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Old February 9th 10, 11:13 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
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Default 6'7 guy needs help looking for a road bike for a 585 Mile 6DayCharity Bike Ride

On Feb 9, 1:26*am, Paul wrote:
Hey Everybody, I'm definitely a non experienced cyclist and have
signed up to do the AIDS LifeCycle bike ride from San Francisco to Los
Angeles to raise money for HIV/AIDS. I dont really know what I got
myself into. I am 6'7 220 lbs with a 36 inch inseam. I thought I would
be able to borrow a friends bike for the ride but unfortunately the
largest I found is a 20 inch frame. I'm looking to spend as little as
possible (under 500 if possible). I do not plan to continue cycling as
a sport. I just want to find a comfortable bike that fits me for this
6 Day trek. Any recommendations on where I could buy a 24inch/61CM
bike for my price range or better yet find someone who would be
willing to help me help others by lending me a bike?

Again, I am fairly new to this and any info would be greatfully
appreciated!!!

-Paul S.


The first of April is a long way off, Paul.

But, if you're serious, give the money instead of the time and the
pain.

A hundred miles in one day is a very serious distance even for
practised cyclists (I gave up the car in 1992 and have ridden only a
bike since, and I've never done a hundred miles in a day, and I was
once a professional athlete and still have huge reserves). Cyclists
call a ride of a hundred miles a 'century' for a good reason; it truly
is something to brag about. Anyone who rides five centuries in a week
is a celebrated cyclist. You just don't have the time to prepare your
body for this feat. You're going to hurt all the time, possibly to the
extent of having to drop out, and there is a strong likelihood that
you will do yourself a lingering or even a permanent injury.

The problem of over-ambition is aggravated by your size and your lack
of cycle know-how, which really requires a custom-designed, -built and
-fitted bike at a minimum of six times your budget, more likely eight
or nine times. Bikes that you can buy off the shelf are likely to be
too small and, if suitable, about 250 per cent of your budget. Perhaps
you can find a bike of the right size used and rebuild it suitably,
but you need to know what to order, and you need the right tools and
experience to fit the new components, or at your local bike shop your
budget will soon be gone on labour.

Let me give you an example. The only saddle on which I would even
attempt a 100 miles on one day is a Brooks, and not just any Brooks
but a sprung Brooks, and not just any sprung Brooks but the widest
possible sprung Brooks, the B33. That's more than a fifth of your
budget gone on just on a saddle; but this saddle is essential not only
to reducing saddle soreness but to finishing the day at all. And then
you still have to break the saddle in for several hundred miles and
adjust it just so, something you really, realy don't want to do when
you're already hurting and under pressure...

Let's take another example. The practiced cyclists on your ambitiious
tour will be riding touring bikes, which essentially look like racing
bikes with slightly sturdier pipework, racks, mudguards and so on. The
key is the drop handles. They're a speed generator, and will influence
your ability to keep up with the pack. Unfortunately they are also
instruments of torture to which is takes years of bending your back to
get used. You can't just start cycling today and in June expect to
ride drops for a 100 miles even once. If you were to take up
recreational cycling or exercise cycling, i would in fact advise you
to get flat bars or the even more comfortable North Road type that
allows you to sit upright. But that would slow you further and, while
you would come closer than on a true drop-handle tourer to finishing
the century on the first day at least. you would also be falling
further and further behind the cyclists who know what they're doing.
Also, the handlebars you choose have an influence on the type of frame
you should choose, because road (ie racing) bikes, tourers and utility/
comfort bikes have different geometries (the angles at which the pipes
join).

These confusions only scratch the complications you've let yourself in
for.

Do as Lou says, give the money, save yourself the pain and perhaps
years of hurt. Or, if you feel you want to be involved since this is
your holiday, volunteer to drive the sag wagon.

Sorry I can't help you do what you want. It's just impossible.

Andre Jute
Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html
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