Renaud4Chemins

Because he said that my opinion is worthless.
Because his only message was to criticize me, not help me or answer my questions.
Because his way of talking to me was rude.

On the contrary, that's precisely what I would do: I would do it "à la wonagain" (without preparation), because my goal would not to become a professional boxer, just to attempt a challenge only once.

I seek advice on how to have the best chance to accomplish this challenge this summer. Nothing else. If someone does not want to help me, and instead criticize me and talk down to me, then you bet I'm not going to listen to what that person says.

Nope, I said "many people around me". Some people (including my doctor) encourage me, and some others told me they would have liked to try this challenge with me.

Nope. I only told this to a single person. Not "everyone". Please try not to deform everything I say
Also, I don't mind the answer as long as it is related to my question. If the answer is "forget that, you are so lame", then I won't pay attention to this answer, indeed.

Well, thank you! I like to push my limits and try things. And if I fail, I don't mind, as long as I did my best.

Renaud4Chemins

I dismissed rice. It was my initial (and naive) idea, but I have been advised by wise people about what to eat during the trip.
I will store all that in a backpack that I bought. The backpack also features a 3L water tank with a straw.

Everyone (well, not everyone, but some people) tell me that I will fail. It may very well be the case, but I do not care! I want to try this challenge, and do my best, and see what I actually accomplish. And I will be proud no matter what, as long as I gave my best. And in that regard, I need advice and tips. If some people do not want to give me tips, it is their choice. But they don't get to criticize me for willing to try something and willing to do it right (modulo the "training" part).

It may be possible, but time will tell Maybe I will be a lazy fatty and I will give up after after a few miles, or maybe I will have the right mindset and I will succeed (even if it is in 3 or 4 days).

I will try to sleep 4 hours per day (it is my theoretical plan anyway, I will adapt to reality if needed). Skippers sleep only 3 hours per day And it will only be for (hopefully) 3 days, plus I will be able to sleep as long as I want before and after the ride.

The preparation won't matter if I fall into a ravine. But in any case, I will have a real-time and constant GPS tracking, and I will have my phone with me if I need to call for help.
Also, I won't need to go back home, because I am meeting my family in south France for the summer break

Thanks for the support despite you not agreeing with my challenge! I will keep you posted when I arrive
Fun fact: I think I will buy a 210$ bike from the 70s, and wear (if I can find one!) a cyclist outfit from the 50s, it will be lots of fun!

njkayaker

You still aren't getting it. No one is dating you aren't entitled to your opinions. That entitlement doesn't mean you opinions have any particular worth. You (or anybody) are quite free to have silly opinions.

Given that you are a "complete beginner", your opinions about long distance riding are as useful to everybody as your opinions about brain surgery would be.

People have the same right to criticize you as you have to criticize them.

I didn't say your opinions were worthless. I said you were entitled to have worthless opinions.

Renaud4Chemins

If you carefully read my initial message, instead of using smiles to mask your contempt, you would read "it is imho irresponsible from someone with experience to not share this experience with someone who could benefit from it". This is not specific to riding or brain surgery or anything, and can be applicable to any domain. Therefore, using my lack of knowledge in riding to denigrate my comment, at best it is not very smart, at worst it is dishonest.

Oh, and I forgot:

njkayaker

He's refusing to listen to the best advice. People who have experience doing these sorts of long rides put a lot of effort into preparing for them. They should know that a "complete beginner" jumping into in with no equipment or physical training is somewhat reckless. It's irresponsible to give advice to reckless people.

njkayaker

People did that and you rudely dismissed them because their advice wasn't what you wanted to hear.

If you weren't so rude (and you are being rude), you'd do the training and preparation the experienced people are advising you to do.

You listen to advice badly. It's irresponsible to give advice to people who refuse to listen.

njkayaker

It's irresponsible to give advice to random strangers who are clearly ill-prepared for the venture they seek advice about. Especially, if those people just want people to tell them what they want hear.

Renaud4Chemins

Hahahaha please do quote me

Except from an irritated reply to a single person (you) who talked to me with contempt and used agressive bold, red, underlined letters, I challenge you to find a single message from me where I was rude to someone else.

Renaud4Chemins

You are so ridiculous. I pity you

dim

550 miles (880 km) in 2 days without resting and no training?.... hope it's all very steep downhill?

can be done if you are super fit .... works out to an average speed of 18.3 km/hr for the full 48 hrs

guys who do long Audax rides ride faster than this, but I don't know anyone who rides for 48 hrs without a bit of sleep/rest

many audax rides work on 15km/hr for the full duration .... ride faster, then use the made up time to rest/sleep .... ride slow (15 km/hr) then you have to ride the full length without rest

get a Garmin Edge 1000 .... your friends and family can live track you and you will find your way around .... also get an external battery pack that will enable you to charge your phone and Garmin, lights etc while you ride

you still don't have a bike ... hope the saddle you get fits fine .... don't buy a brand new Brooks B17 as you will need a big jar of lube and you will end up getting piles as big as grapefruits

Renaud4Chemins

Well, as I said, 2 days was the initial goal for the 546 miles (which seems pretty unrealistic, I agree), but my actual challenge would be to do it in under 3 whole days. That's 72 hours to put to good use. The "Paris-Brest-Paris" ride is 745 miles under 84h. My goal is 15% "less difficult" than PBP.

