[HAMR] Tommy Godwin record

[chrisbainbridge]

What about some sort of tag? like the ones used for people on bail?  Guarantees the location of an individual and not just the bike?

[Phil W]

... yet if you're really good at eating a large number of baked beans in a minute with chopsticks

He might need to do both if he's to eat enough during the epic challenge.

[Karla]

This is TG, I'm sure he's well up for the bean-eating challenge.

[Phil W]

Does the place you start have to be same you finished the previous day? If not, you could always ride with a tail wind by getting lifts north / south etc. to take advantage.  So you could hammer up and down the flat LEL bits with a tail wind at all times.

[Jethro]

I would be happy to assist as well as provide some free equipment (tyres/tubes etc) as well as some financial support.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

As long as they ride the total distance, the rider can do whatever they like including oneway rides, drafting or whatever.

[teethgrinder]

Does the place you start have to be same you finished the previous day? If not, you could always ride with a tail wind by getting lifts north / south etc. to take advantage.  So you could hammer up and down the flat LEL bits with a tail wind at all times.

I think that Tommy Godwin might have done that himself.
I remember having breakfast with George Mc Nasty and Jack Eason in a B&B in Doncaster before the start of LEL in 1997.
George was telling us that he once met the man who got the mileage record and that he had to be taught how to walk again after his record and that he used to ride all day with a tailwind and catch a train at night back to where he started.

[Basil]

TG.  You could have my spare room in Brum.  205 miles a day would only be 82 rides to the Country Girl and back.
So obv, to beat the record, you'd have to go 83 times occasionally.
Sorted! 

[CrinklyLion]

CrinklyHotel is open for advance bookings

[mrcharly-YHT]

Tg I thought you'd have your favourite tyres picked out and everything!

erm, have you tried 28mm Rubino pro? I get loads of miles out of them before they get puncture-prone and they are nice and supple. Best of all, they are pretty cheap (relative term these days).

How about approaching a newspaper?  The 'Sunday Times world record' might get some attention.

[teethgrinder]

Tg I thought you'd have your favourite tyres picked out and everything!

It's hard to do proper road tests because I'd want to at least a week of big miles. I was using Marathon Plus for the first time in winter. No punctures but they're just too slow. The Vredsteins were OK but I've only used them in summer before and they seem to get a lot of punctures. I was getting 1 every 100 miles in winter. I have suspisions that hey have altered what they make them out of and they aren't as puncture proof as the were.
I might use Panaracer for the winter.

Not sure about wheels either. They pretty well have to be disc brakes but not sure whether to go for carbon rims or not. I can't afford to buy lots of carbon wheels to see which ones are best. I've barely go the money for one cheap pair as it is. Not sure if carbon wheels with few spokes would be up to it either, which might mean getting custom built rims and building them myself.


Everything else looks OK.

[Karla]

Tg I thought you'd have your favourite tyres picked out and everything!

erm, have you tried 28mm Rubino pro? I get loads of miles out of them before they get puncture-prone and they are nice and supple. Best of all, they are pretty cheap (relative term these days).

^ Wot MrC said

How about approaching a newspaper?  The 'Sunday Times world record' might get some attention.

The ST did the round the world yacht race, after all.

[L CC]

I was using Marathon Plus for the first time in winter. No punctures but they're just too slow.

We gained 2kph by swapping them for GP 4 seasons. But we then had 2 flats after half a dozen rides. (Just checked- ~1500km). We have to carry a spare tyre with 'em- I'm not sure it's worth it, really. (Except that I like being a bit faster).

[teethgrinder]

My getting a puncture every 100 miles on 200 miles rides with fast tyres was a lot faster than riding puncture free on Marathon plus tyres. 2kmh is a lot of miles over the course of a year riding for 16 hours a day-ish.
It's a whole lot of innertubes though!

