Gearing up to ride.
It was a gloomy morning and it’d been raining on and off the day before, but still, over 250 people showed up bright and early at City Hall for this completely crazy Bike Party ride! We battled wind, chilly air, and even some hills, but we got to see some amazing areas of our city and have a whole lot of fun.
A shout-out to everyone who helped put this event together. The consensus among most riders was that we should definitely do this again, but with fewer traffic lights! Sounds like a worthy goal.
Please post your experiences of the ride here. Also, post your Bike the Limits pictures at Bike Party’s Flickr page.
matthew
April 3, 2010
this ride should be every 2nd sat. of the month this ride is my 2nd or 3rd favorite ride since i started riding pike party’s 3 years ago.i couldn’t go the whole 100 but still was a great day for riding just wish there more long rides like this.
[moderator/tr-there will be several other "special" rides in addition to the regular bike party. stay tuned and volunteer!]
Yoshi
April 3, 2010
as of 6:20, 12 people had finished the entire 100 miles and biked back into city hall!
Jacky
April 3, 2010
Whoo Hoo! Good job Yoshi to you and your group!!! Our group of 60 milers got to City Hall around 2ish. There was about 20 or so of us.
Lloyd
April 3, 2010
What a great ride! … and thankfully, no rain. Next time, I gotta figure out how do finish the 100.
Yoshi
April 3, 2010
there was a group of 5 of us that finished around 4:45! We were hoping to see some of you 60 milers, but you guys are too fast for us! we’ll see you on the 100 next time, jacky!
Jacky
April 3, 2010
Oops I take that back it was more like 3ish.
Nat
April 3, 2010
Thanks to Yoshi, Lloyd, and Steve who hung out at City Hall and cheered the 100 mile finishers. Ryan, we waited a while longer for you, but apparently you were at home blogging.
ryan
April 3, 2010
Yeah, some stuff came up on the ride and I had to cut it short (thanks for waiting, though!). There was a group of about 8 on fixies that rode the 60 who were hanging out at City Hall, and another group on 4th street who had also ridden the 60.
This was a BLAST and I think we need to do it again. I’m really happy that everyone had such a great time. I’m so glad that we had such a large turnout. I have a lot of ideas for the next one.
One of the many highlights: sheep and goats in alviso.
nick
April 3, 2010
Amazing ride! This route rocked, and the century was such an exciting challenge, everyone I spoke to was abuzz about it. I’m pretty sure I was among the last 4 century finishers (1 rider with us had no less than 4 flats!), who wrapped up around 7:15-7:30 for the final 100. Another small bunch (at least 2) wrapped up the 100 ending in Willow Glen at 6:45. I’m guessing the total of us century riders was 20 or less. : )
One idea: many of us weren’t sure what sort of reception might await at City Hall/downtown, and we debated returning there, since we could catch our full 100mi just by heading home. I think it worked out amazingly well, but I’d love to see a cool after-party next time!
Hope to see you all at Wednesday’s volunteer meeting!!
Alan
April 4, 2010
Absolutely great ride. Shout out to my bicycling buddies from S.F. thanks for the company!
john m
April 4, 2010
This was a great ride. I went as far as i could considering my legs were cramping up, but awesome job putting a killer route together. I loved seeing all the people commit to showing up early AM in spite of the chilly morning.
Katie
April 4, 2010
Great ride! Great route! Great bikers to ride with!
The 100 miles was brutal, but I still had a lot of fun. I represented the slow-but-steady riders… I rolled into city hall just after dusk at 7:49. Last place, but it felt great to finish!
Rockin Ed
April 4, 2010
Great ride everyone. The 60 milers rocked!
Lloyd
April 4, 2010
Katie, great job finishing the 100! Slow or not, finishing the 100 still puts you ahead of those of us that tried and didn’t quite get there
Billy Cool (Bill H)
April 4, 2010
Right On Katie, I was right in front of you. I hit City Hall at 7:43…Second to last. Nick, Ed and I did the second 1/2 of the 100 together. Lloyd & Steve also got to Hellyer Park but sucumbed to cramps.
Ed had 4 flats and 1 bad tire (which is why it took us 11 hourts to finish) but his determination to finish is a testament to never quitting. Right on Ed!!!
Here are some pics of our regroup at Alum Rock and Ed fixing his 2nd of 4 flats.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billhoffman/sets/72157623645107557/
Nick & Ed cut out right before City Hall but got thier 100 miles done. This ride was a blast, even though we seemed to be riding against the wind no matter which direction we were headed, especially in Cupertino.
yoshi
April 4, 2010
yeah! you guys rock!! way to finish the 100!
