- May 4, 2024
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To kickoff national Ride Your Bike to Work Week, John Scully, sponsored by PC Bike, is cycling 3,570 miles, from coast to coast. The trip should take 50 days and end July 2.
Ride Your Bike to Work Week extends from May 16 to May 22. But for 20-year-old John Scully, 2008 Matanzas High School graduate, a week of celebration is just a warmup.
Equipped with a new, blue, 70-pound loaded touring Surly Long Haul Trucker, which comes sponsored from PC Bike, his father’s shop, Scully is setting off May 16 for a cross-country trip, from the Western Express in San Francisco to the Trans Am in Yorktown, Va. This is how he’ll spend half of his summer break, before heading back to the University of Central Florida to finish off the last few semesters of an accounting degree.
“It’s my summer trip,” Scully said. “Some kids go to the Bahamas; I go cross-country on my bicycle.”
His sponsor, PC Bike, on behalf of the Flagler Health Initiative Team, will be spearheading a group ride for Ride Your Bike to Work Day, May 20, for all employees working in the school wing of the Government Services Building. Participants will meet at Town Center and ride 3 miles into Bunnell, for a mass arrival at the GSB. A “recharge” breakfast will be provided.
PC Bike also supports a handful of casual rides and road rides each week, including a 30-mile loop to the Flagler Highbridge and back, which Scully used as training for his trek.
“There’s no way I’d have enough money to do (this) if the bike shop didn’t help me out,” Scully said of his 3,570-mile ride. His father, Jake, rode across the county in 2007, from San Diego to Saint Augustine, and Scully admits that part of the drive behind his journey is competitive, a sort of familial rite of passage.
But mostly, the ride is personal.
“It’s kind of a test of my mettle,” he said. “As long as I enjoy it, I don’t care how long it takes.”
Scully started riding when he was 9, on a tandem bike with his dad. He has always preferred mountain biking to road riding — because of thin shoulders and car traffic — but for a trip like this, he can hardly wait to hit the blacktop.
Using Routes Adventure Cycling Association coursing, Scully will take the scenic roads. He’ll ride eight to 10 hours a day, staying nights at campgrounds, in a sleeping bag. He’ll pass through the Dinosaur National Park, in Colorado. And he won’t rush it; if he and his cousin see something cool, they’ll stop and check it out. If they see a lake, they’ll jump in to cool off.
“Something amazing happens between 10 and 20 mph,” Scully said, citing one of his favorite cycling quotes. “You’re going fast enough to get to where you want to go, but slow enough to see everything.”
The trip will take 50 days, give or take a week, he predicts. He hopes to finish by July 2, to celebrate the Fourth of July with family in Virginia. Then he’ll head to Pennsylvania for five weeks to be a special needs camp counselor.
During the ride, Scully plans to keep a daily log of his travels, posting photos and updates on a cross-country biking community site — www.crazyguyonabike.com.
“After you go out biking, you just sit back and it’s just euphoria,” Scully said. “You get a rider’s high. It makes you feel like all the pain is worth it.”
PC Bike was established in 2002. Its group-ride to the GSB will start 7:30 a.m., on the corner of Bulldog Drive and Town Center Boulevard and is open to the public. James Clayton, store co-owner, will arrive early to check riders’ bikes.
Contact Mike Cavaliere at [email protected].