[jamesld8]

Why consider carbon rims ? As long as your routes are flattish once up to speed isn`t a good reliable mid weight rim eg Open Pro type just as good?
FWIW I`m using a set Open Pros / Novatec disc hubs / 32h 3x built by Harry Rowlands for less than £400 and they`ve been great for 2 500 miles so far no issues at all (although put in better quality sealed bearings early on). Hubs have swoppable freehub either Campag  or Shimano specific.

It`s fantastic  that you`re considering the record it`s such a huge challenge and very very best wishes with it, "bon courage" 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Carbon rims are a *lot* lighter and also absorb some vibration.

Small differences but paying attention to these things results in multiple marginal gains. All adds up.

[Rainmaker]

Posted by: mrcharly Today at 08:40

Carbon rims are a *lot* lighter and also absorb some vibration.

Not sure I agree with this, though I've never ridden any carbon rims.   But I seem to remember that a few years ago there was a horrible crash on a cobbled descent in one of the spring classics and a theory was advanced that because the carbon wheels were so stiff they didn't flex and absorb some of the vibration but just "bounced".
Doesn't the tension of the spokes determine the stiffness of the wheel?

But good luck to you "teethgrinder", I can't think of anyone more suitable to go for this record and if you did decide to try for it I'm sure you would get lots of support from the audax community.   

[Ningishzidda]

Posted by: mrcharly Today at 08:40

Carbon rims are a *lot* lighter and also absorb some vibration.

Not sure I agree with this, though I've never ridden any carbon rims.   But I seem to remember that a few years ago there was a horrible crash on a cobbled descent in one of the spring classics and a theory was advanced that because the carbon wheels were so stiff they didn't flex and absorb some of the vibration but just "bounced".
Doesn't the tension of the spokes determine the stiffness of the wheel?

But good luck to you "teethgrinder", I can't think of anyone more suitable to go for this record and if you did decide to try for it I'm sure you would get lots of support from the audax community.

We're appealling for a volunteer to crash down that cobbled descent with alloy rims to see if the resultant injuries are not worse.

[teethgrinder]

I used a pair of Campag Boras last year (not mine) and they were definitely faster than any other wheels I've used.
I'm just trying to find out what it was that made them so much faster than any other wheel I've used.
They had tubs, but I can't really use tubs.
They were very light, which must be at least some advantage, but how much?
From what I've read so far, carbon wheels make stiffer wheels, which makes them faster.
Hope make wheels with carbon and Mavic Open Pro rims but there's not very much difference in weight, so keeping in mind that the wheels with carbon rims have fewer spokes with aluminium nipples, I'm doubting that the rims are that much lighter that the aluminium ones anyway and with fewer spokes I could lose more than I gain by having a wheel break.

I think that ther might be something in carbon rims. Looking at photos of the RAAM this year, everyone seemed to have carbon rims. The round the world record holder used carbon rims with disc brakes too. But I think they were specilly made because they were 32h rims, which isn't standard for carbon. Carbon rims are usualy 24 rear/20 front.

I might try tensioning a cheap pair of wheels up extra tight and seeing if I can find any difference.

[mattc]

I used a pair of Campag Boras last year (not mine) and they were definitely faster than any other wheels I've used.
I'm just trying to find out what it was that made them so much faster than any other wheel I've used.

Was that on the 24, and are they deep-section, highly aero? That would make a big difference on a flat-ish course like the recent 24s. I would think it's a bigger advantage than the weight, and stiffness would be less advantage than either.

[but go and browse the TTF for proper expertise!]

My hunch is that aero wheels will be worthwhile if you're sticking to pothole-free flat-ish roads. (didn't you break at least one borrowed wheel?!?)

/layman

[teethgrinder]

Was that on the 24, and are they deep-section, highly aero? That would make a big difference on a flat-ish course like the recent 24s. I would think it's a bigger advantage than the weight, and stiffness would be less advantage than either.

[but go and browse the TTF for proper expertise!]

My hunch is that aero wheels will be worthwhile if you're sticking to pothole-free flat-ish roads. (didn't you break at least one borrowed wheel?!?)