I would like to sleep 4 hours per day, which would maximize the time I spend on the bike pedaling rather than sleeping, eating in a restaurant, whatever.

But then again, it is my "theoretical plan". I will adapt to reality in any case

Thanks for the tip! I have bought the GPS version of MapMyRide, and it has GPS tracking. Does it replace the Garmin Edge, or should I still look into that?

I have already bought 3 spare batteries for my backup flashlight, and I also bought a 26800mAh battery for my ThorFire bike light and my phone. Also, I bought a foldable solar panel in order to charge my batteries. I hope it will be enough.

I will probably buy this old 70's road bike (because it's cheap and because it will tolerate my weight and because it will be fun to take pictures with this bike and me wearing an old 50's cyclist outfit) and try my luck with it! I will still get lube just in case...

Thanks for your tips, dim!!

dim

good luck mate and keep us updated! .... looks like a good bike .... add some new puncture hardy tyres such as Schwalbe Durano Plus

it would be wise to buy a handlebar bag such as the ortlieb where you can store your wallet, batteries, 2-3 spare tubes, 2-durano plus foldable tyres ... snacks etc etc .... look at the Ortlieb such as this:



and get a saddle bag aswell where you can store additional items

njkayaker

You could just ignore me.

Complaining about how your feelings are being hurt doesn't help you.

Renaud4Chemins

This does not seem like a quote from me being rude to everyone on this forum.

Does this mean that you willingly and shamelessly lie just to try and harm the person you are talking to?

Oh dear. If you think that you, of all the people on this Earth, could hurt my feelings, you are being a bit presumptuous... I'm just sad for you is all.

Well, anyway, it is funny, because despite my coming here for advice, I am actually not the one who needs help...

I leave you with all your certainties (like for example randonneuring is exclusively restricted to experienced or professional riders, and beginners can just rot in Hell) and wish you a good evening

Renaud4Chemins

Thanks Dim!

I have planned to buy "4 Season" tires, that someone advised to me. Are they good enough for resisting the road irregularities? They may be "slower" than racing tires, but I indeed prefer the peace of mind of not having to change a tire during the ride...

Thanks for the tip about the handlebar bag, it will surely come in handy for snacks!! I hadn't thought about that!

I have forgot to tell that I have bought a (small) bag that I will put on the frame (where "Haul Rucker" is written on your picture). It features a transparent plastic slot for the smartphone (useful for Google Maps under the rain! )

Renaud4Chemins

Hello everyone!

I bring you some news about this challenge.

I failed. And gave up.

Those who doubted my success will be glad to tell me "I told you so"... However I did not fail like I was afraid to (heart condition, thighs muscles exhaustion). I failed because of a few other things that I'll detail below.

When I failed:
After only 6 hours on the bike (which saddens me A LOT)

What issues I encoutered:
- Organization. Strava route planner was telling me to go on "off-road" paths, which I couldn't with my bike. I had to plan almost each road, but I forgot a few "rough paths" and had to improvise when I encountered them. However, it was only a minor issue when compared to the next two just below.
- Ass pain. It was horrible. Even though I used lubricant and wore a padded underwear and a padded bottom. The pain was excruciating. I tried to change position from time to time, but it was not enough. During the 6 hours, I took like 5 or 6 breaks, from 15 to 30min each, and it didn't help. It just slowed me.
- Back of the neck pain. Maybe it was because my bike was too small for me. Maybe also because it is a common pain when riding road bikes. But it was even more painful than the ass pain. I was feeling my neck rigidifying, the pain was unbearable. I was trying to look at my front wheel to relieve my neck pain, but it didn't help and was dangerous.

