Tips for a 24 hour bike ride

[klesko]

Hubby and I are planning to ride a Fleche on our new tandem. It is a team randonneuring event where you ride about 225 miles in 24 hours and have to stop a checkpoints on a schedule. It seems kind of crazy, but we want to do it. The only thing I am REALLY worried about is sitting on the tandem stoker saddle for 24 hours in the same bike shorts. I could see that becoming really uncomfortable, to say the least. Should I reapply chamois cream every few hours? Anybody have any thoughts on this?

[OakLeaf]

Not that I've ever done anything remotely close to that, but are you allowed "special needs" at your checkpoints (food/nutrition, water bottles, medications, Body Glide/chamois cream, etc.)? You could stash a couple of clean pairs of shorts and baby wipes. It would only add a minute or so to a bathroom break.

[Pedal Wench]

On the fleche I did, two of the guys carried fresh shorts/tights with them. I've never been so jealous in all my life.
I've done a number of 24-hour events - some with the opportunity to change, some without. While it's amazingly nice, it's also okay to do it in one pair, as long as you've tested them and know the chamois is up for the challenge. Do at least a century in a pair to make sure they'll hold up. I don't normally use chamois creams, but will for anything over 200k.
The one fleche I did was a blast. It was very flat (I almost think it was downhill) so we were actually stalling for time. Killing time at the Waffle House.

[azfiddle]

My DH just finished a 400K brevet- and wore the same shorts for 19 hours. Minimal chamois in them, and no chamois cream -no complaints. However - he has an iron b*tt as far as I can tell. The furthest I've gone is 200K in one pair with no chamois cream and no problems.

Good luck...

[klesko]

Thank you very much! We are thinking of bringing one pair of clean shorts and a guy we ride with recommended bag balm instead of regular chamois cream.

[salsabike]

My husband has done two fleches, a bundle of 400s and 600s, 1000s, and 1200s (and I'm stinkin' proud of him because he did PBP last year and had so much fun!). He always brings a change of shorts if the ride is 400 or longer. He probably brings two on the 1000+ rides.

The randos around here swear by Lantaseptic.

[Pedal Wench]

The randos around here swear by Lantaseptic.

I wouldn't try anything new on a long-distance ride, and for some reason, anything with "septic" sounds like it might be okay for boys and not-so-okay for girly parts. Dunno, though.

[Susan Otcenas]

Oak: Rando rides are almost always non-supported, so you carry what you need from the get go. There are sometimes exceptions for drop bags on multi-day events (where the ride organizer agrees to carry a drop bag to a predesignated overnight control), but not always.

I wouldn't try anything new on a long-distance ride, and for some reason, anything with "septic" sounds like it might be okay for boys and not-so-okay for girly parts. Dunno, though.

Lantiseptic is the best thing since sliced bread. :-) There's nothing "cooling" in Lantiseptic. It's a lot like Desitin, actually, but much thicker. It's tenacious, so it stays where you put it without constant re-applications.

I used it on the 1000K last June, and again on PBP in August. Love that stuff.

As for doing the fleche - I'd say that you should use your experience on your longest rides to date to decide how to handle the fleche. I assume you've done at least a 300K together on the tandem already. How did you feel? If your @ss was killing you on that, a change of shorts midway through might be in order, to move the pressure points around a bit. But if you got through a 300K relatively unscathed, you'll probably be fine on the fleche. Decide what will bug you more: not having fresh shorts, or lugging around a pair of shorts that you might not need.

OK, just re-read your post. This is a NEW tandem?? Personally, I wouldn't do a 24 hour event on a brand new anything, but that's me. Are you experienced tandem riders? One thing I find with tandeming is that my butt always hurts more than on my single, because we stand much less than I do on my single. And, it's not that I stand very much on the single either; it's more that on my single, I'm always subtly shifting my weight around, changing up my cadence, etc., whereas on the tandem, my position is more "rooted" and we pretty much pedal constantly. Less coasting and fewer cadence shifts, etc. The farthest Jeff and I ever rode on the tandem was 206 miles. In the last couple of hours, we made efforts to stand and pedal or stand and coast at very regular intervals. It helped.

[klesko]

Thanks everybody - this is great info! The fleche is 250 miles. We have ridden 50, 65 and then 100 miles so far. We used bag balm for the century and did ok. We tried to find Lantaseptic at Walgreens and they never heard of it so maybe I will buy some on line, but agree with nothing new on an event like that.

We are going to do another century before we try the fleche. There are rests along the way (none more than 2 hours) and the average speed is 11 mph, way slower than we are used to going. We averaged 18.6 on our century yesterday.

I have also found that there is more pedalling, less coasting and more sitting on the tandem. Also, my husband is a masher and I am a spinner, so the cadence seems really slow to me. We did stand up and pedal periodically during the century.

[klesko]

We finished the 24 hour tandem ride yesterday morning (update posts on lesko.tumblr.com) and did well. We used bag balm and brought one change of shorts. My sit bones are a little sore but no saddle sores. The only thing I messed up was applying excessive bag balm in my enthusiasm when we started and it bled through my shorts onto my bike seat. I used less when I changed my shorts after 8 hours. I also figured out that women probably have to reapply during a long ride because there is no way to go to the bathroom and not wipe some away (sorry if this is TMI) so I also brought sample packs of my regular chamois cream and reapplied once. We went 232 miles in 24 hours - the link to the ride is at
http://audaxatlanta.com/index.php?op...d=64&Itemid=38

[jobob]

Congratulations klesko! That's quite an achievement!

The only thing I messed up was applying excessive bag balm in my enthusiasm when we started and it bled through my shorts onto my bike seat.

Hee hee. When I first read that sentence I thought "OMG she was bleeding!!" but then I re-read it.

[Kiwi Stoker]

Hey well done! My DH and I have done a maximum of 160km (100 mikes) on the tandem and DH says he doesn't want to do any further. He gets too uncomfortable after that.

I find the chamois cream moves through a chamois and our saddles get nice a greasy from that. I call it "conditioning" or "polishing" my saddle! If think the worse time was when DH put soo much on it actually squirted throught the fabric and I had to ride there looking at what looked like bird poop on his backside!!

TdF riders actually coat this chamnois so thickly with the stuff, rather like icing a cake. So I tick it is supposed to be used generously.

[maillotpois]

Congratulations! I just did my first fleche as well - somehow even though the distance was the same, I suffered a lot more from sleep deprivation than any of my 400ks.

I didn't see this thread originally or I would have chimed in: I bring a change of shorts for 600k rides (then I put the old shorts on over the new for extra padding). All else, I just bring extra lantiseptic or chamois butter.

[Pedal Wench]

We finished the 24 hour tandem ride yesterday morning (update posts on lesko.tumblr.com) and did well. <......> We went 232 miles in 24 hours - the link to the ride is at
http://audaxatlanta.com/index.php?op...d=64&Itemid=38

OMG! I did MY first (and only!) fleche with some of the same guys!!!! Gator's one of the guys who had a change of shorts that made me so jealous! Now I'm jealous that you got to ride with him! Gator and Walter were on my first, and I've spent a mile or two with Roger. Small world!

[Anelia]

Congratulations! Great job!