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A Million Miles?

06.04.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

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.”

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Categories // Odds 'n ends, People Tags // mileage

Here’s How to Turn 70

12.11.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

Although I no longer have any desire to become a randonneur, I still admire them and enjoy reading their blogs and websites. One of my favorite sites is that of the B.C. Randonneurs in Canada. Besides riding through one of North America’s most beautiful areas, they seem to have an interesting bunch of members.

Perhaps their best known is a fellow named Ken Bonner, who has a lifetime of accomplishments on the bike. He regularly turns in some of the fastest times on the club’s randonnees. But it was only recently I learned that he’s just turned 70 years of age.

To celebrate that milestone, Ken decided to ride 70 hours on his bike. It took him three tries, but he did it. That feat got some attention from a Vancouver television station. Take a look:

Makes you want to get out and ride, doesn’t he?

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Categories // People Tags // age

The Biking Butler

02.14.2012 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

A friend’s Facebook post sent me to the PBS website because they have “Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Downton Abbey.” The smash British soap opera (Let’s be honest — that’s what it is — although it’s a very well done one) has been a favorite with both me and Mrs. Noob from the first episode. So I was interested in what new tidbits they might add about our favorite show.

Jim Carter as Carson the butler.

And lo and behold, what’s the second of ten things? “Jim Carter (Mr. Carson) does charity bike rides all over the world.” You can’t imagine how cool that is to me.

If you don’t watch Downton Abbey, this discussion will mean absolutely zilch to you, so you can check out at this point, and come back to Bike Noob in another couple of days to see what new twaddle I put up on the site. But if you do watch Downton Abbey, and you ride a bike, then you’ll never regard the stuffy, ubertraditional Mr. Carson the same way again.

An un-Carsonesque Jim Carter on a ride.

It didn’t take much of a search to find a shot of our favorite butler astride his two-wheeler. Oh, it appears to be a hybrid. Hm. But my wife rides a hybrid. And my wife dresses up in lycra jerseys and spandex shorts and wears a big ol’ skid lid on her noggin. So it’s okay that he rides a hybrid. Besides, he’s 63. So he’s too old to ride a road bike, right? Don’t go there. He’s only two years older than the Bike Noob.

It appears Carter’s interest in biking is to do charity rides, as the PBS snippet said. But they’re not just any charity rides. According to his entry in Wikipedia, he has done ten major fundraising rides in such far-flung places as Jordan, Costa Rica, Laos, Vietnam, India, Namibia, Chile, Argentina, and London to Paris (twice). His most recent ride was to raise money for clean water in the small town of Tafo, Ghana. He and 25 others rode for six days on that trip.

So here’s a touch of the forelock to Carson, with hopes that he keeps up his riding for worthy causes. Maybe one of these days, the Bike Noob will be able to join him.

 

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Categories // People Tags // people

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