Over the last couple of days, messages have been flying back and forth on our bike club’s Yahoo group concerning miles ridden. One member posted an item that a 92-year-old from the Baltimore area has ridden his bike about 150,000 in his lifetime. He wondered if any of our members would ever even come close.
Immediately, he got his answer. Steve said he was near that mark, at 176,475 miles since 1994. And he has actually been riding since 1985, but didn’t want to dig out his spiral notebooks to look up his mileage totals from ’85-’94. Steve’s advantage is that he’s 28 years younger than the guy from Baltimore, so he figures he’s got plenty more miles to come under his pedals.
Mike B. said he averaged about 8,000 miles per year between 1983-2007. Since moving from California to Texas, his annual mileage is down to about 5,000 per year — but that still brings his to about 217,000.
David, our bike club mechanic, noted that he’s been riding since 1989, and over the last decade has averaged about 6,500 miles per year. He thinks his total to date is about 142,000 miles. But David is still in his ’30s. “I didn’t wait to get old before I began riding,” he said.
Let’s see…I started biking in mid-2007. My mileage to date is a whopping 20,105. Looks like it’s a long shot for me to even make 100,000 in my lifetime.
How about you and your riding friends? Anybody with ridiculous mileage totals?
Here’s the story about the guy from Baltimore. You’ll have to sit through a commercial before the video runs.
Oh, and it turns out 150,000 miles is not such a big deal anyway. It appears the guy with the most lifetime bike miles is a fellow named Freddie Hoffman. He’s had over a million miles under his belt — for years. Here’s his story.
By the way, riding long doesn’t necessarily mean riding better. Mike B. from my club observed, “I tell people that my bike riding is like my pool playing — for the amount of time I spend doing it, I should be a lot better than I am.”
Personally I’m not even to 2000 miles for the last 3 years, but I have been following a blog here http://400000milesandcounting.blogspot.com/ with some impressive mileage!
A different way at looking at milage is well described in Wiki description of Arthur Eddington – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington#Eddington_number_.28cycling.29.
Personnally I have risen to an unimpressive e number of 31 gained over the last 2 years.
Lloyd
I am not worthy…
I consider myself a noob.
Got into cycling July 2010 with a hybrid bike.
Got my first road bike April 2011 & started recording milage then.
Since April 2011; 10,200 miles.