Arrivée est arrivé!

[sg37409]

FYI McNasty is George Berwick

Apparently Cycling Plus magazine has a feature on him this month.

[Ian H]

FYI McNasty is George Berwick

Apparently Cycling Plus magazine has a feature on him this month.

That should sell lots of shiny new bikes. 

[mattc]

If I had my druthers everything resembling a ride report would be verboten, or at least have to strongly justify its existence.

Ride reports that give some practical information about the ride - what the route is really like, whether there are places to get bonk rations between widely-spaced controls, whether certain parts get busy with traffic at unexpected times of day (on perms) can be both interesting and useful in helping a would-be rider decide whether to try an event for themselves. This is particularly the case with some perms, where the information available prior to entry is minimal. 

There used to be some guidance to this effect (maybe in the old handbook?) for would-be contributors and perhaps it's time to revisit that, either on Audax.Uk or in the magazine.
...

That is an excellent intention, Mr Light. (and well said Mr grams!)

Ride Reports need to be entertaining or informative; too often they are a weak mixture of both, diluted by much jacket/flapjack talk (and "I'd ridden this before in my 2nd SR series, but today we went the other way ... " )

A really keen (sub?)editor could add missing info e.g. an outline map where the report is absurdly vague, that sort of thing.

[John Stonebridge]

Exceptionally petty school playground stuff.

[Redlight]

Exceptionally petty school playground stuff.

Welcome to YACF 

(It gets much worse further down the Board)

[Ian H]

Exceptionally petty school playground stuff.

Welcome to YACF 

(It gets much worse further down the Board)

I think he's saying that's the kind of stuff he wants to see in Arrivée.

[mattc]

N very much enjoyed the poetry and dogs articles.
The tandem & midges report was fun.

Overall I liked the increased variety of articles. I suspect this will relapse as events get going again, so
I am working on my submission "A novice Cyclo-cross season"

[Peter]

Will it read: cancelled;cancelled;cancelled, etc.?  Or must we wait and see?!

[mattc]

Will it read: cancelled;cancelled;cancelled, etc.?  Or must we wait and see?!

We did actually manage about 4 races this past year - 3 of those cheated by running in the summer!

[frankly frankie]

Audax Oz eventually stopped publishing their magazine ‘Checkpoint’ a few years ago and their organisation still continues. A pity IMHO but obviously reflecting their members’ collective valuation of the magazine’s importance.

Sad to hear that.  For some years we had a reciprocal arrangement between Checkpoint and Arrivee whereby each could re-print articles from the other.

An outstanding contributor was Kay Dence ...

[Ian H]

Audax Oz eventually stopped publishing their magazine ‘Checkpoint’ a few years ago and their organisation still continues. A pity IMHO but obviously reflecting their members’ collective valuation of the magazine’s importance.

Sad to hear that.  For some years we had a reciprocal arrangement between Checkpoint and Arrivee whereby each could re-print articles from the other.

An outstanding contributor was Kay Dence ...

I always thought it was written by a UK-based Oz.  You learn something every day.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

She was definitely living in Oz, though an ancienne du PBP. Audax Oz seems to sort-of hang together now through regional email groups (I’m in one of them) and FaceAche (never touched it) but I think it is a significant step backwards.

[quixoticgeek]

Found a copy of Amvee in my mail box this week. Looking forward to reading it.

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

Just remember, Amvee is a cult... (you need to apply local accent)

[Rupert]

Another good edition as usual.

The article by Richard Betts (p8/9) certainly got me thinking.  There are far too many complete idiots driving what can be used as a lethal weapon on our roads and we hear of yet another cyclist getting killed or seriously injured nearly every week.  It seems to be akin to a lottery as to who might be next. 

How safe do you feel when out on your bike?

[Zed43]

That would probably warrant a topic on its own.

On topic: nother Arrivée arrived in .nl yesterday, have yet to take the time to enjoy it. Good to see the international delivery issues are resolved.

[bhoot]

Pleased to hear the magazine has made it overseas. The last two issues have been sent using good old royal mail for the first leg of the journey before being handed over to local services in each country. The errant issue was sent a different way, and that seemed to cause a lot of problems.

[Tynan2]

Mine arrived yesterday although I am a very recent new member.

As someone whose eyesight is no longer of jet fighter pilot standard, small text on coloured backgrounds is unhelpful although I did enjoy some of the heroic ride stories.

And I was amazed to read about people in favour of e-bikes on audaxes, the only thing that keeps me going sometimes is to know that everyone else is having to do it too, at the end of the day the essence of a bike is that it is powered by the rider surely, calling it an e bike is a bit of a shade of grey, you can call it a moped too. One of the letters said they were not being used on their MTB rides by old people or those with disabilities (or whatever the latest word for that is), they were used by abled bodied rider that liked to get up hills first and didn't care how.

I saw two fellas on a ride once that were 80 and 76, a little feeble but tricked out in full kit and having a whale of a timetelling people how old they were.

[freeflow]

What surprises me about e-bikes on Audaxes is that anyone feels strongly enough to complain.  Just create an ebike category if it worries you.  As for the rule of being unassisted, most Audaxers I see would fail that test at some stage or other when they ride behind someone else into a headwind 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Riders of assisted cycles are already allowed to ride sub-200km AUK brevets. They just don’t get their brevets homologated, which is fair. The riders get to enjoy the route, the event and the company of other riders. What more is needed?

[Tynan2]

not for me, you have to draw a line somewhere and it's already drawn by the audax people. if you can't or don;t want to ride a 200 under your own energy, then don;t, do a shorter one or do something else. This inclusivity argument is endless, where will it end, As soon as something is powered it stop being a cycle. Let them all go on their own events.

I remember an article from America where people hired bikes at the top of a mountain and then freewheeled all the way to the bottom without ever once having to turn the pedals. It starts to beome and carries on to be more meaningless, it cheapens things.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

You may have misunderstood me. I don't feel there is any need to relax e-bike brevets further.

[Paul H]

It starts to beome and carries on to be more meaningless, it cheapens things.

Please, if you think riding a bike has some meaning, put it in an article, I'd read it.

[aidan.f]

Not just about riding a bike, firstly the like minded people I meet as a result. 'fellowship of the wheel' to use a rather old expression. And on plenty of occasions I find a bike ride in itself uplifting. I would call that a spiritual experience. Plenty of literature about.   'wheels of chance' HG Wells is a start.

[Tynan2]

It starts to beome and carries on to be more meaningless, it cheapens things.

Please, if you think riding a bike has some meaning, put it in an article, I'd read it.

you seem to taken meaning from meaningless. But yes, I do think getting round an audax is a something, i enjoy it and it amkes me feel mentally and physically better for some days afterwards.

I just struggle to believe I would feel a sense of