CV
Cycling
Recumbents
Unicycling
Juggling
Other Links
I posted this to rec.sport.unicycling on 23/06/02:
While the heroes of British unicycling were slogging their way round the Red
Bull course on their Cokers, Jamie Fletcher and I did Bristol's Biggest Bike
Ride on ours.
We were accompanied by Richard Loxley on his 2-wheeled support vehicle.
There was a choice of 4 routes, 9, 13, 18 or 38 miles. We chose the 13 mile Avon Gorge Loop. After riding to the start, then riding home at the end, total distance covered was a little under 32 miles. We walked about a mile of that towards the end, when our nether regions were suffering.
We met at Richard's house at 09:00, leaving about 15 minutes later. The 8 mile ride to the start took about an hour, getting us to @Bristol in plenty of time for the 10:30 start. We started a little later anyway, to give the pack time to thin out before we started weaving our way through.
The ride took us 6 miles along the Portway, where we seemed to be the only people equipped with tools to help a young cyclist whose chain had got stuck between sprocket and chainstay. We then crossed the river, rode through Pill and back through Leigh Woods, where the route followed a few miles of singletrack. This was difficult given that most of the cyclists were riding slower than we wanted to ride. With the enforced low cadence, my knee started to ache a couple of miles from the end.
Richard had some problems with a couple who were each towing trailerbikes and insisting on riding 2 abreast whenever the path was wide enough. They were unwilling to let anyone past. You know the type - it's not a race, this is the pace I've chosen, sod anyone else whose comfortable pace happens to be a little faster.
We arrived at the finish at about 12:30, after what was generally a very pleasant ride. During the ride a few people exclaimed "Oh my God!", giving me the opportunity to reply "Someone called?" And with two of us on Cokers, we were always able to respond to "Where's your other wheel?" with "He's got it".
The ride home was marred when a passenger in a boy racer car tried to push Jamie off and succeeded in pushing me off. I landed on my feet, caught the Coker and took his number. There were plenty of witnesses. We drafted a statement as soon as we got home and will be reporting it to the police. (Actually I've already tried to report it to the police, and was a little shocked that they refused to take any details over the phone. That means I'll have to go 10 miles out of my way one evening this week to visit the police station).
I wasn't sure how much water to take for a 32 mile Coker ride. I started with a full 100oz Camelbak bladder, 1 litre of Isostar in a Platypus and a can of Red Bull. I drank the Isostar between about 10-13 miles and the water ran out after about 26 miles. Thankfully Richard had spare water in his pannier. I didn't drink the Red Bull.
Danny
CV
Cycling
Recumbents
Unicycling
Juggling
Other Links
Note on browser compatibility - I hope that this site will be easily accessible in all browsers. If you experience any problems viewing this site, please let me know what the problem is, what browser you're using and, if possible, where I can obtain a copy for testing.