And I encountered other issues too:
- Hands pain. Despite padded gloves, I couldn't find a suitable position for my hands, that were hurting a lot because of the weight I would put on them.
- Back pain. I experienced back pain, especially when I was having a hard time pedaling (hills mainly, because on flat roads I was feeling awesome).
- Cold and wind. Despite wearing a windcheater, weather was not on my side...
- Logistics. My first bag wasn't big enough to hold all of my food and batteries and the like. I had to improvise, use an air chamber to attach two more (smaller) bags on the bike. And during the ride they were moving a lot, forcing me to constantly put them back in place while pedaling.
- Hunger and thirst. I drank 1.5 liters of water during the first 6 hours, but it did not seem enough. My mouth was dry. Also, despite eating energy gels and dried fruits almost constantly, I was still feeling hunger. It wasn't what made me stop, but it was a problem anyway.
- Loneliness. Yes, being alone makes you feel depressed. Especially me, who suffered from a trauma a couple years back. Pedaling during a black night, alone, enduring pain, and riding through villages without street lights (yes because I left at 00:20), it was not helping the mood...
- Descents. In the first dozens of kilometers, the descents were mainly inside town, and VERY often they would put speed bumps, like lots of them, and I had to use my bike brakes like all the time, which did not allow me to compensate the associated climb (and inherent lower speed).

After 6 hours of fighting the everlasting pain (throughout my whole body with the exception of my heart and my thighs, which is ironic!), my morale hit the bottom when I realized that I only rode 70km (43.5 miles). My delay was caused by all those stops I had to make, the off-road paths issue, and things like that (because otherwise I was pedaling more than okay! 25km/h 15.5mph on flat roads without pushing... I don't know if it's good, but it was enough for me). But nonetheless I would never be able to do it in 3 days in these conditions. Even if I really could ride 18h a day (which I then doubted because I had planned to sleep 8 hours before leaving, to be really fresh when I left, but as a matter of fact I did not sleep even 1 hour, which was very bad...)

I then stopped, called my relatives, and asked for their advice. My pain was unbearable, I was only going on because I was so determined to ride, but in the meantime I knew that things would only get worse, that it would take like 5 days to complete (hence defeating the very purpose of this challenge), and that I would also be taking a major risk, especially because of the back of my neck that was hurting real bad.

My relatives begged me to stop, which was indeed the best (if not "only") solution.

I was feeling a great deal of disappointment, especially because I was not stopping because of my thighs or my heart... But given all the hope money and time that I put into this challenge, if I was deciding to stop, it was because it couldn't be otherwise.

Anyway, I promised to keep you posted no matter the outcome, and I do. Of course I underestimated the issues specific to a road bike... I trained a few times for 30 minutes before the D day, and I was feeling confident, but I understand now that 30 minutes was not enough to really start to feel the associated pains.

I thank you all again for your great advices. I am also sorry that I could not make it worth your while, with all the time you took to help me.

As for the "I told you so" people, please refrain, because I already feel bad enough about this failure. Mainly because I feel cheated. I know I shouldn't, but I do. I thought I was trying a physical challenge, when in fact it became a "pain tolerance challenge".

Anyway, thank you all again. Maybe I'll train my bottom and my neck, buy a bike more to my size (the bike was technically very good otherwise), and next year I'll do it again, maybe with my brother or someone else, which will help!

Have a good day,

Renaud

clasher

Keep riding from now until you want to try something like this again but slowly work your way up to longer distances. Like lifting weights, one doesn't start bench pressing 200kg, or with running you don't just run out the door and do a marathon. Don't feel defeated, you learned a lot on this ride. If I were you I'd consider buying a bike from a proper shop and getting a basic fit done, or at least get someone to measure you and set your bike with a online calculator to try and get a better setup with the bike you have.

unterhausen

that's too bad you didn't have more success. I urge a steady build-up if you want to try again. It is certainly doable.

Chris Pringle

Bonjour Renaud! You are so lucky to live in a country that boasts a beautiful countryside, where people admire and respect cyclists, where the entire country is criss-crossed with secondary paved and quiet roads, the country that hosts Le Tour de France, and the oldest and most famous ultra distance cycling event in the world, the Paris-Brest-Paris. I urge you to join a club de ciclisme randonneur for training and camaraderie. Start with one of their populaires (~100 Km rides) and work your way up from there. In 2019 you could use the next Paris-Brest-Paris (along with thousands from all over the world) to accomplish the challenge that you have set forth in a grand way.

Take your recent ambitious experience as the beginning of a new phase in your life.

Bon courage!

pacalolo

Props to you for having the guts to come back here and report the failure. Better luck next time.

pagedeveloper

Well I will not be one that say "told you so" I am really glad that you listened to your body (back and Neck) and stopped before something serious happened. Now, you can do like the ones here before me have stated. You can start to train for it, and then the next time you do it, it will work out better. Now on a good note, you might be able to use this for a new business. Yes, I did state business. So you know what issue you had carrying all the items that you needed for the trip. And you still had issues with the way items would move, and not stay in place. That would have been a big pain in the backside. Having to stop and fix it all the time. So now, you might be able to think of a way to get it there and keep it secure. Yes, I know there are big bags out there. You discovered quick that they are not big enough, and do not stay in place.

Good luck with your training to try it again, and glad that you arrived back home safe...

