Dave Schweikert enjoys a good cycling challenge.
The Carmel resident has taken on a new quest to raise money for World Bicycle Relief’s annual Pedal to Empower event and Filter of Hope. World Bicycle Relief provides bicycle distribution to those in need in underprivileged nations.
Schweikert, 55, plans to set a Guinness World Record for the largest GPS drawing by bike. The drawing has deep meaning as he plans to draw the world’s largest Latin cross with his route. He originally planned to start the ride May 27 but has moved it up to May 4 because of work-related reasons.
“As a Christian, the cross has deep personal meaning for me,” he said. “To anyone who is not a Christian, my hope is that this ride embodies the very meaning of the cross: love above all, sacrifice, service to others and hope.”
Schweikert, an engineer for Zipp, said the cross required dozens of hours drawing and redrawing maps all across the U.S. to find enough straight roads to make it possible. He said mountains and bodies of water tend to get in the way. He first started working on the route about 18 months ago.
Schweikert will drive to Galesburg, Ill., and then pick up an Amtrak train to Lincoln, Neb.
“I did a reconnaissance trip last fall and found a lot of gravel and sandy roads with rolling hills,” he said. “There is the chance that I could face a headwind for 200 miles at a time due to the straight lines. That will be something I’ve never encountered before, which is part of the challenge. Plus, this is sparsely populated terrain, so I may be forced to ride longer each day than I want just to reach shelter and to go off course to get food and water. Finally, it is almost inevitable on a ride this long that there will be road construction such as a bridge out, so I’ll have to get creative on the spot to pause my GPS, find a route around to the other side, and restart GPS.”
The route is about 950 miles and should take seven days, following a route through South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota. It would break the previous GPS drawing by nearly 300 miles.
“I’ve ridden 1,000 miles in seven days twice before, but always on mostly paved roads,” he said. “So, while this won’t be the farthest I’ve ever ridden in this time period, it could turn out to be the hardest.”
Schweikert said he would be thrilled to raise $10,000 but hopes to raise more.
“Since my ride across the USA in 2017, I’ve raised over $35,000 for WBR, and my lifetime goal is 1,000 bikes ($165,000),” he said. “It would be fantastic to reach $50,000 total with this ride.”
Schweikert set a Guinness World Record by riding his bike around Carmel’s first roundabout (Main Street and River Road) for 24 hours in 2019. He completed 376 miles with more than 3,000 laps.
For more on this ride, visit whyiride.org/world-record-attempt. Follow Schweikert’s attempt at maps.findmespot.com/s/LN9S.