/layman

It was on the 24.
Not especially deep. About 50mm IIRC. They had bladed aero spokes too.
Looking at the wheels on my hybris which are very slow. They have heavy rims and Marathon Plus tyres and even getting that bike up to evens is an effort, though noticeably easier than when I had the previous tyres which were pretty hefty. It's even noticeably slower down hills so my hunch is that weight of rims and tyres makes the biggest difference. Spoke tension is similar to all the other wheels I've built. But that doesn't make a lot of sense when I think of Francesco Moser taking the hour record and using extra heavy wheels for a flywheel effect. Gaaaah!

Even cyclo cross bikes use carbon wheels. The round the world record bloke said that his wheels took some very big hits at speed. He even stopped to check them after some really heavy blows. He said that they stayed true for the whole ride so I think that carbon is tough enough.

TTF might be worth a try but I think they'd know what is fastest, but not why and that what is fastest will probably be too fragile.
I'll pop down to London at the start of the race to Istanbull after LEL and take a few notes.

I broke a spoke in each wheel. Don't know how or why that happened. They were built for and used on a tandem, so would be able to handle a lot more power than I'd be putting into them on a 24. Just lucky I guess.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Short answer because we are halfway round a UAF 1000 tonight.

They were early carbon wheels with signs of galvanic corrosion to the nipples/ nipple washers/ spokes. Stress corrosion is a known phenomenon. New spokes should solve the problem for the next 2 decades or so.

TG will also have a trispoke/ disc combination with tubs at his disposal.

[mattc]

Short answer because we are halfway round a UAF 1000 tonight.

 

[teethgrinder]

2015 is starting to look likely.

I can almost certainly end my mortgage before Christmas, so I'll be doing that. This will cut the cost down by another £2500.
All other bills work out at around £2500 for the year and with £7500 I'd have £20 a day to keep me and the bike running, which I think might just be enough. So about £10,000 needed.
I'll most likely build a spare set of tubeless wheels as well as a few other things to have 3 bikes that are up to it, ready to use and am aiming to finish work at the end of November so that I have a month to prepare.
Plus I've just started to try and get myself a bit fitter.

After a hunt around this weekend, I have about £7000 in savings etc. Though getting equiped will probably take at least another £1000. I also can't be certain that £10000 will be enough and to be honest, if I can do this without cleaning out my life savings, then I will. Plus if things go well I could well end up going for the 100,000 mile record and I haven't budgeted for that. I'll also need to have money to live on afterwards until I can find another job!

So I'm holding out the begging bowl for cash.
What could happen if I receive sponsorship in the form of food to keep me going and bike parts to keep my bike going, is that the cost reduce and I end up making a profit, which I think ought to go to charity. That's because I'm not doing this to earn money and also because I think that people will be more willing to fund me if it goes to a good cause rather than my back pocket. Especially if I fail. I could keep the Go Fund Me going and use it as a charity fundraiser on the side.

I'm trying to set something up on
Go Fund Me
but it's all bit Greek to me. Finance and computers aren't my thing.

I'd very much appreciate anyone who knows about this to have a nosey at this website to see if it's legit and would be good to use. I've never done fund raising before.

Sometime in the near future, it would probably be worth setting up a website, which I'd need someone who knows how to set up a website to do.

The Ultra Marathon Cycling Association, UMCA, who set the rules for RAAM and lots of other races of that nature, are taking some interest and I believe are thinking about a set of rules for an annual mileage record.
The UMCA also have their own live tracking devices which they use in RAAM, failing that, I may be able to get a tracking device from Yellowbrick as used by Hoppo on his record attempts.

There is also an American who is stepping up for this next year. He allready has $30000 sponsorship.

[RichForrest]

As said by others on this thread, I'll be up for adding a bit to the fund. Kickstarter was another site mentioned earlier.
Could this be a thing that AUK could put up some money towards? Definitely able to promote long distance cycling with this one.