150,000miles?

[Mick F]

I keep a diary, and have them going back to 1989.
Before that, I kept a wall chart and lists ......... sadly no longer have them.

Looking through the 1993 diary this morning for a non-cycling related reason, I chanced on some notes I made regarding distances covered.

For many years, I cycled to work, and latterly it was 34miles there and back three or four times a week. Prior to that it was 14miles every single day. I'd calculated that I'd done 100,000miles in my whole life considering all the major rides I'd done as a youth.

After retiring from the RN in spring of 1996, I packed up cycling until October 2004, but from then on I logged every single ride as I had a Cateye computer thingy and then various GPS devices, and have recorded them all. Since Oct 2004, I've done 47,194miles as of yesterday afternoon. No real proof of 150,000miles, but it's a very good bet indeed.

No doubt 150,000miles is chicken feed to some of you lot on here, but I'm rather proud of myself.

[Cyril Haearn]

I am proud of you, riding up those hills in Kernow, and much worse, riding down them

[nickodemia]

Well done Mick, it certainly sounds a likely figure. I didn’t start cycling until I was in my late 40’s in 1996 and I’m now just a bit over 70,000 so a long way to go to catch you up.

[Morzedec]

Mick, well done on your achievement - and as you are such a youngster, here's to the next 150,000!

As you rightly say it might take a while to catch some of us up, but we will have both started earlier than you did and our cycling was continuous throughout lifetime; no webbed feet or grey painted walls in this direction.

A chap reckoned recently that he had cycled a million miles but I found that rather far-fetched; averaging 12,000 a year for a whole lifetime sounds debatable to me. Way back in 2013 (when I was still older than you currently are!) I had a very silly year in France and hit a really daft total distance - I'll not say what, cos' no-one would believe me - and even at that rate I would never have reached a million by now, even though I started cycling to school (16 miles there and back) aged five.

My old Holdsworth is well up into six figures by now, having got a lot of use since I bought my first trailer ten years ago - but who, if they have a number of bikes, really knows just how far they have actually ridden?

It matters not, if you ride five miles a year or five thousand, as long as you are out there somewhere, taking the breeze!

Happy days,

[Cyril Haearn]

I want to know the distance in 2013, Morzedec, I promise to believe you

[Morzedec]

Cyril, hello,
Well: in August of that year I cycled from my home up to Roscoff to meet some friends, then rode down through France to the Med via the 'Eastern Route' beyond Lyons, along the Med coast to Perpignan, and then up to Toulouse, Bordeaux, and along the western seaboard to Nantes. The canal took us back to Roscoff where I ditched my friends by the ferry, and then I cycled back home again. 35 days, 34 nights camping (some on sites, some 'wild'), for 5672 kilometres. My friends (Americans) were in their thirties and the 'male half' thought our distances rather trivial, but I was double their age so couldn't care less. They are regular cyclists in the US, have ridden right across the country and then back again on more than one occasion, and if the world was normal I'd be on the road with them this very moment, somewhere in deepest France, because they were due over once again.
Last summer I was still hitting 150km + for up to four days consecutively, trailer and all, just having fun on my own - out and about on new routes, trying different campsites, and still searching for a rich widow to look after me when my old age arrives - know of any?

Happy days,

[Pneumant]

I think 150,000 miles when totted up over the years is impressive as this is a figure that the rest of us everyday cyclists could achieve...maybe!

[Grandad]

A chap reckoned recently that he had cycled a million miles but I found that rather far-fetched;

This is the only genuine million in the UK https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/82-year-old-first-brit-cycle-million-miles

He started in 1963 and has averaged 15,166 a year. In 1994 he exceeded 20,000 a year for the first time (retirement?) and kept this up until 2009, then reducing by around a thousand each year to 7810 in 2019.

Details from the 300,000 Club annual newsheet for other obssesives

[Grandad]

who, if they have a number of bikes, really knows just how far they have actually ridden?

60 current and 106 deceased former members of the 300,000 Miles Club.

Being able to produce proof of the distances is a strict condition when applying for membership.

[rareposter]

who, if they have a number of bikes, really knows just how far they have actually ridden?

Strava has an option to list all your bikes and, when you upload a ride, you tell it which bike you were on and it keeps a running total for all of them. Back in the day, I used to have a cycle computer on each bike and kept a ride diary which did the same job of breaking down the mileages between bikes while still keeping an overall total.
Now I just swap the same GPS unit from bike to bike.

The exception is my SS road bike which has had a computer on it since day 1 and that's on 75,000 miles now in 16 years.

[francovendee]

Well done MickF.
I gave up cycling in the late 60's and didn't start again until 2000. I'm a long way behind your figure but hope to hit the 100,000 mile mark next or possibly the year after. All rather dependent on health and the bike holding together.
I'm impressed by some of the massive mileages achieved by some cyclists. I wonder if they have time to do anything else.

[Cyril Haearn]

Indeed they do, if one cycles a lot one gets fitter and faster and does more miles in the same time

[rareposter]

I'm impressed by some of the massive mileages achieved by some cyclists. I wonder if they have time to do anything else

If it's part of your day to day life though, it just happens. Take a 10 mile each way commute which to many cyclists is perfectly normal. That's 100 miles a week without even thinking about it, it just "happens".

Take out maybe 8 weeks of the year to account for holidays, bad weather, occasional days where you drive in etc and you still end up with 4400 miles.

For my example above re my SS road bike, 4400 miles / year multiplied by 16 years is just over 70,000 miles. As it happens, the breakdown isn't exactly that, I don't commute every day but I do use the bike for far more than just commuting on it. So yeah, it just adds up. And that's before you account for leisure rides on other bikes: long road rides, touring, etc.

I know plenty of people who do far more than me in a year. A normal year for me is around 10,000 miles at most; a friend on Strava is on that already in 6 months!

[Mick F]

..........A normal year for me is around 10,000 miles at most; a friend on Strava is on that already in 6 months!

Beats me.
Three or four thousand per annum is about it for me these days.

30miles today, and it was enough, but then I was on Moulton.
Heavy and laborious and I've worked out that I lose at least one minute per mile as compared to 531c Mercian.
One minute per mile means that the effort is more of course so the rides are much harder work.

[Pebble]

150,000 miles is a very impressive figure, my goal is 100,000

think I am up to about 72,000.
Bought bike 1989 and commuted for 9 years (until mortgage paid off and being able to afford a second car) covering an estimated 24,000 mile
then gave the bike up until 2008 when I started to ride it to get over a back injury - have become completely obsessed with being out on the bike and have amassed a further 48,308 miles in the last 12 years Giving what I thought was an impressive total of 72,308 (all done on the same steel frame giant bike!)

I don't even know where to begin to estimate childhood miles, being brought up in the 60s/70s I road my bike everywhere, parents didn't ferry their kids around in large SUVs back then, you just had to make your own way.