LOVE


IT

Hope James is mending nicely.  As a prospective rookie rider, ITT is the only format for me.

I see it as one rider against Ma nature, circumstance, and one's own failings and weakness.

$0.02

A simple idea whose time has come:

Seems like every year at the Race Across AMerica (just to pick an example), the hype machine is at full chat:  THE RECORD IS GOING TO FALL THIS TIME FOR SURE!!!  I think we should have a system-wide moratorium on imminent records.  How about waiting on such pronouncements until, say, halfway through the event with the rider/team/crew/runner still at record pace or better? 

The title of this thread pronounces the record so far in advance of the proposed attempt as to be comical.  Melodrama during or after the event just cannot compare.   

So let's keep it to ourselves if a TD record attempt is CERTAIN TO CRUSH THE CURRENT STANDARD until at least 8 or 9 days into an *actual* attempt, hmmmm? 

10-30 button presses on a full "shake"?

Let's see...that is equivalent to having a visible headlight on for approximately how long?

I would buy it.  Just not yet.  Very cool idea.  Do you have the Faraday-effect flashlight?
Same principle.  Shake it and it stays lit for a rather long time before it starts to get dim.
The dirty little secret is that they usually put batteries in the flashlights.  Crank radios also. 

Yeah...for that price, I am making my own.  I bought a used sewing machine ($25),
thread ($15), and a bunch of material ($40) so I am going to make a bunch of bags.

Still have to get velcro and some zippers...

I would do the Flag - Sedona RT in November. 

Or something more local to SoCal any time. 
I also organize USCF "gerbil' road races, so may be
able to do some of the lifting there.

Ummmmm...

WELD aluminium...

BRAZE steel...

SEND CF to Calfee for repairs...

definitely get a backpack either way.

Bob M,

How do the rules of the race generate unknowable times???

Wow.  What a shock.  Never met any of you nice folks, but this is somehow personal.

Be extra careful out there, everybody.  Every time you are on the bike, ok?

Condolences to the family...

No doubt!

A few miles East of you boys...watching Eric with interest.

Go Nelson!

Mark,

Yeah, 52-55" would be too short for doing laps of Lake Mendota...but too much for the TD climbs?
Shouldn't be...you just have to recalibrate your walking threshold.

55" is OK for flats and mild climbs...the gear is irrelevant on descents...and that covers a lot of the course.
Seems like the strategy would be to be choose a gear that would have you pedaling as much as possible
over three weeks.  I think Bruce B. is right.  Get lean and mean and take a lesson from Kent and Deanna.
Pick a gear and make it work.

I will take a stab at the fixed question as well, since I have put in a lot of road miles on fixed.  And a few
dirt miles...Gear just a bit short for flats, so it is comfortable (but not *easy*) to really spin up.  Like 120 to
150rpm.  Then you can pedal all but the hardest climbs.  The descents are the same deal, really.  You can
pedal all but the worst descents.  Dave N. and Deanna ride fixed on dirt.  THAT is in another league...but
SS shouldn't be.  Lean and mean...

I aim to find out next June at the TD first hand!



SPB from Middleton (once upon a time)

Bruce, it was a joke...been here a month and you are the only one that knows how to ride, hmmmm? 

You said it, Fixie Dave!

With any kind of SS, you are **always** in the wrong gear.

With a proper fixed gear setup, instead of fearing the climbs, you dread the descents!

protoceratops (FG Bianchi and SS Merlin)

Zipp 404s...somehow even funnier to only have the rear.

Classic!

That must be the Alpacka part...they like that.

Way to go Jonesy...

Lots of folks cheering you on from afar!  I hope to ride the AZT one day soon,
but for now watching your progress was pretty cool. 

I gotta go ride right now...

WOW!!

From Middleton, WI...congrats on the new race!

Yeah...kind of (in)famous among a certain crowd.

Sort of the intersection of this group and randonneurs.

112 miles, 16,500', 70% dirt are the usual numbers.
Old roads originally built for horsecarts and buggies mostly.

12wheels - I ride SS, and I am old and heavy.  Fixed on the road, at least where the whole ride isn't relentless climbing.  Not as bad as you might think.  It does take some adaptation, of course.

Also, my mid 80's Stumpjumper has the 5-speed FW with 15-30.  Twice as many gears for what?
With the 5-speed spacing, that 36 is just one more gear...maybe I should upgrade to 6-speed now, eh?

This comes to mind.  The only reason it is so funny is because it is only a slight stretch from the usual business practices that Specialized is using...
and Park Tool Blue(TM)...and the folks patenting "discovered" rather than "invented" things like the human genome fraud...


http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29130