What Bike should I ride?

About this time of the process (a week and a half before the event) we usually get asked a few questions about bikes. Hopefully you've already resolved what you'll be riding a week on Sunday, but if not here are a few thoughts on what to ride and how to prepare it.

Mountain/Hybrid/Comfort

• PRO: Comfortable, wide gearing to help on hills, resistant to flats. Best choice for novices, especially on the 30-mile route.


• CON: Slow & heavy, especially inexpensive or downhill-specific bikes. Your bike can easily weigh as much as two road bikes, and you will feel it on the bigger hills on the 60 and 100 mile routes.


• ADVICE: Get narrow tires & tubes designed for road riding. They have noticeably less drag than fat dirt tires. See the earlier blog entry here If you have full suspension and it can be locked out, do so - all that bobbing is wasted energy...

Road/Race

• PRO: Light, fast, aerodynamic. Best choice for the 100-mile route.


• CON: Uncomfortable to uninitiated, more flat tires, more fragile, narrower gearing means more effort to get up hills, but you will go faster.


• ADVICE: Make sure you're used to it before ride day, and bring spare inner tubes. If you're using clipless pedals for the first time, one word: don't

Unicycle/Tandem/Recumbent
If you own one of these, you don't need advice from people like us....

Kawasaki 750/Yamaha R1
errr not a good idea my friend....

To prepare your bike
Make sure it is in good working order before ride day. You don't want to discover on Sunday morning that one pedal is missing and both tires are flat. Check your bike out at least one week in advance so you'll have time to fix any problems. Participating shops will inspect your bike for free and give you a 10% discount on gear.
The day before the ride, pump up your tires to the maximum pressure listed on them. This will give you a free speed boost and greatly reduce your risk of flats.
If you are doing the 60 or 100 mile routes, remove locks, racks, kiddie seats, and other heavy items that will weigh you down on the hills.
Bring a full water bottle (not a glass bottle of Snapple; you will drop it, it will smash on the FDR and the guy behind you will curse you as he gets a flat), a patch kit, tire levers, and a pump are useful but not essential (there will be other kind souls who should help you if you have a problem).