What Constitutes a "Quarter Miler"?

 A “Quarter Miler” is a ride of 400km, quarter the distance of the full “Miler” (1,600km).

While the full “Miler” is the main show here, the “Quarter Miler” offers a different challenge that in a certain way can be more extreme. The idea of the “Quarter Miler” is a distance that is practical from a time point of view (not everyone can frequently take the time off necessary to ride a full “Miler”), but at the same time can offer a nice testing challenge. And certainly, if one attempts to ride 400km nonstop or close to nonstop, it does present a very significant challenge.

A “Quarter Miler” time of Under 24 hours is definitely possible for many, with a sense of urgency, and we see a sub-24 hour attempt on a 400km largely gravel route as something quite significant.

To add to the fun, Hells 500 Club runs a challenge called “Everest Roam”. This involves riding a minimum of 400km and over 10,000m of vertical ascent in under 36 hours. Give this a try as part of a “Quarter Miler” ride sometime.

What constitutes a “Miler”?

A “Quarter Miler” is, as its name suggests, is a quarter of the distance of a “Miler”, i.e. 400km.

However, planning routes of this nature between desired points will never be an exact science. We thus cut ourselves a bit of slack, deeming a “Quartermiler” to be a route with a distance of above 400km but below 500km.

What constitutes an “unsupported” ride?

Riding unsupported implies riding the route with no “outside” support, the rider only making use of commercially available services along the route (accommodation, food etc), obviously excluding any transport related services, and with no back up vehicle or support from elsewhere. It implies nobody meeting the rider alongside the route at any point, either to give direct help or merely to provide moral support. It means no special favors from individuals living on the route either, only making use of commercial (non-transport) services available to everyone. It means no assistance from the outside world via telephone or other communication channels, assistance which could include a person booking accommodation for the rider or assisting with navigation for instance.

If one is riding with a fellow rider, that fellow rider would need to be following the same unsupported guidelines for one’s own ride to be deemed unsupported. And the next step up, i.e. a solo unsupported ride, would mean that all of the above guidelines apply as well as the rider having to ride solo.

It is for everyone to decide how they ride their own “Quarter Miler” Challenges, be it supported or unsupported ….anything goes. This is not an organised event. But we lay out our unsupported vs supported guidelines because we know that some may enjoy the various options and their different challenges….and we are unsupported riding enthusiasts. The challenge is different when one goes unsupported or solo…..often more challenging to motivate oneself to keep going on your own, the loneliness of solo ultra distance riding being arguably the ultimate challenge…not to mention that unsupported riding is logistically harder than supported, so I’m sure that some will want to give these various cool mental and physical test options a try.