Conference noted::bicycle

    re: "300" and "cross country" is that in "the shortest possible
    time" like "300 in a day" and "cross country in a week or two"
    or are they more like "300 in a week" and "cross country in
    a summer"?
    
    For the former note 861 is one of many such in this file,
    for the latter, 2315 is an example.
    
    ed

    Although European Based and mayvbe a bit cliquey (we've all either
    cycled with everyone who notes in there or cycle withsomeone who has;
    but we don't bite) you may find that MOVIES::EURO_RANDONNEUR has a bit
    of stuff about cycling long distances for the pleasure of it.  But not
    300 miles in a day tho....
    
    The (sadly departed) John Lee Ellis put a lot of good info in.

    RE: .1
    
    I would like to get up to a regular 80-100 miles per day. Cross
    country, with detours, would be a couple of months. 
    
    Marc H.

    We ( 2 friends and me ) always make tours over the weekend or just for
    one day. If there are only some hills on the way, we use to go about
    140-170 km a day. 
    We have different systems and also tried different ones for
    transporting our baggege.
    
    Our experiences are:
    
    BAD:
    - all you fix to the frontwheel or to steering-bar (?, hopefully
    understandable). The additional weight there makes the bike nearly
    undrivable and you need a lot of strength in your arms. Also the small
    bags you can fix to the steering-bar are not fixable that way that the
    are really fix. They are "going around" and disturb you during
    driving. Because its high up (also if such a small bag has only less
    weight) the whole Bike gets instable.
    - The Bike gets also instable when you load your baggege on the carrier
    high up (e.g. a knapsack standing up) and because of the height its
    a bit more difficult to get on the bike.
    - A knapsack on your shoulders will disturb your bloodflow through your
    arms on longer distances....
    
    GOOD:
    - all mounted to the backwheel as low as possible.
    There are soft-bags available (very cheap) mounted over the carrier
    going down left and right of the bike and have an additional bag on the
    top cross over. maximal height is about the height of the frame.
    You will get in about the amount of a normal midsize travellcase.
    The only thing you must take care is to look how you can fix it to the
    bike when its full. Somtimes you will have to fix it with an additional
    elastic to save the room for your heels.
    There are also baskets available which are fix bolt to the bike left
    and right to the carrier and the nice thing is, that the have less
    weight, they are stable and if empty you can fold them, so that they
    need max. 3-4cm (but, of course, they are a bit more expensive)
    
    some additional remarks:
    there are small boxes available, which are mounted in the frame like a
    bottle where a lot of small usefull things find a place in. Also its a
    good idea to get double bottle holders for the back of the saddle. An
    additional bottle somewhere in baggege is "always" half empty when you
    need it and the rest inside the baggege is wet...
    
    servus
    Otto
    
    p.s.: 
    Don't forget to raise the tyrepressure, especially on the
    backwheel if you ride with baggege !
    It helps to save your strength. 
    

    Sorry in another topic I was asked about the carrier:
    
    With Carrier I mean the RACK (Hopefully ok now.
    
    Sorry
    Otto Looking_up_dictionaries_sometimes....
    

    
    	Rule #1:  If you haven't ridden a bike in over 11 years, do not
    		  try and do a 26-mile trip on your 4th day after starting
    		  up again.
    
    	Rule #2:  There is no rule #2.
    
    
    	Took off Saturday morning at about 9AM and get back at about noon.
    	Total trip time was 2:42 [including about 15 minutes of stops], or
    	2:27 [without stops].  25.7 miles total, for an average speed of
    	about 10.5MPH [if I had read the instructions for starting the
    	mini-trip counter I would have been able to start/stop for breaks
    	and had a true calculation].  Max speed 29MPH.
    
    	Route was the back roads in Uxbridge MA up to Northbridge MA and
    	then looped back through and home.  [If anyone is local to this
    	area then I can name streets for you if you're interested.]  The
    	"terrain" was a mix of up/down/straight and back/main roads.
    
    	Not a bad ride, if I would have waited a couple months to try it.
    
    	8^)
    
    	I realize 26 miles isn't a long way, especially after reading a-
    	bout Ed's 600 centuries, but for me it felt like a century.  And
    	since then I've been doing 7-10 miles/day.
    

re .6

On computing "average speed", what you computed is true average speed - how long
it took for the trip.  The average rolling speed, that some people use is
mis-leading.  They would not have been able to maintain the speed without the
breaks as the breaks serve as rest periods.

Rich

    
    	You would if the course happened to be all downhill.  As a matter
    	of fact, I think I could have averaged 20MPH on a trip down a
    	really steep hill ... like, say, Mt. Washington.
    
    	Of course, I know what you mean ... but there are so many variables
    	that any information could be misleading depending on conditions.
    

    Breaks? What a break?
    
    Chip

    
    	It's when you stop to smoke a cigarette, of course, and maybe
    	drink some water.
    
    	8^)
    

    Cigarette????  Uuuurgh, you ARE kidding aren't you?
    
    nmp

    
    	Oh, you know I wouldn't kid you, Nancy.
    
    	8^)
    
    	I'm trying to quit, really ... but these things take time.
    

   Charlie Lamb told me that on the first Paris-Brest-Paris
   ride he'd done, a Frenchman he had been riding with during the
   last stage offered him a cigarette at the end of the ride.

   - Jim   

    way... way........ back a very heavy smoking Frenchman won the Tdf.
    
    he used to "prepare" his lungs by smoking a lot before the beginning
    of the race. his name escapes me.

    
    	Hmmm, maybe I WON'T quit then.  Maybe I'll go up to 2 packs/day.
    
    	8^)
    

   When I was at a customer site near Paris recently, I met quite a number
   of people there who you would see out jogging at lunch, and then
   puffing away over by the water cooler during the cigarette breaks.

   Of course, when I was in high school in the late 60's there were lots of
   varsity sports jocks that smoked more or less openly (though
   it was oficcially frowned upon, nobody got uptite.)

   It really is kind of amazing when I think of it, how smoking has
   decreased so much in American society in my lifetime.  When I was
   hired at DEC, people still smoked in the offices.

   - Jim

re a couple back - If my memory serves me right, I think it was Maurice 
Garin, who was normally shown with a cigarette in his mouth and sporting a 
"Belle Epoque" moustache.  He was a tenacious rider, going by the surnom 
"Bulldog" .....

    
    It's unbelievable how the french still puff away at them nasties. 
    Whenever I go over to visit my family, I am apauld at the air in 
    the coffee shops and how all the poeple puff away. It hurts me to 
    see my sisters chain smoke with their espressos (Yuk!)
    Then we have these all the friends come over and everyones smoking in 
    the apartment, I have to open the window and stick my headout. 
    My clothes smell of it by the end of the night. 
    
    Shaw 

    
    	The only place we couldn't smoke when I started here [9 years
    	ago] was on the test floor.
    
    	Everywhere else was OK.