Author Topic: Battle Mountain 2019  (Read 14181 times)

Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #75 on: 11 September, 2019, 12:10:17 am »
When I read DF Velomobile, I envisage a fully fared upwrong with the pilot crouched uncomfortably in the restricted headroom.
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Tim Hall

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #76 on: 11 September, 2019, 12:21:23 am »
Fully faired you say? Up wrong you say?

https://youtu.be/zf2dCldwAtk
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Kim

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #77 on: 11 September, 2019, 12:25:58 am »
I'm sure I've seen old photos of uprights with fairings ranging from "unflattering lycra bodysock" to full "better hope there isn't a crosswind".


Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #78 on: 11 September, 2019, 04:30:03 am »
2D Thomas has spent the past year on Mike Sova's boat somewhere in the Caribbean and Mikey doesn't do antisocial media, so his appearances for the last twelvemonth have been sporadic.  I have a packet of stroopwafels on my desk and have been resisting the temptation since Friday.

Tuesday night was teh suxx0r.  Very windy, to the extent that we had two starters in each of heats one and three and none at all in the second.  Josh Gieschen in Cal Poly's bike Ambition did 63.99 in the first; in the third Andrea Gallo cruised down at 40 for most of the way before slowing for a 33 mph pass and Ishtey Amminger did 51.29 in VeloX S. ARION5 ate another rear tyre about half a mile from timing, flipping Yasmin onto her side.  No major dama ge but more filing and graunching required to prevent any more repeats.

The only other excitement was Mr Truckie-Mardypants threatening to run the roadblock at the start.  Flagger Geri Ann rebuffed him with suitable Bad Swears and threats of police involvement, since it's effectively our road while it closed and we can do what we like with it.  In the early years of the event the local Department of Transportation boss was known as Scary Mary.  She once told the Sheriff to fuck off ;D
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #79 on: 11 September, 2019, 03:46:39 pm »
That is interesting as I would think the Milan has to be quicker than the DF (much better shape and longer). Has the DF got pants (wheel coverings)?
Wheel pants!  :D
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Auntie Helen

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #80 on: 11 September, 2019, 04:58:32 pm »
They are called Hosen in German and presumably an American did the translation to English
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Kim

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #81 on: 11 September, 2019, 05:15:54 pm »
Do British velomobileists call them spats?

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #82 on: 11 September, 2019, 05:37:05 pm »
Explanation if needed, or if it explains anything: At a gathering of YACFers at Watlington a couple of years ago, we learnt from Clarion that the fairings over the wheels on small aircraft with non-retractable undercarriages are called "wheel pants" in American and "spats" in British.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #83 on: 11 September, 2019, 05:47:13 pm »
And we rapidly extended the term to cover lycra cycling shorts, for obvious reasons.

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #84 on: 11 September, 2019, 09:27:16 pm »
And we rapidly extended the term to cover lycra cycling shorts, for obvious reasons.

Bidshorts, though, are "Lycrahosen".

Tales of all being well after last night's ARION5 spill have proved to be under-reported, as Yasmin got quite a bang on the head and although feeling OK immediately after the crash, later complained of concussion-like symptoms and was carted off to the hospital for various tests and observations.  Supervisor Glen told me they weren't planning to run at all tonight but with a world record within reach Yas has other ideas and has signed up for an on-deck slot which means she'll get to run if someone drops out of the heat.

Less drama this morning, though Denise had a Visitation about halfway down the course.  She was able to bring the bike to a halt, but the team weren't quite quick enough to catch Wahoo before she toppled over.  A similar fate befell Vittoria when Taurus-X's transmission decided to play silly buggers, though the team had gone off down the course with the keys to their big van in someone's pocket.  Which at least meant I had some help from their driver in laying the distance marker signs down in the brush.  Sprocket Rocket b0rked a chain tensioner somewhere on the course and then locked the front axle at catch, blowing all four front tyres.  They have a light aircraft on standby should they need o send someone to Reno or Salt Lake City for fresh ones 8)

Adam and Kazuhiro both managed to complete the short course, albeit without the full quota of bodywork in place, Hans van Vugt having performed wonders on Adam's pretzeled wheel yesterday.  Fabien was again the fastest rider this morning with a legal 79, Rosa did an non-legal 75 and Todd almost 59 in the DF on his first run down the full course.

Very still out at the moment, but it's clouding over.  Part of me wouldn't complain if tonight's runs didn't happen, so I could go back to sleep.
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Tim Hall

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #85 on: 11 September, 2019, 09:33:22 pm »
So what's the score with the Velociraptor? Is it terminally b0rked? Am I right in thinking it's a Burrows M design?
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Kim

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #86 on: 11 September, 2019, 10:29:40 pm »
And we rapidly extended the term to cover lycra cycling shorts, for obvious reasons.

