Finally! After years of laziness I’ve done my first 100 miler. During the first part of the 3 Oceans tour across Australia, I did 145km (fully unsupported with all my camping gear) out of desperation on the Nullarbor. I figured that 160km was possible. I mulled over it when I returned home and I must admit that Tom Blackwood’s ‘get it done’ attitude in his first 100 miler inspired me a bit and I planned on doing it on the second part of my ride. I didn’t know when though…whenever I felt I was ready.
A few days ago I attempted to ride from Portland to Port Fairy during Part 2 of the ride. It’s a distance of 166km which I managed in 13 hours on an ungeared KH36" with 150mm cranks. I was riding unsupported, though unlike Part 1, I wasn’t carrying a tent or any cold weather gear, so I was a tad lighter. I wonder if anyone else has done a 100miler on an unsupported tour…Gracie???
The updated list:
Peter Bier
David Stone
Roger Davies
Alan Chambers
Steve Colligan
Mark Wiggins
Takayuki Koike (record holder 6hrs44min)
Lars Clausen
Ken Looi
Floyd Beattie
Johnnie Severin
Cathy Fox
Bruce Dawson
Jack Hughes
Dan Heaton
Scot Cooper
Sam Wakeling
Chuck Edwall
Joe Marshall
John Himsworth
Gracie Sorbello
Rowan Chivers
Tony Melton
Tim Lee
Joe Lind
Rob Muellerleile
Irene Genelin
Beau Hoover
Nathan Hoover
Mike Scalisi
Ryan Woessner
?~Xivind Johansen
Kjetil Juul Pedersen
James Amon
Leif Rustvold
Max Taint
Mark Osmundo
Mike Tierney
Joseph Sherman
Roland Kays
Claude Magnuson
Jan Logemann
Zeke Boisei
Paul Stacey
Joe Myers
Matthew Huber
Tom Blackwood
Sid Rajan
Last may, a french guy named Matthieu Rojda did 219km. It was during a 24h race. Add him on the list ! My longest ride was 130km… I did not really want to do the extra 30 after that !
What sort of race was that? If it was xc (and on anything other than perfect hardpack) then serious respect is due!
(Don’t know what I’m doing on this thread - my longest unicycle day is about 70 miles - I tend to use a bike for long stuff :o)
Rob
EDIT: Oh, Sam… about those 150mm cranks: I don’t like really short ones either - they make my knees hurt with the extra pressure (and I don’t like the lack of control, but that would probably go away with time). Possibly comes from so much bike riding spinning 170s, but I prefer something in the 140-150 range on my coker, even for road riding - I’ve tried 125s a few times and never managed to get to like them.
Guess I should add my name here. My 100-miler was an unsupported 182km.
I was carrying everything I needed for multi-day touring, and man was my butt ever sore at the end of that one. 36" ungeared with 110mm cranks. I think it took me something like 13 hours with rest breaks.
Sam, 100 miler mid-tour unsupported might be fun.. I took a rest day after that one, but I’m in better shape now and have a schlumpf, so it might not be so neccessary. If you’re generally doing 70-80 miles anyways, what’s an extra 20?
edited to add Matthieu.
The updated list:
Peter Bier
David Stone
Roger Davies
Alan Chambers
Steve Colligan
Mark Wiggins
Takayuki Koike (record holder 6hrs44min)
Lars Clausen
Ken Looi
Floyd Beattie
Johnnie Severin
Cathy Fox
Bruce Dawson
Jack Hughes
Dan Heaton
Scot Cooper
Sam Wakeling
Chuck Edwall
Joe Marshall
John Himsworth
Gracie Sorbello
Rowan Chivers
Tony Melton
Tim Lee
Joe Lind
Rob Muellerleile
Irene Genelin
Beau Hoover
Nathan Hoover
Mike Scalisi
Ryan Woessner
?~Xivind Johansen
Kjetil Juul Pedersen
James Amon
Leif Rustvold
Max Taint
Mark Osmundo
Mike Tierney
Joseph Sherman
Roland Kays
Claude Magnuson
Jan Logemann
Zeke Boisei
Paul Stacey
Joe Myers
Matthew Huber
Tom Blackwood
Sid Rajan
Dave Cox
Matthiew Rojda
Sam: I usually prefer 125mm cranks on my 36". I have tried 110mm and I seem to average the same in terms of speed. With the gear I’m carrying (it’s still fairly heavy without the tent and warm clothes), I’m going with 150mm as my knees hurt (140mm may be the perfect size for me though when riding unsupported). Maybe I’ll be Schlumpfing it next year.
