Day 67
Route
- Monroeville, Rest Day
Metrics
- Miles: 0
- Average Speed: NA mph
- Travel Time: NA
Notes
Thought For The Day
- Ambition is good but ensure it serves mankind in some way.
I’m taking a rest day in Monroeville to enjoy the opening of the Monroeville Harvest Festival. There will be food and live music in the park this evening.
While I’m waiting for the festivities to begin, I thought I would look at the cyclist guest books in the Community Center. Here are the visitor numbers for the last 38 years.
| Year | No. Riders |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 38 |
| 1991 | 59 |
| 1992 | 48 |
| 1993 | 36 |
| 1994 | 30 |
| 1995 | 36 |
| 1996 | 42 |
| 1997 | 108 |
| 1998 | 24 |
| 1999 | 74 |
| 2000 | 60 |
| 2001 | 79 |
| 2002 | 78 |
| 2003 | 53 |
| 2004 | 57 |
| 2005 | 39 |
| 2006 | 83 |
| 2007 | 71 |
| 2008 | 72 |
| 2009 | 81 |
| 2010 | 46 |
| 2012 | 78 |
| 2012 | 77 |
| 2013 | 43 |
| 2014 | 63 |
| 2015 | 65 |
| 2016 | 43 |
| 2017 | 56 |
| 2018 | 36 |
| 2019 | 20 |
| 2020 | 15 |
| 2021 | 38 |
| 2022 | 23 |
| 2023 | 9 |
| 2024 | 15 |
| 2025 | 26 |
| 2026 | 8 |
That’s a total of 1,829 riders that have been hosted here in Monroeville.
Note: These numbers count fundraising groups (like Ride for MS) as one visit. The number of fundraising groups riding the Northern Tier is a small percentage.
Monroeville is famous for hosting Northern Tier Cyclists. With that in mind, these numbers are probably representative of the total number of cyclists riding the Northern Tier in the years shown above.
A significant decrease in numbers of people riding the Northern Tier begins somewhere around 2018 and gets progressively smaller after that. Prior to that the numbers are fairly consistent. The big winner is 1997. Explaining these numbers is not an easy matter. COVID certainly would play into the 2020 numbers, but there’s a bump in 2021 that is hard to explain. After 2021 ridership starts to decrease significantly. It’s my personal opinion that among younger people, mountain biking and gravel riding has been more attractive to cyclists than road cycling has. There’s a new thing now called “Bike Packing.” That is basically bicycle touring offroad instead of on road.
The guest books also track the age of Northern Tier riders. Here is a count of the cyclists age 70 and over.
| Age | No. Riders |
|---|---|
| 70 | 11 |
| 71 | 8 |
| 72 | 2 (Including Me) |
| 73 | 2 |
| 74 | 2 |
| 75 | 0 |
| 76 | 1 |
| 77 | 1 |
Cyclists 70 years of age or over represent 1.6% of the Northern Tier Riders! Obviously, I’ll need to ride the Northern Tier again in 2032 to become the record holder — assuming no one older than 77 comes along before then…
A Note on My Itinerary
I’m ahead of schedule even though my daily average miles is under 55. That’s due to the fact that I have taken fewer rest days than I originally planned on taking. If I ride 50 miles a day and don’t take any rest days, I’ll arrive in Bar Harbor on September 1st. My itinerary planned a September 20th arrival. I’ll be taking rest days. I would like to arrive on the 10th. That feels like a good plan and I won’t have to do more than 50 miles a day to make that date.
Murals really are quite charming.
A Brooks No. 17 Bicycle Saddle
is the most comfortable saddle for long distance touring.
Entry # 2,434