Bidshorts, though, are "Lycrahosen".

Of course.


Quote
Tales of all being well after last night's ARION5 spill have proved to be under-reported, as Yasmin got quite a bang on the head and although feeling OK immediately after the crash, later complained of concussion-like symptoms and was carted off to the hospital for various tests and observations.  Supervisor Glen told me they weren't planning to run at all tonight but with a world record within reach Yas has other ideas and has signed up for an on-deck slot which means she'll get to run if someone drops out of the heat.

Less drama this morning, though Denise had a Visitation about halfway down the course.  She was able to bring the bike to a halt, but the team weren't quite quick enough to catch Wahoo before she toppled over.  A similar fate befell Vittoria when Taurus-X's transmission decided to play silly buggers, though the team had gone off down the course with the keys to their big van in someone's pocket.  Which at least meant I had some help from their driver in laying the distance marker signs down in the brush.  Sprocket Rocket b0rked a chain tensioner somewhere on the course and then locked the front axle at catch, blowing all four front tyres.  They have a light aircraft on standby should they need o send someone to Reno or Salt Lake City for fresh ones 8)

Well at least nobody's got their hair caught in anything...

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #87 on: 12 September, 2019, 04:36:36 am »
So what's the score with the Velociraptor? Is it terminally b0rked? Am I right in thinking it's a Burrows M design?

Not sure what the latest is as they weren't at tonight's meeting, but the word is they won't be running tomorrow.  The basic chassis is based on characters created by M Burrows; the v2.0 retains the same geometry as the Soup Dragon and thus doesn't work either.  Russell has been posting about it on the BHPC forum, starting roughly at http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/battle-mountain-2019_topic6950_page3.html


Well at least nobody's got their hair caught in anything...


Not many of the riders have hair the length of thee or me except Yasmin, who makes sure to keep it in a plait tucked into a safe place while racing.  She didn't ride tonight in the end; instead she and Ken came out to watch.  We didn't have the spiffy grandstand and spectator parking the last time they were here so they parked at catch and headed out across country with the sneks and the river that actually has water in it.  Fortunately we managed to call them back before they got drownded or et.

No wind-legal runs tonight chiz, and although it wasn't as strong as last night it was a lot more gusty.  Even the Mustang got shifted across half a lane at 120 mph on a sweep run.  Toronto's tandem Titan got blown this way, that way and over about half a mile from timing.  "We got out" said stoker Evan Bennewies "and the streamer on the pole was hanging down vertically!"  Natch today was the day that the parents of Captain Calvin Moes showed up to see their boy in action for the first time ;D

Fabien Canal also got hit by a gust, thought he had a puncture, pulled over, slowed down and allowed the IUT Annecy team to pull off a copybook mid-course catch.  Denise Koronek had another Fairy visitation, this time at lower speed but more sudden.  She couldn't hold it and went off into the scenery near Filippini Ranch road less than a mile into the run.  Of the survivors, Rosa Bas was the fastest at 70.77 mph in spite of a phenomenal recovery at the start when it looked as though she was heading straight off the road.

And we had another dick of a trucker at the roadblock.  This time we had pictures, video and a very interested off-duty Sergeant Aten, who is intending to hold a one-way conversation with the guilty party when he's back in uniform ;D
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Tim Hall

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #88 on: 12 September, 2019, 09:44:19 pm »
Velociraptor does seem to be doing an awful lot of design/development sometime after such bits should have been sorted.  Why wasn't the steering issue picked up earlier?
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #89 on: 12 September, 2019, 10:44:35 pm »
The steering issue gets worse the faster they go so when Vmax in testing before departure is only 30 mph...  Last year they were able to test at Rockingham Speedway, but it's being demolished if it hasn't been already.  My grate frend Marieke just dropped by the Big Chief and it does appear that they'll have something usable for tomorrow morning's qualifying runs, but I ate'nt seen any of their team so far today.

Further woes for Liverpool this morning.  The team were literally pushing Ken off the start line when a Wossname in the camera electronics went "phut".  With various people scratching, he had an opportunity to run the next heat but the backup camera's picture was all washed-out and overexposed an' t'ing and MR Supervisor Steve said "no".  Whatever the issue, it couldn't be fixed in time for Yasmin to run in the final heat.  It has been suggested, semi-srsly, that fitting the offending camera with sunglasses, or at least part of the lens thereof, might alleviate the problem.  Alternatively a hacksaw, some hockey tape and one of Hans van Vugt's spare windscreens.

We ran the full course runs before the qualifiers this morning, meaning the lobby of the Super 8 was again full of grubby PSOs, it was cold out and ARION's issues meant I was surplus to requirements as a chase official until the final heat, when I pulled rank on a n00b named Ricky and went behind Sprocket Rocket.  It dropped a chain at around 60 and had to coast the last mile or so.

