and had the perfect last name
2010-02-05 23:18:42
7
Hardcore oldtimer
So one of my co-workers was pulling a newspaper from 1897 and stumbled across an article titled "Century Rides at Night."
Ross Manly of Summitville, Indiana road 65 centuries in 1896, 14 of which were double centures, all at night. After working 10 hours he would hop on and pedal through the night. The article tells of Manyly out-pedaling "funny farmers" atempting to run him down with their wagons, an escaped raging bull, and numerous wiley dogs.
All this on what looked to me in the woodcut print to be a fixed-gear pathracer style bike.
This dude was awesome!
2010-02-05 21:57:15
Wow! Indiana, 1896, were these dirt roads as well? The old-timers aren't kidding when they say we have it easy nowadays.
2010-02-05 23:24:48
I thought this thread was going to be about quizbot...
2010-02-06 00:49:51
What a badass! You can't beat enraged bulls and wiley dogs for training motivation.
Indiana was a total hotbed of cycling in the late 1800's, that's not far from Dayton where the Wrights made enough cash selling bikes to work on their little side project.
Any chance of scanning that article and posting it up somewhere?
2010-02-06 02:28:46
200 miles.
-OK
Dirt roads.
-yeah
Single speed.
-right
At night.
-check
But I bet he never did it in the winter.
2010-02-07 21:19:29
if anyone is interested in reading this article i was able to get it on a pdf file but i dont know how to post it on here. e-mail at yake (dot) david (at) gmail (dot) com and ill send it to you.
2010-02-18 18:44:57