Dave: Yea, I figured you may have done a 100 miler since you were averaging 130km a day or something like that. 110mm cranks: that’s short for an unsupported ride.
Usually its the saddle soreness that decides how fast I ride. I have to take a break every hour on the hour. By the end I’m usually riding about 50minutes an hour. That’s a fair bit of time off the saddle. I am wearing double padded shorts, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I’ve experimented with angles of the saddle and hadlebers and so on.. It will be nice to take less breaks.
Updated list with Kevin included:
Peter Bier
David Stone
Roger Davies
Alan Chambers
Steve Colligan
Mark Wiggins
Takayuki Koike (record holder 6hrs44min)
Lars Clausen
Ken Looi
Floyd Beattie
Johnnie Severin
Cathy Fox
Bruce Dawson
Jack Hughes
Dan Heaton
Scot Cooper
Sam Wakeling
Chuck Edwall
Joe Marshall
John Himsworth
Gracie Sorbello
Rowan Chivers
Tony Melton
Tim Lee
Joe Lind
Rob Muellerleile
Irene Genelin
Beau Hoover
Nathan Hoover
Mike Scalisi
Ryan Woessner
?~Xivind Johansen
Kjetil Juul Pedersen
James Amon
Leif Rustvold
Max Taint
Mark Osmundo
Mike Tierney
Joseph Sherman
Roland Kays
Claude Magnuson
Jan Logemann
Zeke Boisei
Paul Stacey
Joe Myers
Matthew Huber
Tom Blackwood
Sid Rajan
Dave Cox
Matthiew Rojda
Kevin Williams
Well, it was on concrete with an ungeared 36". The concrete was pretty bad though, with lots of bumps. I guess what helped compared to some your long rides was that it was on a short loop, so he was not carrying anything… It seemed really hard close to the end though (surprisingly ).
I’ve never ridden far on a unicycle carrying more than a very small rucksack or camelbak, so I can’t use that as an excuse. If somebody turned up at my house and said “let’s do a 100 mile unicycle road ride” I’d probably go with them, but it’s not really my thing, so I’ll probably never make the effort to do it on my own. If I’m cycling a long way on the road I’ll use a bike, so most of my unicycle rides are 10-20 miles (xc).
I had a kh touring handle with aerobars mounted on the ‘t’ - this allowed me to change from an upright to a stretched out riding position easily, and to put weight on my elbows. so with this setup, instead of riding until it hurts too much, stopping, getting on again and going, I would ride till it gets kinda uncomfy, switch to the forward position, ride until that was no fun anymore, then sit up again. Once I had the ability to put weight on the frame through my arms I was doing much longer runs in between saddle/food/rest breaks.
It came to my attention that a couple members of our 2009 Reach The Beach century riding group never added their names to this list.
Updated list with Jack and Monty included:
Peter Bier
David Stone
Roger Davies
Alan Chambers
Steve Colligan
Mark Wiggins
Takayuki Koike (record holder 6hrs44min)
Lars Clausen
Ken Looi
Floyd Beattie
Johnnie Severin
Cathy Fox
Bruce Dawson
Jack Hughes
Dan Heaton
Scot Cooper
Sam Wakeling
Chuck Edwall
Joe Marshall
John Himsworth
Gracie Sorbello
Rowan Chivers
Tony Melton
Tim Lee
Joe Lind
Rob Muellerleile
Irene Genelin
Beau Hoover
Nathan Hoover
Mike Scalisi
Ryan Woessner
?~Xivind Johansen
Kjetil Juul Pedersen
James Amon
Leif Rustvold
Max Taint
Mark Osmundo
Mike Tierney
Joseph Sherman
Roland Kays
Claude Magnuson
Jan Logemann
Zeke Boisei
Paul Stacey
Joe Myers
Matthew Huber
Tom Blackwood
Sid Rajan
Dave Cox
Matthiew Rojda
Kevin Williams
Jack Olsen
Monty McFly
I’m considering working towards a 100 mile ride, but am curious what the consensus is regarding doing it on a track? Firstly does it really count? Then, would the constant turning would get to me? I think Ken Looi spoke to this somewhere. Maybe that challenge in itself makes it count! Either way, boredom could be a factor…
The trouble is that I can’t think of a route which wouldn’t have either steep hills or heavy traffic. I’m not a big distance rider and since I like the idea of the challenge more than the reality of riding for hours on end, I don’t plan on training more than I have to. Perhaps I’m watering down the field and should just raise to the challenge of doing it for real?