For the machines that did run it was mostly uneventful except that Rosa decked VeloX 9 at or near catch after yet another near-75 run.  It is believed that Ilona also did a 74, but the timing system ran out of electricity at a crucial moment so the data is from the bike's GPS.  Fabien broke 80 again before the wind got going.  Altair team boss Guillaume de France qualified the bike at just under 50.  Mike Mowett finally ran the VeloX S with the lid on and did 47 on the short course, have gone down three times at start in the previous heat.  A change of launcher to long-time volunteer Scott Wilson seemed to be the magic ingredient.  Andrew Sourk finally got Triage down the course with both the machine and the rider's knees in working order with 28.7 mph.

Astonishingly, there are people over on the Farcebok group who seem to think that verbally abusing our flagger for doing her job is acceptable, so you are encouraged to join the group and call them Rude Names.  WTF do these people do when they encounter a red traffic light, shoot it?
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Kim

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #90 on: 12 September, 2019, 10:57:21 pm »
some hockey tape

Hurrah!


Quote
WTF do these people do when they encounter a red traffic light, shoot it?

Don't give them ideas...

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #91 on: 13 September, 2019, 05:15:00 am »
Further embuggerance for the Liverpool team.  They bought some car window tinting film to fit over their misbehaving camera and sent Yasmin off in good, though not brilliant, conditions.  She stopped less than a mile down the road with a repeat of the transmission issues that the team thought they'd fixed on Sunday chiz.  Ken had a standby slot for the third heat, but they found a cut in a tyre which meant they couldn't have run even if someone else had dropped out.  Still, they took all the distance marker signs down on the way down the course afterwards, which saved us long-suffering officials a lot of jumping in and out of cars.

"Baling wire, duct tape and bubblegum" said The Evil One aka Frank Lem to the Toronto lads after Titan failed to launch with something amiss in the headset area.  "Noes", they said.  "We used a pop can!" And it didn't do the job.

Apparently there were loud noises from the Italian PSOs when Vittoria finished here run - the first of the evening - and the figure "134*" was being bandied about when Andrea crawled out of Taurus.  Sadly, neither of them had legal wind for their 74.55 and 84.52 mph runs.  Rosa did, but her 74.52 was not an improvement over her record.   Instead it was the IUT Annecy team who had the run of the weather.  In the second heat Fabien Canal set a new European record and became the second fastest rider in history with 84.99 mph.  And in the evening's final run Ilona Peletier smashed Rosa's record from earlier in the week with 77.10.

(Sings rousing chorus of La Marseillaise)


And this morning they made her drive the van... by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

* km/h, obv
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #92 on: 13 September, 2019, 09:18:39 pm »
I think there are a few out-of-joint noses in the Dutch and Italian camps after last night.  My Sinister Agents tell me that:
  • Ilona is 19
  • She used to race cyclocross as a junior and now doesn't
  • She's Fabien's niece, unless she's his cousin
  • She's only been riding any kind of recumbent for a month or so before coming here
  • They had her driving the van again this morning
Colder first thing this morning, and the wind was unkind to almost everyone on the five mile course except, ironically on Friday 13th, Jennifer.  Andrea was the fastest with a 76.96, but he obviously wasn't trying that hard as the team fitted the red nose with the bull on it rather than the faster plain white one.  Neither of Annecy's front-line riders ran this morning, though team boss Guillaume did, and crashed in catch after a 58.5 mph run.  They haven't let him out without the Kevlar crash panels yet.  Rosa failed to launch three times on her first attempt to run and had to try again in the third heat.  Pressure?  Todd got Peter Borenstadt's DF velomobile through the traps at 60.41 mph with a non-legal tailwind.  Much grousing from the Milan lads sitting behind me at the morning debrief.

Among the BRITONS, Russell will attempt to qualify Frankenraptor/Velocitractor/Dinosaur Jr/Bikey McBikeface tomorrow morning as the glue didn't dry in time for today, Ken got to act as test pilot for the latest mods to ARION5's drivetrain and Yasmin's speed would have been enough to break the women's multitrack world record if the wind had cooperated chiz.

The wind dropped for the qualifiers on the short course at the end of the morning proceedings.  Adam Hari's lidless and legal 45.16 mph was enough to promote him to the long course tomorrow morning while the Tokyo team added a bit more bodywork to Haruka 2019 and got down the road at 35.65 after a couple of launch spills.  They've got a tiny amount of ground clearance at the front to the slightest lean grounds the fairing.  Andrew Sourk manages to crash Triage in the 200, climbed out and pushed the rest of the way, but Mr Sir Duke High Admiral Professor Timelord Nogami had already switched off the equipment, so we don't know how slow he actually was chiz.
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ElyDave

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #93 on: 13 September, 2019, 09:39:32 pm »
DF velomobile?
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #94 on: 13 September, 2019, 09:45:07 pm »
DF velomobile?

