My Raven Tour. 3500 miles on (11,000 miles on)

[PH]

Congratulations on the 300 and good luck with the 400 & 600.
I’ve only done one 300k on my Raven, though I've done several 200s as DIYs with camping load, some on consecutive days and most well over distance. I find that 200 is really my preferred limit with this bike, I wonder how much set up has to do with that?  I find the armchair like comfort ideal for the first 150k then on each hill after that I resent every extra gram over the weight of my usual Audax bike.  Hardly surprising, it isn't what I specced the bike for, even its ability on the 200s is more than I was expecting.

[freddered]

I have to confess that 200km is my maximum enjoyable distance right now.  300km got a bit boring and uncomfortable.  400km and 600km will hurt, I'm not kidding myself.  That's nothing to do with the bike though, sitting in your most comfortable armchair would become torture after 40 hours I reckon.

I do those (>200km) distances for the enjoyment of finishing them.  Like bashing your head against a wall, it feels great when you stop. 

[freddered]

For those of you following this thread:

I successfully negotiated the Midhurst 600km Audax on May 24/25 on my trusty Thorn Raven Tour.

This, to me, proves it can do just about anything but race (well, you COULD race but you wouldn't win).

I couldn't find any hotels/motels/B&Bs along the ride at appropriate places so I kept cycling and took longer than normal rests at Tesco cafes & Motorway Services that were en-route.  I got back with 45 minutes to spare (but could have easily knocked a couple of hours off if I'd needed to.

I'm really rather pleased with myself and the bike.  I know there are quicker bikes out there and there's an element of doing it on the Thorn to prove a point, but it got me round in as much comfort as you can expect after 40 hours (I did have some issues with all contact points but nothing Thorn-specific, just specific to being sat on a bike for 2 days straight).

To put it in perspective, get a map and plot:

Midhurst (Sussex) - 6am Saturday
Chichester
Ropley
Malborough
Cirencester
Winchcombe
Newent
Hay on Wye
Magor
Leigh Deleamere
Sutton Scotney
Petersfield
Midhurst 377 miles later @ 9:45pm Sunday

It was quite an adventure and quite remote at 2am around the Brecon Beacon valleys.  It's taken under 2 years of Audaxing to get to this point, starting with 100km Audaxes in 2007.

I haven't sat on the bike since I got off it in Midhurst (377 miles in under 2 days is enough to put you off for a while) but I need to get myself busy for a 400km in 3 weeks.  This will get me my "Super Randonneur" title (200km, 300km, 400km & 600km in same year).  At which point I intend to use the RT for shorter pleasure rides until 2009, at which point I may do an SR series again.  I need to keep in shape until 2011 so I can stand a chance of doing PBP.  I am undecided what bike to use for that although the RT would definitely get me around.

Summary, don't think you can't cycle a long way on a Thorn RT.

Here's me (painfully close to my house) with 330 miles done and 47 left to go.  Everything on the rack and in the bag are soaking wet (including the shoes I am wearing).  I am wearing any dry clothing I have left after a horrendous morning, starting with crossing the Severn Bridge at Chepstow around 7am just after it reopened (high winds and torrential rain).

Like I say, Audax can be a mini-adventure. I highly recommend it.

[lewis noble]

From a mere mortal to Fred, well done!!

A fantastic ride.

Lewis

[geocycle]

Awesome achievement!  I cannot imagine that kind of distance in one day, but you addressed that in an earlier post.  What would your concern be about using the RT in the PBP -lack of basic speed?

[PH]

Great stuff, the bits of that route that I know are not exactly flat either.  Did you do that without sleep
I wonder if yours will be the first SR Raven.  The last edition of Arrivee was asking for stories, you ought to send yours in.

[freddered]

Great stuff, the bits of that route that I know are not exactly flat either.  Did you do that without sleep
I wonder if yours will be the first SR Raven.  The last edition of Arrivee was asking for stories, you ought to send yours in.

There was a Rugby final on in Cardiff so every bed between Bristol and Cardiff was taken.  In the end it wasn't so bad going without sleep.  It caught up with me all last week though.  It starts getting light around 4am so, if you can get through the real tough hours (2am-4am) then your spirits get a lift when dawn arrives and you get distracted by the great light and the dawn chorus.  You have the roads to yourself and the World seems a lot brighter.  Once it started getting dark again though (with an hour to go) I reckon I yawned my way to the finish.

It's a long way for sure but I suspect anyone capable of doing 100 miles without problems could tackle a 600km.  It's more about your brain dealing with the distance than your legs. My PB until then was 322km so it was quite a prospect to have nearly 300km left to go.  I'm not convinced you need an intermediate step of a 400km.  If anything it may demoralise you becasue you have all the difficulty of the 600 (a night ride and no time to sleep) without the fairly straightforward daylight 200km after dawn.  With a 600 you are mentally prepared for a tough 2 days, I suspect a 400 may take people by surprise at how hard it is.  I am under 3 weeks from finding out and I will let you all know.