100 miles is 100 miles on smooth track, normal roads, or offroad. Some people will prefer one over the other though. I don’t know if I could mentally hang on for long enough to do approx 400 laps on a track. But I know that When I planned out a beautiful fun distance ride without too much heavy traffic or other difficulties (like flat sections!) and did it with some friends, it was excellent. The longest ride I’ve done by myself is about 100km and that is not so fun. There are plenty of great places around for long rides - travel a bit and join up with some other people and ride together. For instance the STP (Seattle to Portland) ride is coming up - do that one or one like it.
As Nathan said, there is no “watering down the field”. If you get it done, you got it done.
There are pros and cons of a ride like you’re looking at versus trying to plan a long ride on the roads. Reading this post made me realize I never actually wrote up my century, but basically I covered my 100 miles while never getting further than 2 miles from my house. It wasn’t a track, but it was a small loop in my suburban neighborhood. Well some of it was on a track, since there is a school in the neighborhood and I did probably 15 of the last 20 miles on that, since even the small hills were getting painful at that point.
To me, the biggest advantage of a short circuit course is you don’t have to pack so much weight. Because I was doing 5 mile loops, the only food I carried was a pack of clif shots or a Chewy bar in my back jersey pocket. Instead of packing a big full size Camelpack with tools, pump, double size bladder, etc., I just used the little “rocket” model, and carried my cell phone in case I got in trouble. Every five miles I’d do a standing break on the uni, eat my Chewy and drink, then every 10 I’d dismount and eat something more substantial from my cooler.
The biggest disadvantage is tedium.
On the other side, with a point-to-point, your terrain is more varied, and hopefully more visually interesting over the course of the day. But you either pack a lot of weight, or need support, or need to do some very good route planning so there are convenience stores frequently along the way. Plus you can end up with a mechanical quite a long way from home, although that’s pretty unlikely given the reliability of the average 36-er.
Whichever you choose, go for it! Get your name on that list. The best thing about it is once you’re on it you’re on it. No need to repeat every year to sustain membership.
I don’t see any point to doing it on a circuit unless you’re trying to go for a record. If you want to enjoy such a long ride- make sure the scenery and terrain is worth it!
I agree! Doing laps isn’t so bad (I’ve done a few, and didn’t get fed up with it) but is ‘functional’ rather than fun (the fun then comes in the form of challenge for the number/speed of laps being acheived). Definitely look at a map and go somewhere (anywhere really).
You shouldn’t need to take a lot of stuff unless you are somewhere really wild - all you might need to pick up en route is some more water and maybe more food. A largish saddle-bag that goes under the seat can hold some stuff like tools and snacks if you don’t have/want a larger camelbak. I like having things in a saddle-bag/jersey pockets, bottles on the frame for water, and then not having to wear anything on my back.
In other news, I have now also qualified for the 100 mile unsupported-touring club, after going from Makarora to Queenstown a couple of weeks ago. Woo! A century on a Schlumpf 36 with full camping kit was the hardest I remember doing, and took about 13 hours (but was also pretty so involved lots of photo stops).
Well given the responses from Ken and Sam, perhaps I spoke prematurely…
Joe: you know better than to tailgate me. I may not have sights on a century this summer, but some espress touring is still in order. I’d love to get up your way for the Chuckanut loop or some other nice local ride.
).