This one, to be precise:


P9130035 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

"DF" in this case being the initials of designer Daniel Fenn.
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Beardy

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #95 on: 14 September, 2019, 12:03:10 am »
DF velomobile?

We’ve already had the uprong confusion somewhere upthread and Mr L was most kind providing you with a specific answer because he left us floundering earlier. The git.
 :P
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #96 on: 14 September, 2019, 04:39:51 am »
Full (or very nearly) moon, Friday 13th, what could possibly go wrong?  If you asked Ken Buckley you'd get a string of Bad Swears coz in spite of some string-pulling behind the scenes by Sergeant Aten to get him on the road, the transmission went "SPANG" only a few hundred yards after starting.  And if you asked Ishtey Amminger or Josh Gieschen you'd probably get a similar reaction, since their runs were the only ones without legal wind.  And Ishtey's, at 66.67 mph was faster than Florian Kowalik's world record.  Rosa Bas had another session to forget with two failed launches, dropping the chain on second one and non-starting.

Everyone else?  Yasmin finally got a good one in.  56.42 mph is a new women's multitrack world record, as well as being an outright BRITISH one, nicking it from Russell Bridge's run in Greg Cantori's Milan set last year.  Andrea achieved his goal of going faster than Sebastiaan Bowier, with 84.81.  Fabien Canal was hampered by a nosebleed, but still hit 83.80.  Denise Koronek fell twice at the start and then earned her 70 mph hat with a 70.60 and Ellen van Vugt, who has almost certainly run down the curse more times than anyone else in history, set a new personal best with 72.04.  She should have a new bike next year ;D

Heat 3 and Ilona upped her own world record to 78.61 mph.  "She can do 80 for sure!" said Guillaume de France, grinning comme un fou.  Vittoria's 76.98 puts her second on the women's all-time list and, on only their sixth time riding the Titan, Calvin Moes and Evan Bennewies set a new tandem world record at 74.73 mph.  They've been treating this year as a learning exercise and intend to give it some serious beans next year.  Liverpool have already stated their intention to build a tandem for 2020 and my Sinister Agents tell me that HPT Delft/Amsterdam's VeloX 10 will also be a two-seater.

Nights like this are why us saps spend thousands and lose an equivalent amount of sleep for.
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ElyDave

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #97 on: 14 September, 2019, 06:29:38 am »
DF velomobile?

We’ve already had the uprong confusion somewhere upthread and Mr L was most kind providing you with a specific answer because he left us floundering earlier. The git.
 :P

That's my auditor training for you :)
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #98 on: 14 September, 2019, 10:23:22 pm »
After last night's excitement this morning was a bit meh.  Wind much the same as yesterday morning's, and the sensible Italians didn't bother to run.  Mike Mowett finally cracked 60 mph; Adam Hari did two runs and got his 55 mph Hat on the second.  Rosa fastest at 74.37, with Ilona second with a non-legal 72.66 and Guillaume a cracking and legal 72.16.  Bill cranked the Milan velomobile up to 60.87 without wind assistance.  Josh got crash of the week after locking up Ambition under braking, rolling a Several of times and finishing only just off the road and upright in the hands of the Cal Poly Oaves.  Denise Koronek got it all on Farcebok Live.

On the short course the rebuilt Velociraptor did 44.38 with Russell at the controls; Kazuhiro did 34.75 before crashing and ending up briefly unconscious.  We think from a faint rather than banging his head, but there were a few anxious moments while the paramedics gave him the once-over.  Guillaume graciously offered his slot this evening to Russ as a tribute to the amazing amount of work the LSBU Oaves have put in this week, though said Oaves claim to have thoroughly enjoyed it and have taken the piss out of the French for getting bored after polishing their bike a bit and pumping up the tyres.

Group photos and handcuffing of various speeding miscreants - Evan, Calvin, Yasmin, Ilona, Fabien and Denise.  The latter since The Sarge decided her exploits at Bonneville last year were a Federal offence.  One more session to go; hoping the wind does the same as it did last night...
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2019
« Reply #99 on: 15 September, 2019, 07:43:58 am »
Saturday pm a bit of a let-down as it was, to use the technical term, Bastard Windy.  Only Yasmin, in the very last run of the event, got a legal one, with 55.66 mph.  She then blew through catch with scarcely diminished velocity.  It was mooted that this was so she could be first in the queue at the bar at the awards bash.  Vittoria was the fastest of the night with a 71.

Awards bash was long and noisy and made me want to tear the rainbow unicorn horn off Bas de Meijer's hat and jam it up his arris for getting it in the way of everyone else's photos.  Bah.

The Young People are off partying.  I am having a nice cup of tea and a lie down.
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