Townie Bill
April 4, 2010
Those of you who I was able to keep up with were so in the moment. You 60 milers are my cycling BFFs! The ‘high fives’ we exchanged at the end of the ride at City Hall were restrained by the fatigue of the moment.
(I was hugging everybody and jumping up and down inside! That had to be the most miles I’ve done in a single day!)
The ride was the right place at the right time as confirmed by the sheep looking at the goats as we rode by. Pastoral silicon valley.
It dawned on me that the sheep and goats and everyone else needs to see that bike party is alive and healthy.
God bless Bike Party!
Happy Easter everyone!
Heather
April 4, 2010
Does anyone know of an account where we can post photos to share with others that we met on the ride?! Anything that will link it back to here? Thanks guys…awesome ride!
[moderator/tr: as mentioned in the ride summary: “Please post your experiences of the ride here. Also, post your Bike the Limits pictures at Bike Party’s Flickr page.”
brettman
April 5, 2010
Wow! 100 miles with a 36t x 17t is not recommended! But the ride was comfortable with those 24″ x 3.45″ balloon tires! Thanks to the guys who stuck with me to help fix my flat (anyone ever change a motorcycle tire by hand??? Same idea with a 2.5″ wide rim!). I am looking forward to the next big-ass ride! Thanks to Yoshi, Ryan, and everyone else for making it happen!
Brian
April 5, 2010
Congratulations to everybody that completed their goal or accomplished a new personal best and all the other participants for giving their best to Bike Party.
Great Job persevering Ed & Townie Bill
I enjoyed riding with the first 100 miler group and look forward to the next event . The Almaden Valley was new territory for me and beautiful to boot even when facing a head wind.
I have a new found appreciation (interest?) in what it takes to complete a ride like that on a single speed. Great job guys!
Looking forward to this months evening/test ride which comes up to my neck of the suburbia.
Billy Cool (Bill H)
April 5, 2010
Right on, Kudo’s to Nick & Ryan (& everyone else that helped) on creating & refining the 3 courses. You guys put so much time & effort into SJBP and it’s appreciated by all of us who ride!
BTW…test ride tomorrow! lets go!
Jacky
April 5, 2010
Katie, you go girl! I doesn’t matter when you came in the cool thing is that you did the 100 miles!
Mustache Jakey & Naton "The Madman" Shaw
April 6, 2010
103 miles 8 hours and 57 minutes later we were done with a wonderful Saturday Bike Party Ride. We were lookin funky and feeling funky and screaming like lions after a kill! We didn’t make it down to City Hall after, but we got back down town just before 5. I had never done such along ride before and it felt like I was on tip top of San Jose after! The Madman was in top form gliding up the hills and shooting down the other side, keeping the pace going like a true Shaw! In the end I found out that I broke a spoke some where along the way, but in my crazed state of mind i pushed though and kept my wheels rolling along. Thanks Bike Party for the super San Jose Ride!
Dad-Mike
April 6, 2010
Simple stated, a great idea, please do it again…and a phenomenal ride. Deep thanks to all involved in putting this together.
Best of all was riding the 60 miler with my 14 year old son…well to be honest 40 miles as he bonked. Still I was very proud of him as I thought I’d be the one collapsing at 25 miles! None the less, he was very disappointed not to have finished 60 miles , but true to his spirit, he will be back with a vengence for the next 60 miler. Me too. Dad-Mike
ryan
April 7, 2010
I am so glad that this ride worked out so wonderfully. The idea is so crazy: let’s create an unsupported, challenging ride, open and free to all, and see what happens. And it was so much fun!
I want to give a huge thanks to all 250+ people who rode, plus everyone who helped put it together, everyone who rode the test rides, Nick for the initial idea, Yoshi for doing solo test rides, and Bill for making some awesome turn-by-turns.
This is the kind of thing that makes Bike Party great and our city a great place to be. San Jose is going to explode in the amount of bicycling activity in the near future, continuing as it already is, and we are all driving that momentum together.
Bike the Limits should definitely happen again. In the meantime, see you all at this month’s Bike Party!
ridenaked
March 7, 2011
hey, whats the pace on this ride cuz i wanna do it on the bmx… did 60 mi, first and last 15 sprinting on that one palo alto ride, lol
Rider 44
March 7, 2011
Based on what you are saying, it sounds like you could totally do it on a BMX.
However, a couple of things you should be aware of.
1) There is a great training ride especially for YOU that takes place this Saturday. Find out more here
http://www.sjbikeparty.org/mingleforum?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=106
also,
2) You posted in an old comment thread, you may want to ask your question on the thread for the Bike the Limits ride for this year.
http://www.sjbikeparty.org/archives/3799