to ride with you as long as you wait for me!
My tendinitis lasted basically until yesterday, and I didn’t have a good long ride till this afternoon, when I rode a bike for six miles at breakneck speed… Woohoo!
As for the Century, it’s a ride, not a race, and the point is to have fun and to push yourself a bit. I’d be happy to finish in 11 hours including breaks, which means avg’ing 10 mph. Maybe faster!
I’d probably do this as it isn’t that far from home, and my mom would be willing to spend some time in NYC. But alas, I’m out of the continent. Have fun with this, it’s going to probably be the most unicycles in a distance event that isn’t unicycle specific.
It’s not too much road-sharing bc the police have cordoned off long stretches of the busy road segments in Manhattan and, to a large extent, Brooklyn (if I recall correctly). But I forget about Queens and the Bronx. I’d say that the ride feels safe for the most part, but perhaps there are better sources of this info at the transportationalternatives.org site.
There are also a few places I know where you can forgo the crowds for a better (and faster, but slightly lengthier) route. The most important one is from the start as you head towards the Brooklyn Bridge. The best route involves the West Side bike path, but the ride goes thru the streets bc the path isn’t large enough to support 6000 riders! So I take the path and then meet up with the bikers, and by then the crowds have thinned out somewhat.
Thanks for the info. I am considering coming up from Maryland with my ungeared 36. Do you know anything about traveling on Amtrak with a 36 inch unicycle? Thanks.
Claude, if you are looking for a closer century ride as well, the Reston Century is in the middle of August and will be a lot of fun. I am unsure if I will ride it though because I am trying to stay away from unicycling for a while to let my knee heal (hopefully).
