BragBoard & Excuses: Annual Mileage of Members

[Andre Jute]

How far did you ride last year?

It was a miserable summer here in Ireland, and for almost all of it I was recovering from a near-death experience in heart surgery, so I rode only 1068km, not much to brag about. (And, without the electrical motor I would have ridden none of it, not because I run the motor all the time but because I live up a very steep hill, and wouldn't get the bike home again without the motor, unless I push, which I absolutely refuse to do.)

Andre Jute

[jags]

well at a guess probably around 2500 miles  my normal milage is 5500 to 6000 but yeah this year was the pits never seen such bad weather thats my excuse anyway.
so this year well put it this way it cant be any worse.

[Matt2matt2002]

2646 miles for me in 2012
I keep a log and summarize every month.
Awful weather, some trips away and a few injuries kept the mileage low
Matt

[peddles]

This is a fun exercise, I too keep a daily total and summarise monthly but hadn't totalled up for the year.  I managed 8215 miles on my Raven Tour last year, (my 3rd year of ownership) bringing my total up too 22400 miles. During the year I replaced both wheels at different times, replaced both tyres, both brake cables, had 2 new chains, adjusted them 6 times and changed the oil 3 times. The biggest surprise though in collating the daily data was that there were 57 days when I didn't get a ride in, (and I'd thought I'd ridden almost every day).

[JimK]

8215 miles

Yeow, very nice indeed! That's about 27 miles on average for the days you were out.

My goal for this year is to get out more consistently but I don't see getting my miles per day up very much. I do want to push myself a bit toward longer rides, but those are going to be exceptional. Maybe I can do 30 mile rides once a week, but not really much more than that.

I figure if I just keep getting gradually stronger, maybe I will yet find a way to make one of these fabulous adventures happen!

Got to get back to my Tibetan language tapes!

[jags]

great cycling peddles well done ,was a lot of that milage touring or century rides even maybe audex rides.
point i'm trying to make is if your a competitive rider you need to do big milage to compete in any event .

[JimK]

I watched the movie Bicycle Dreams a couple days ago, about the Ride Across America. One rider was saying that he had been riding maybe 15K miles a year but found he could back off to more like 10K. So yeah peddles at 8200 is at an awesome level.

I rode on 155 days last year for a total of 3173 miles... so about 20 miles average on the days I got out. I use http://www.MapMyRide.com/ to keep track. Not perfect but it works.

[bikepacker]

10,558 miles. I will try to do better this year. 

[JimK]

10,558 miles.

Boggles my mind! Definitely inspiring, though!

[jags]

And he ain't joking he's (bikepacker)is as strong as an ox on a bike believe me i know.

but have to say an excellent cyclist.

[Andre Jute]

Some serious cyclists here, getting serious value out of their bikes!

Hey, Jim: I find 3173 miles as inspirational as you find the bigger totals. It depends on where you're looking out from. Around 5000km would make me delirious with joy.

But my realistic aim isn't actually a big mileage. It doesn't matter if it is a small mileage, as long as it is every day. My default, easy ride is 16km/10m and some of my harder rides, which probably do me more good, are just about the same but with longer, steeper hills.

Though we've had a couple of miserable years, just before that we had a long run of good years, cycling well into December, back on the bike at least intermittently in January or February. Maybe we got spoiled.

Andre Jute

[Andre Jute]

If you made a special ride in 2012, tell us about that as well.

Accompanied by my GP, I cycled up the steepest hill in West Cork. It went on forever, from the bottom of  very deep valley to the top of substantial hill, and at the top it took me ten minutes to recover my breath, but the views were spectacular. For years I've been cycling on the road that runs along the ridge on the far side of the valley, wondering what was down in the valley, but not fancying the climb out of it again, which looked tough even on the topo map, and this time I went to look. A memorable ride.

Andre Jute

[Cambirder]

6000 km on the Thorn RST and an estimated 500 km on my town bike which in old money is 4000 miles.

[jags]

Well andre one special ride i can remember there were loads,
i decided i would go see a stage of the ras in a wee village called tallenstown which is about 20 miles from my town going the scenic route 
the day was serious hot fantastic summers day the perfect day to be on a bike,well as i entered the village maybe about 15 minutes ahead of the race the whole village was out to greet the riders, but yours truly came flying down the hill to the waiting crown who started clapping and cheering  waving flags shouting encouragement at this lone rider on a thorn sherpa with hugh saddlebag en toe.
of course i held my too arms up as i passed through which got a great laugh from everyone
only on a bike what

[bikepacker]

Thanks for the comment jags. If you where to come over here and spend a few weeks with me cycling every day, you would be a lot stronger with more good stories to tell.

By the way in case I gave the wrong impression. I don’t cycle just to build up miles I cycle every day because I love to be out on my bike. The old adage, ‘I ride my bike because I like to ride my bike’, applies to me.

One of my mother stories about my younger days was that I did my first 9 mile solo bike tour at the age of four and at the age of seven did 36 miles a day for two consecutive days. So I suppose the cycling gene was always in my blood.