Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => The Dark Side => Topic started by: Mr Larrington on 28 August, 2016, 03:17:54 am
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A couple of weeks before things get going but I'll just leave this here in case anyone gets lonely. Ushual rules apply i.e.
- gibberish at Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary (http://automatic-diary.blogspot.com/)
- official webby SCIENCE: 2016 World Human Powered Speed Challenge (http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/whpsc2016/speedchallenge.htm)
- results from Mr Sir Professor Lord Chief Timer Jun Nogami will show up first at: Biking in a Big City - Archive for the ‘HPV’ Category (https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/category/hpv/)
There's probably some inconsequential guff on Facebook too but ICBA to look for it.
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Yay! It's that time again! *happy dance*
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Recumbent seat Easy chair - check.
Large tub of Butterkist - check.
Ready when you are, Mr. L. :thumbsup:
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For the avoidance of doubt, day 2 of the Automatic Diary was put up just now.
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Lookng forward to your updates.
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Tuning in.
Nice, er, bridges :thumbsup:
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I would urge everyone (OMNES?) to read Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary every morning. Fer teh rofflez...
Sets me up for the day, so it does. :thumbsup:
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OOI is there a way to get an RSS feed of the Automatic Diary, or is the webby SCIENCE strictly semiautomatic?
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Tenuous claim to fame:
I rode a a 200 past that self same Blue Whale back in 2013:
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=71458.msg1480846#msg1480846
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OOI is there a way to get an RSS feed of the Automatic Diary, or is the webby SCIENCE strictly semiautomatic?
I haz no idea, on account of not really knowing what an RSS feed is, never mind whether Blogger can be beaten over the head until it does one.
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Blogger does RSS.
Go to the Automatic Diary's dashboard > Settings > Other, and under 'Site Feed' select the relevant option. For my own blog I select 'Custom'. For 'Blog Posts Feed' I select 'Full'; for 'Blog Comment Feed' I select 'Short', and 'Per Post Comments Feed' I select 'Short'.
The URL would become http://automatic-diary.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
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Hurrah! Now fully automatic. :thumbsup:
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I never done nuffink to it so it must have been like that all along...
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I have to confess to being slightly saddened, and at the same time amused, by the fact that The Automatic Diary is, it turns out, actually automatic...
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I have to confess to being slightly saddened, and at the same time amused, by the fact that The Automatic Diary is, it turns out, actually automatic...
If it could write itself during the day rather than causing me to stay up late every night scratching my head and mumbling "I'm sure I took a photo of that car/bridge/set of Burma-Shave signs/Scorching Plain™/Dalek" I'd be a happy man, or at least less prone to jaw-cracking yawns over breakfast.
Professor Sir Lord Timer in Chief Jun Nogami has put together a handy guide to the runners and riders (https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/bm2016-preview/).
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Just arrived and thus far have seen:
- Some people polishing a streamlined object outside at different motel
- A big crate with no bikes in it but a label indicating it originated in the Nether Lands
- Frank & Joyce, Larry Lem's brother and sister, who don't know where Larry is either
- Steve Nash's van
but then it's still early doors here.
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Just back in from doing the course setup - stands, straw bales, wood product boards along the bridge guard rails etc. First bunchof photos uploaded to here: clicky (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/albums/72157673607196216). Subsequent days will be accessible from https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/albums (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/albums) in individual albums for each day. Chances are that I'll be downsizing them before upload for the rest of the week as the Internets here are rather sluggish.
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I Notice that almost all of these have soem kind of complicated front wheel drive system.
Does the added complexity and weight outweigh the mechanical drag of long lengths of chain to a back wheel?
Also, what's the average chain ring size there?
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I'd guess a decent FWD system is probably as light, if not lighter than an RWD one and you don't have to pass the chain under, over, or through the rider. Chainring sizes vary somewhat as the use of some kind of crossover drive with step-up gearing means you don't necessarily have to have a really huge ring, but PulsaR, the Italian bike, has a 108T single ring and RWD. Anything up to about 65T is reasonably readily available but above that they tend to be custom jobs.
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Qualifying this morning mostly went OK though a few launch wobbles, time overruns and mad Russians shooting through the catch area at R17. I'm driving the chase car for Team Cygnus again this year and am able to report that:
- My man Jan-Marcel van Dijken got away first time, and
- My man Jan-Marcel van Dijken was fastest of all this morning at 61.65 mph, and
- A Chevy Suburban is even more horrible to drive than a Ford
Explosion Expedition
Weather windy and none to warm, and it doesn't seem to have warmed up much sice we got back to town. Forecast in general is a bit shit for the start of the week but improving later one. Pictures from this morning and tonight at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/sets/72157670500931764 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/sets/72157670500931764); full results at https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/bm2016-monday-morning-qualifying/ (https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/bm2016-monday-morning-qualifying/)
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Monday evening was a bit of a poor thing as the wind remained at illegally high level for the duration. We had twelve machines scheduled to ride but only seven actually opted to ride. The naughty Frenchies tried to sneak one in to replace one of the DNS folks but were thwarted by chain issues1. Top speed of the night was Todd Reichert in Eta, with a 76.37 mph clocking into an 11 mph headwind; Gareth Hanks did 65.54 into an even stronger wind. Fair to middling possibility of rain at some point tomorrow but the forecast improves later in the week. Bit like last year, really.
