Yearly Distance Record Attempt (Tommy Godwin - 75,065mi/120,000k)

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=72564.msg1745879#msg1745879

https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74

See also: http://www.thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1649

LIVE TRACKER: http://trackleaders.com/oneyeartimetrial15i.php?name=Steve_Abraham

can you moderate from the saddle ?

I'm not giving up a year of my life! It's someone far, far, nuttier than me.

Go on, hippy, win Australia's honour back. :)

(Tommy Godwin beat Ossie Nicholson.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Godwin_%28cyclist_born_1912%29

It's someone far, far, nuttier than me.

You're talking about Steve Abraham, right? :)

Steve is nuts, in a great way.

Rides fixed almost everywhere but gears down to 85" for hilly rides like the Bryan Chapman. He usually rides ~105" for everything else.

I'll certainly put some money towards him doing it, I think he's in the process of setting up a donation link. I'll look out for it on yacf and post it if it appears.

Just to offer a little perspective, this is like doing Lands end to John O'Groats 94 times. The usual time to do that ride for the average person is 7-10 days. Steve Abraham would need to do it quicker than once every 3 days 20 hours in order to break the record.

Of course record notes that Tommy Godwin bumped into a rider doing the LeJog ride and decided to join him by doing most of the work on the front.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10865425/Billie-Fleming-obituary.html
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=72564.50 Not a member on yacc. Wonder if Cadbury's ( who supported Billie Fleming ) would be interested in sponsoring?
Worth contacting riders who have done round the World rides ( e.g. Mark Beaumont ) to see if they have ideas re fund raising. Good luck!

I'd only consider it if I was paid substantially more than what I'd lose in income taking a year off work, which basically renders it unfeasible these days because most companies just don't sponsor stuff like this any more.

Riding over 200 miles every day for a year is nuts. Even the slightest biomechanical misalignment will result in injury, surely.

Also does Godwin hold the record for most calories consumed in a year without dying of coronary heart disease?

I'd only consider it if I was paid substantially more than what I'd lose in income taking a year off work, which basically renders it unfeasible these days because most companies just don't sponsor stuff like this any more.

You forgot: 'I'd only do it if I could keep going up and down the Uxbridge Road for all of it.' :)

I'd also say that someone doing it today probably wouldn't just have to be sponsored as such but get quite a lot of money for doing it. Also, I guess they'd want to take advantage of modern physiotherapy/massage etc., perhaps partly to avoid having to learn to walk again afterwards, as well as advice on nutrition, which would all be expensive. You could of course get the Lloyd's Well-being Centre to sponsor you. :)

No, I hold that record. :P

Much more traffic to dodge these days as well but then you have far better equipment and nutrition knowledge.

I think it probably evens out in toughness terms. A lot is made of Godwin using an old 'heavy' bike but in fairness he wasn't exactly riding a heavy roadster. As for the roads, Billie Fleming recalled that the road surfaces on her year record were comparable to modern ones.

Far more traffic lights unless planning to do it all on A roads.

All this reminds me, always liked the idea of owning a Walter Greaves frame. For those unfamiliar with Greaves, he held the record a few years before Godwin and is particularly celebrated for doing it one-armed:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stu_collins/bikejumbles/pages/waltergreavestheman.html

High points from the above: frostbitten ears, falling off nine times in one day, collisions with cars, lorries, lamp posts etc.

Plus the phrase "monkey turd jelly"

There's now an eye melting website for Steve's attempt http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/

I hope he gets it. Mad mad mad. Love a bit of madness I do.

This is a post from Roger Cortis on YACF

Steve has asked me to be his money man, ( not just bookkeeping - but raising the money too!) - and although he is now close to actually having to start riding -- the team being put together to help achieve a new record is still short of cover in some places -- see the web site for tasks that really need covering. There is clearly a huge amount of audax/yacf good will and offers of support and finance are being regularly posted on here.

Just so that people appreciate the finance side - the current estimate of total cost for the year is around £30,000 of which Steve is able to contribute his personal savings of about £6000 -- if you want to see the build up of this cost please e-mail me at rogerdotcortis@gmaildotcom as we are more than willing to be open about these figures.

So in simple terms we need £500 a week every week for the year. We are about to start trying to raise commercial sponsorship - either cash or product -- and we currently plan to recognise donations( above a figure to be decided) on the web site.

My first thoughts are that what might be a way forward for us individuals who are supportive of this immense challenge is to be willing to make a monthly contribution -- so that ( heaven forbid) if it went wrong at some time -- the monthly contributions could stop.

How do people feel about this -- serious question -- £10 a month would be two VERY GOOD FEEDS and some pocket grub for Steve. Can you commit to £10 a month -- or £70 is a full days support -- anyone fancy taking on one day a month??

Roger was also the money man for London-Edinburgh-London. A simple enough task it might seem but he did make sure it took place. Without him there was a very high likelihood that it just wouldn't have happened. A very safe pair of hands for Steve to be in.

Steve isn't as much a part of this forum and community as he is of YACF but the man does love to ride a fixed wheel bike. So I'm not suggesting that people make the requested monthly donations but I'm hoping that people here can find themselves compelled to make a donation to this endeavour, even if it's only a couple of quid. A bit of money now will help get this record attempt off to a good start and reduce the monthly need.

There's a donation button on Steve's site as linked upthread.

More news from Roger Cortis over on YACF. He's set up a bank account for this endeavour and thinks its worth people paying directly to that if they want to make a donation.

I now have a functioning bank account -- which will only be used for Steve's cash raised, but to make it free of all charges it is actually in my name -- TG is comfortable with this - and the LEL team are for the residual LEL funds -- however if this concerns you -- please use Steve's paypal account

However before I post details of sort code and account numbers - i would like you to understand the key differences between using Paypal and a bank account for incoming donations.

1 Paypal charge quite a lot about 3.5% on incoming funds -- Bank has no charges whatsoever - either on income or payment or on monthly admin. ( cos it is in my name)

2 Paypal provide extra info on each receipt - ie who from with an e-mail address -- the bank DOES NOT do this -- I just get quite limited info on who has sent the cash.

3 E-mail addresses of donors are important to us -- we want to be able to send regular newsletter updates to donors -- (and I might want to come back asking for extra financial help if it became necessary)

4 So if you make a bank transfer or set up a regular monthly payment - will you please make sure that the donor detail that appears on the bank statement that I shall see is as helpful as possible - and will you PLEASE contact me

roger.cortis@gmail.com

and let me know how much you have paid/set up for future months -- so that I stand a chance of marrying income with donor detail.

OK -- bank detail is

Sort code 07 02 46
Acc number 49305969

Thx for reading this - and do not forget to e-mail me with details of any donations you set up.

Roger

I appreciate people here my not be as interested in monthly donations, but if you are thinking about making a donation to Steve's efforts, a bank transfer is now a good option. I hope some people will help out. It's not a good cause or a charidee but it is a rather special undertaking. It will be amazing to see this record get broken if he succeeds.

Done. £20/month standing order set up.

I see another bloke is having a crack at this but on a recumbent.

Actually he might only be using it as an option to save his arse.

https://www.facebook.com/Metarzan

Donated... I feel a bit queasy even thinking about this...

http://blog.brooksengland.com/wps/ride-eat-sleep-repeat-x-365/