2009 Wrap-Up

Posted by DirtBum on January 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 am.

Not sure if this is going to be of any interest to anyone but myself, but regardless, here are my bicycling stats for 2009:

162 rides
5203 miles
Average speed: 13.12 MPH
Total time: 396 hours, 26 minutes
Bikes:
- Surly Long Haul Trucker: 5064 miles (97.3%), 13.3 MPH
- Balance Mountain Bike: 106 miles (2.0%), 7.8 MPH
- Other: 33 miles (0.7%), 15.0 MPH
Surfaces:
- Paved roads: 1496 miles (28.8%), 14.8 MPH
- Gravel (or mixed terrain): 3606 miles (69.3%), 12.8 MPH
- Singletrack: 100 miles (1.9%), 6.9 MPH

Here’s my yearly numbers since I started keeping track:

2004: 252 miles — Sun EZ-Sport (Long Wheelbase Recumbent), September through the end of the year
2005: 1468 miles — Sun EZ-Sport
2006: 2845 miles — Sun EZ-Sport and Burly Django
2007: 3924 miles — Burly Django
2008: 6001 miles — Burly Django and Balance Mountain Bike
2009: 5203 miles — Surly Long Haul Trucker

So, I dropped off a bit this year, compared to 2008. But the mileage feels about right: 5200 miles is 100 miles per week, on average.

But nearly 400 hours in the saddle — now that somehow seems like a big number! That’s ten full 40-hour workweeks spent doing nothing but riding my bike!

But looking at it from another angle, that doesn’t seem so extravagant: That’s just over an hour a day.

Americans, on average, watch about 5 hours of television per day. Yikes! I’d far rather spend my time out in the world rather than passively watching the boob tube.

I didn’t really do any big rides this year. I did do two centuries, including my first gravel century. But I didn’t do many organized rides at all. In 2006 and 2008 I did Biking Across Kansas, and in 2007 I did the Katy Trail Ride, so not doing that felt a little strange.

The vast majority of my rides were solo, with a few small group (2-10) rides as well. I can only think of two rides — the Gravel Conspiracy and the Farmhouse Classic — with more than 10 participants. That’s one thing I do want to change for 2010: I want to do at least a few more large organized rides.

But I’ll leave goal-setting for another post. This is a look back, not forward.

Here’s my favorite picture of the year, or, at least one that is well representative of the year for me:

This picture shows the Long Haul Trucker in a somewhat muscular pose, with mud on its tires, on a remote minimum-maintenance road, with wildflowers blooming along the way. Ah, the flowers! The flowers were so awesome this year, just amazing color and variety from late spring through late fall.

And with that I’ll wrap up. I fully enjoyed 2009, and hope you did, too!

~ by DirtBum on January 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 am. Filed under: Miscellaneous