I'll give a more useful update later...
Like how the bike check went? I would be interested to hear if/why bikes failed the test (couldn't care less about the who ) and if you have seen any particular clever setups and kit.
That has been done now. It's up on Dotwatcher as entry day -1.
I sent bikes away for the following reasons:
- No reflective tape (Bas you should know better!)
- Loose headset/stem
- Lack of front brake (bike check mechanic is a British moron)
- No Lights
- Loose QR skewers.
On the later one, he really objected to me insisting he tighten them. "I like to ride loose" he says, I don't care how fucking lose you like to ride, I'm the one who has to say your bike is safe to ride, and right now it isn't, tighten them or I am not ticking it off. No doubt he changed it once he got out the room, but at least when I saw it, the wheels were tight and didn't wobble. When I say wobble, i could move the rim by about 5mm.
We had a couple who turned up with the bike, with no luggage etc...
"Can you turn your lights on?"
"They're in the car"
"Well I can't see them from here, I need to see they work"
Every rider is sent the full bike check list with what you have to have. Some were a bit light on the amount of reflective tape needed. The sheet says 30x200mm on the seat stays, some had a piece maybe 5mm by 70mm. There was also a lot of confusion as to what the seat stays were. Yes it's lovely that your seat post is blinding me, but um, we said seat stays.
Fortunately Michael expects that there's going to be a lot of people who get the tape wrong, so he did provide a nice box with tape in it so that people could add some.
One interesting idea I saw on a lot of bikes was the fitting of bells to seat posts. You have to have a bell (that's Dutch law). But I don't think it says anywhere it has to be fitted to the handle bars. Not sure how easy it is to ring there when you're navigating tourists, but hey...
Sunday 7.45, Groningen is gray, damp and completely void of any wind.
Bonne route to all the participants!
I looks like they are getting some nice tail winds. I'm just catching up on everything that's happened, ready to write the day 1 report for dotwatcher.
Anyone spotted anything they think I should mention?
J