BirdsBikeBinocs

Title says it all in question format. What brand and model bike have you rode a one day century on.?? And I'd like to take it one step further.... What size tire was on the bike.

Don't be shy here. I'm hoping for lots of replies.

What I'm getting at is, I'm sure there will be lots of road bikes with tires 28c and less. Which is great. But how many will reply riding a road/gravel bike.?? With 32c tires or larger.?? A cross bike, you might say. Trek Checkpoint or a Specialized Diverge for example. And others.

Thanks in advance for the replies...

Doctor Morbius

Solo Century Ride: (Only Century Ride to date!)
When: September 20th, 2004
Bike: 2004 Specialized Sequoia Elite with 700x25C tires
Place: Eagle Creek Park, Indianapolis
Total Ride Time = 06:15:43 (cyclometer)
Total AvgHR = 142 BPM (74.34% of MaxHR of 191) 06:15:47 (HRM)
Time in Zone (134 - 153) = 05:18:27
HR above 153 = 00:05:29
HR below 134 = 00:51:50
Distance = 100.03 Miles
Avg Speed = 15.9 MPH (was 16.1 until 80 miles and 16.0 until 90 miles)Max Speed = 21.1 MPH (going down a hill)

caloso

I've ridden 100 miles exactly once. Rode with a group of teammates to the group ride in the next town over. Rode the ride. Rode home. And then a couple of loops of the local park near my house to get the computer to flip over to 100.

Ridley Excalibur. 25mm Michelin Pro4 Endurance tires. I'm reasonably sure. Those were my mainstay training tires for years.

https://www.strava.com/activities/375110260

devianb

I have done 13 century rides on a Leader LD515 Mountain bike. 1x9 setup, 48T chainring and 11/32 cassette. First century was on 700x35 Kenda Kwest Tires. Rest were on either 700x28 or 700x25 Freedom Thick Slicks tires.

rosefarts

I'm not sure what you are hoping to learn here.

I had an old steel trek, it had 23mm tires. An old aluminum trek, also 23mm. A Felt tri bike, 650c X 20mm. Curloo, 23mm. Olympus Scandium, 23mm and 22mm tubular. Litespeed Vortex, 23mm and 22mm tubular. Tallerico steel, 23mm and 28mm tubeless.

I think I probably did 100 on one of my old mountain bikes too. Proflex 855, trek 700, and Zaskar LE. All with about 2.1" tires.

I did my first century in high school, on whatever tires I had at the moment, on whatever bike I had.

I've got plans to do some bigger rides on my gravel bike this spring on 38-40mm tires.

Cougrrcj

I've ridden a Century Ride at least 20 times. Wow! Now that I think of it, that number is closer to 50!
Organized Centuries: Ohio's TOSRV five times (105 miles on Saturday, and 105 miles on Sunday!), Ohio State University's TGRR twice, MOC, TASSLE,...Indiana for Hilly Hundred twice (but that is a two day event). Numerous 100-mile Charity rides... Then there was my '80 three-week 'tour' that included at least 7 100-mile days - one day was a double Metric at 125 miles!

Most were in my first few years of 'serious riding' from age18 to 23 or so, and all were on my '75 Fuji S-10S and ridden on 27x1-1/8" tires (about 28mm). Most were when that Fuji had a 2x5 drivetrain, and probably only a half-dozen after I had 'upgraded' to a 3x6. Back then, I was a skinny lad of ~140 pounds and rode with the tires inflated to 100psi both front and rear.




My longest ride in recent years was from Apache Junction AZ to Florence and back - about 70 miles, and that was on my newly-acquired Miyata 710 that I equipped with 700C 28mm. However, the front fork bridge has only about 1mm clearance with the 28, so I will probably drop the front down to a 25 and keep the 28 on the rear. My rider weight is now closer to 200 pounds, and the tire pressures (with 28s) felt the most comfortable with 85f/95r on the rough asphalt in AZ.

Machka 

Have you looked at the Your Century Bicycle(s) thread in the Long Distance forum?

https://www.bikeforums.net/long-dist...bicycle-s.html



.

Jon T

'84 Peugeot PH 10. Tires 27x 1 1/4. About 30 years ago when I was in a lot better shape. I still have that bike--my ONLY bike and still riding the original Helicomatic system.
Jon

TiHabanero

Back when racing mountain bikes I did a century on a Cycle Pro Millennium shod with Cycle Pro Pinnacle knobby tires. Several centuries on Team Miyata with 200x18 Michelins. Boy that was a harsh ride! Several centuries on Raleigh Competition shod with 700 x25. One century on Miyata Ridge Runner with 26x1.5, and two double centuries on Team Miyata with 700x20 tires.

Of all these rides, the 82 Raleigh Competition was the best choice. I still have the bike and if I were to do it again it will have 700x28 on it. Can fit 32's, but don't need that size without carrying a load.

wolfchild

I did a couple of 100 mile centuries few years ago. I used two different bikes:

Bike No. 1---fixed gear road bike with 700x32 Continental Touring Plus tires and 44x16 gear ratio
Bike No. 2---singlespeed 29"er MTB with 700x38 Kenda Quest tires and 44x18 gear ratio

Slightspeed

I've done 4 centuries, Wildflower, once, Lighthouse, twice, and Cool Breeze, once. All were done on my 2007 Specialized Roubaix Elite triple, with 25c Gatorskins.

Witterings

Hope the OP doesn't mind but really interested to hear how long it took people and I'm guessing this means miles not km???

Did my longest ride of 52 miles this year over quite hilly terrain ... took me 4 1/2 hrs on a 29er with road orientated tyres .... have bought a gravel bike since and am aiming for my 1st century next year ... I've seen estimates saying it's the equivalent of running a marathon except unless my av speed goes up considerably I'll be 9 hrs and someone who's trained for a marathon can do it in 4 hrs ???