As for Arrivee stories, I am the worst person for that.  I have really poor recollection of events during a ride.  I can't differentiate between roads, hills, times as they just blur into tarmac passing under my front wheel.  I remember leaving Midhurst and I remember arriving back, between those 2 events I remember the Severn Bridge in Monsoon conditions, a few steep climbs and lots of Tarmac.  Not good but possibly helps me deal with the boredom a bit.

[Cake]

Well done Freddered, that certainly is an achievement to be proud of - i'm in need of a rest after looking at the route on a map.

I think i would opt for a sleepless ride, i have the feeling that a couple of hours sleep mid-ride would probably make me feel more lethargic than energized.

[freddered]

Well done Freddered, that certainly is an achievement to be proud of - i'm in need of a rest after looking at the route on a map.

I think i would opt for a sleepless ride, i have the feeling that a couple of hours sleep mid-ride would probably make me feel more lethargic than energized.

My knees really locked-up after within a couple of hours of getting home and putting my feet up.  I also prefer to keep moving whenever possible to avoid this.

[lancer17]

Well done having just returned home sooner than expected with knee problems I can understand the feeling, of knee pain! as for the Rohloff i can agree I have done 7800Km with mine and it just gets better and better

[freddered]

Well done having just returned home sooner than expected with knee problems I can understand the feeling, of knee pain! as for the Rohloff i can agree I have done 7800Km with mine and it just gets better and better

Actually my knees were fine during the ride.  I'm going into Physio for a recurrent neck/shoulder problem tomorrow though.  It's really the only reason I find long distances an issue, what starts out as an annoying ache becomes truly unbearably painful on rides >300km.  Once it all cramps-up the whole ride is dominated by trying to deal with it.  Not good if you have 20 hours left to ride.

  It's not the Thorn, it started on a LEJoG ride 6 years ago.

[Fred A-M]

Fred

Congrats on your Audax feat: family demands have meant that I've not even managed do an Audax, despite promising myself that this was the year.   However, your progress gives me hope that I might yet see you at PBP in 2011.

Ref your neck and shoulder pains, have you ever tried swimming?  I've had similar problems in the past, but a few bouts of swimming has always sorted in out for years at a time.  I've had no need to continue, but have just gone a few times on the occassional flare-up.   Good luck in getting it sorted!

Lancer, sorry also to hear of your knee troubles and that it's put paid to an amazing sounding adventure which I'd followed with interest.  Hopefully you'll get to give it another go!

[freddered]

Well, I did it (and so did my Raven Tour)

I am now a Super Randonneur and all done on the RT.

SR = in same year:
200km in under 13hr 20min
300km in under 20 hours
400km in under 26hr 40min
600km in under 40 hours

I finished the final piece, Denmead 400 on Sunday morning at 7am (basically a whole day and night spent in the wind and rain).

I was let down by my front Schwalbe Marathon which deformed badly at 200km (like a golf-ball pushing its way through the centre of my tread).  Luckily (considering some of the dark, wet and remote places we spent most of the ride, it expired in Weston Super Mare and my friend was able to get me a Panaracer Tourguard 1.75 (anything will do) at 10 minutes before closing at a local bike shop.  I shudder to think about my predicament if it had occurred a few hours later, say 2am in the rain.  We were so remote, so wet and so cold it's scary to dwell on what my night would have been like.  Lucky, Lucky, Lucky (as Ripley said in 'Alien').

Apart from that the bike performed flawlessly again.  I won't say it was comfy because I was sat on it for the best part of 24 hours and I don't believe anything is comfy after that long.

Anyway, the photos depict me changing tyres in Weston-s-M and the RT back home with the 1.75 up-front and what will soon be cut into tyre boots strapped to my Carradice.

Personally I think it looks pretty 'Butch'.  I'm very proud of it actually, it never missed a gear shift in all those rides.  Derailleurs were clunking and clanking all around me, I cycled past several people putting their chains back on deraiileurs.

There are many things to worry about during SR rides but changing gears is not one of them when you ride a Raven Tour I have found.

[peter jenkins]

Congratulations Fred,

I've done some 200KM Audaxes (on a Club Tour) and still aspire to acheiving Super Randonneur status, so I can only marvel at your accomplishment.

Now the dust has had time to settle are you planning your next epic ride?

Cheers,

pj

[freddered]

Congratulations Fred,

I've done some 200KM Audaxes (on a Club Tour) and still aspire to acheiving Super Randonneur status, so I can only marvel at your accomplishment.

Now the dust has had time to settle are you planning your next epic ride?

Cheers,

pj

The plan is to do Paris-Brest-Paris in 2011 (basically 2x600km back to back). That means doing at least one more SR series before the start.  I imagine I'll do an SR in 2009, 2010 and 2011 leading up to PBP itself. Having dragged my body up to 600km level I don't really want to let it slip and have to go through it all again.

We'll see how it goes, I'm a bit 'Audaxed-out' right now and looking forward to pootling about for the rest of the year.

Remember, if you can do a 200km then you can do a 300km (and so on).  A 300 is the most you can realistically expect to do without riding through the night, although, at this time of year, night is actually only 11pm-4am.