CliffordK

I tried both Strava an Ride With GPS.
Both seem to allow planning of routes well in excess of 500 miles.

Strava includes quite a bit of fitness info.

I don't think, however, that they do real-time tracking. At least not the free versions. You can periodically (daily) upload your ride to be reviewed by friends and family.

The free version of Strava displays routes.

The free version of RWGPS does not display routes but allows creating printed cue sheets. RWGPS, however, also allows selecting the display of quite a few ride metrics. Unfortunately, at least the real-time elevation change seems to be high.

Renaud4Chemins

Hi everybody!

Thank you for your support, even (and especially) in the defeat.

I am really convinced that the main (and almost "only", so to speak) issue was the bike.
1. First, it was too small for me, but I didn't have a lot of money and I bought it anyway. Because of this small size, the handlebars could not be moved up, hence the aggravated cervical vertebrae pain.
2. Second, as many of you already told me, I was not used to the position specific to the racing bike.
3. Last but not least, the vibrations due to the crackled road were causing the saddle to repeatedly and forcefully hit my "perineum bone" (I don't know the proper word, but you get the meaning ), which caused unbearable pain

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it's really how I experienced it during the ride.

That being said, I know that I am not trained (muscular-and-heart-wise), and maybe/probably I would have been slowed by the lack of training. But I really think that I have strong leg muscles and a good willpower, that would "maybe" have allowed me to complete my challenge.

Keeping both these observations in mind, plus your advices, I think I will:
1. Train a bit (70km first, then 120km) until May 2017
2. Buy a city/Dutch bike (see here) because it was the bike that I was riding 15 years ago when I achieved 650km without any training (in 4/5 days, yes, it's slow, but I wasn't "pushing", and at least I did not have any pain at all back then!)
3. Try it again in May 2017, with proper "low rider rack bags" (if I'm not mistaken about the word)

I also saw on the above link "touring bikes" which seem to be specific to long distances, but the saddle is the same as my current bike, and the position is not quite as upright as with a city bike. Both these observations make me doubt about the (necessary, vital even) comfort it would provide for my challenge.

As always, I would be glad to hear your advices about these modifications I deem appropriate (I already told a friend and he thought the city bike was a bad idea because of the wind... maybe I could just mount a "saddle on springs" on a "touring bike", for my posterior comfort).

Thanks again everyone! (clasher, unterhausen, pacalolo, pagedeveloper, chris pringle, cliffordk, and all the others)

Renaud

PS: @Chris Pringle : the countryside is indeed diversified: plains, forests, mountains, ... which is really nice and allows for some beautiful pictures, but you have to be careful which road you choose because "national roads" ("routes nationales") (as opposed to "department roads" ("routes départementales")) are more straight and consequently convey much much more traffic, which therefore makes them quite dangerous for bikes (many trucks use them). On the other hand, "department roads" are somewhat "crackled", which makes them uncomfortable to ride (at least in my utmost beginner opinion )

PS: @CliffordK : I eventually used Strava to plan my route with success (except for a few "off roads" that Strava wanted me to use and that I missed to fix...), and I then uploaded my GPX file on my brand new Garmin Edge 810 bike computer. It worked mostly fine (except for the off-roads and a few deprecated roads that were no longer existing). The battery on the Garmin was strong enough to last around 12 hours until my (planned) first long stop.

CliffordK

Oh, I missed that you tried the ride, and only made it for 70km (43.5 miles) out of the planned 550 miles.

I'm not sure the Dutch City Bike is the answer. There are some long distance touring people who do take city bikes out of their element, but usually they are long, slow rides.

What you do need is a lot of time in the saddle before taking off, whether it is using a $5000 racing bike, or a $50 beater.

I'll do fairly long rides and survive without any cycling shorts, padding, or various butters and creams. In fact, my current saddle is hard as a rock. But, I've had plenty of days early in the riding season where those first few rides can be very uncomfortable.

Also decide on pavement vs gravel, and road conditions. I much prefer my road bike for paved rides, but have recently acquired a "cyclocross" bike for those rougher rides where I wouldn't be comfortable taking my road bike.

Chris Pringle

I don't agree with the Dutch bike idea either. They are way too heavy for riding in the countryside where you will find some steep hills and the gearing is not suitable for that kind if terrain. Again, talk to some people in one of the many randonneur clubs in France. They will point you in the right direction with good bikes available in France. I will suggest looking into a randonneur bike which France still produces. They have a relaxed geometry, use wider tires (great for the not-so-good roads you describe) than road bikes and some of them come with integrated dynamo hub lights and fenders and weigh around 11.5 Kg (25 lb.) No matter which way you look, good bikes are not inexpensive! But if you believe you will enjoy riding one for your health, fitness and meeting your goal, it is actually money well spent.