Manny66 

I did my first Century way back in 1989 in Solvang, Ca. At the time I was just putting in saddle time for the racing season so i rode my training bike, a Trek 2300 Carbon with Shimano 600 and I think I was using Mavic MA-40's with 700 X 23 tires.I always used a TURBO saddle ,and even though it did very little for my comfort, my rear end was used to it so no big deal. Nothing fancy just a good solid bicycle with a stretched out riding position.

DrIsotope

Seven of my thirteen imperial centuries have been on tires 700x32 or wider. If it's Metric Centuries, I have no idea. It would take too long to look up-- while I have a whole thirteen +100 mile rides, rides over 62.2miles? 129. For 2018, just three +100mile, and 46 +100km. It's just more manageable timewise. All three +100 miles on the Cervelo this year.

2014 KHS CX100, tires either 700x28 Continental Gatorskin, 700x28 Michelin PRO4 Endurance, or 700x32 Maxxis Refuse TR
131.45 and 125.31 (Gatorskin,) 114.90 (Pro4,) 109.49, 101.22, 101.21, 100.99 (all ReFuse)

2017 Ritchey Swiss Cross Disc, tires either 700x32 Maxxis ReFuse TR or 700x35 Hutchinson Overide TR
156.76 (ReFuse), 105.08 and 100.58 (Overide)

2017 Cervelo R3, tires 700x25 Giant Gavia AC1
108.77, 108.20, 102.02

livedarklions

This is going to sound like I'm lying because the number surprised me when I counted them up yesterday, but I did 33 one day solo rides of 100 miles or more this year. Most of those were done on my FX 3 , and the longest rides, including one of 168 miles were on 32mm Gatorskins. I also did centuries on the FX 3 with 28mm Schwalbe Ones. I got the 1994 Allez Pro later in the summer, and did about 10 centuries on its 25 mm tires. Last year, I did centuries on a comfort bike with 26x1.95 tires, and a Specialized Crossroads Cruz, which was also on those Gatorskins.

Although the ride is not quite as nice as Schwalbes or Grand Prixs, I'm probably going to switch back to Gatorskins in the future. I went 4000 miles on them without a single flat, I can't get close to that with anything else.

expatbrit

BirdsBikeBinocs

These replies are a great read. Very impressive. Congrats to you all.

Reynolds 

I've done many centuries on dirt roads on my MTB with 26 x 1.5 and a few with 26 x 2. More on my road bike, on pavement, always with 700 x 23.

livedarklions

It generally takes me about 6 to 7 hours depending on elevation, wind and sometimes heat. I did two centuries every weekend for a couple months this year, so I don't know what you mean by being the equivalent of a marathon. There's probably no one alive who could do marathons that frequently. With practice, centuries really just don't punish your body anywhere as much.

I should add that the 6-7 hours is actual saddle time. I take breaks for meals, social visits, sightseeing, etc.

Sounds like your average speed is affected by the hilly terrain. I'm riding a lot of flat land with relatively small hills, so the speed comparison really isn't fair to you.

livedarklions

I'm impressed by anyone who can do a century on dirt. I did about 35 miles of an 80 mile ride on dirt, and it is definitely more work.

livedarklions

Longest I've ever gone on a single speed was about 80 miles on a Walmart Huffy cruiser. Hills were.... interesting.

What kind of terrain were you riding?

​

expatbrit

downtube42

I probably rode some solo centuries on my Schwinn Continental on 27x1.25 gumwalls back in the days before cyclocomputers.
Schwinn Le Tour on 27x1.25, with a solid/airless front tube. Bad idea.
Fuji Royale on 27x1.25
Trek 560 on 700x25, multiple centuries.
Specialized Hardrock rigid MTB on 26x1.5 slicks.
Rans V-Rex recumbent on 26x1.25 & 20x1.25 (many centuries, double centuries, and triple centuries, with one 399 miles/24 hours)
Volae Team recumbent on 26x1.35 (finally managed 400 miles in 24 hours on this setup; lots of centuries, doubles, triples)
Volae Team recumbent on 26x1.5 (only a mm of clearance all the way around. Too sketchy to run all the time)
Vintage Motobecane Grand Jubile on 700x28s (another bad idea)
Priority Eight on 700x38

Next bike I buy will fit 40mm tires, with fenders.

Igotdibs

@downtube42, My first two centuries (Seattle to Portland ~ 200 miles in 2 days) were on a Schwinn Le Tour back in 1987 or 88. But mine had air in the front tube!

Gresp15C

So far my longest ride has been 62 miles, roughly 50% on hard clay trail. But I plan on riding a solo century next year. So I can tell you what bike it's going to be. My bike for all long rides is a 2015 Diamondback Haanjo Metro that has been upgraded with swept bars and a more comfortable saddle. It's still on its original tires, Schwalbe "Citizen" 42-622 size. All I can report is that I was able to ride the next day with no discomfort. Don't ask me why, but the Schwalbe's are the fastest tires I've ever owned. I'd happily buy them again.

This is kind of an odd bike, that Diamondback seems to cram into whatever category is popular in a given year. In 2015, it was "urban," but some retailers called it "gravel," "endurance," or "flat bar road bike." To tell the truth, it's a glorified hybrid, but I like it.

I just wanted to mention my bike, while not meeting your full criteria, because I might be in the minority in terms of riding longer distances on anything but a drop bar bike. I just can't ride drop bars any more, and the swept bars are so comfy that I'm willing to accept the aerodynamic penalty. Also note that I'm riding solo, so I'm not dragging down an entire group when I stop to take a break. Also, I ride regular platform pedals and sneakers.