1: I voiced the opinion that Aurélien Bonneteau's huge shaggy beard had become entangled in the gears but apparently this was not the case.
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What's the quaifying speed again?
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In theory 60 mph but because the wind was so 'orrible this morning the fastest twelve were offered runs on the full course in the evening, which in practice meant the cutoff was about 53 mph.
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Mr Larrington gets up. Mr Larrington absorbs a large mug of Brown Drink and a certain quantity of nicotine. Mr Larrington fires up the Ratmobile1 and heads out to the course. Two miles short of the catch area Mr Larrington spots the University of Toronto boys and girls hightailing it back to town. Mr Larrington switches on his windscreen wipers. Mr Larrington pulls into the parking lot to find a bunch of bedraggled volunteers, Scousers, Mexicans, armed robbers ect. ect. all saying the same thing: cancelled. If you can't see Mount Lewis because weather then you're not going to be running any bikes in that session. Troop back to town muttering vile curses and wondering where we can obtain a Small Furry Animal for sacrifice to the Weather Gods without PETA finding out. Bah!
1: The back of which having been artfully redecorated by the sticky fingers of marauding Dutchmen to make it look like the horsey badge is doning a poo >:(
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From comments elsewhere, perhaps you could sacrifice a Frenchman (regardless of size and hirsuteness) instead.
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From comments elsewhere, perhaps you could sacrifice a Frenchman (regardless of size and hirsuteness) instead.
Andrij, you are a Bad Man ;D
Anyway , we're on the telly (https://youtu.be/II2K4OBK5qg). Bunch of hippies on Al-Jazeera = visit from Homeland Security Arrest-O-Bots expected by lunchtime.
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Nice report
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It stopped raining for a bit earlier on but the rain is back with a vengeance, accompanied by the full range of "Dr Frankenstein, Your Lab Is On The Phone" special effects. I'd rate our chances of running this evening as slim to zero as even if it stops raining the road can stay very slick for quite a while. Back in 2002 we had three machines crash at the same spot after a storm had gone through.
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Tuesday night runs cancelled chiz. Not raining in town ATM but the start is twenty miles away and it's still git murky over there.
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More rain overnight but it had dried out enough to run this morning. Yasmin Tredell of the Liverpooligans was first off but ran off the road at low speed at launch and b0rked the camera housing. They couldn't fix it in time for her to have another run but the PSOs got ARION2 fixed for Ken Buckley to do a 71.23 over the long course later in the morning. Sarah Piercy in Reynold, the Plymouth Uni handcycle, did 22.66 mph with the 2.5 mile start. She reckons it's too long so we're looking at the possibility of starting her from or near Badger Ranch Road about 600-1000 metres from timing.
Some bloke called "Reichert" did 81 mph over the long course. Yawn. For some reason Jun hasn't got the results up yet. Hunger, probably. When he does they'll be at or near https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/category/hpv/ (https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/category/hpv/). We both sneaked out of a meeting just now so hopefully not long.
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Fast evening today, except for my man Jan-Marcel, who unshipped his chain after three pedal strokes and then proceeded to coast for six miles at 35-40 mph while us poor saps in the chase car tried to figure out WTF was going on and Calvin Moes in Eta Prime had to pass us on the road. We're pretty sure this is some kind of record. Winds were a bit variable; Ken Buckley was just under his BRITISH record with a legal wind 74.9 mph while Florian Kowalik set a new junior men's record with 62.69 mph - he was faster this morning but the wind wasn't being nice before lunch. Three bikes over 76 mph - Aurélien Bonneteau in Altaïr 5, Jan Bos in VeloX 6 and Andrea Gallo in PulsaR, but only Auré had a wind-legal run.
I should have said four bikes over 76 mph really, because Todd Reichert upped his own record to 88.26 mph :o And conditions are supposed to improve for the rest of the week :thumbsup:
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...When he does they'll be at or near https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/category/hpv/ (https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/category/hpv/)...
I think you need to introduce him to the IF function in Excel ;)
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The Al-Jazeera piece said 138km/h is "faster than it's legal to drive a car in the US." I thought some states eg Montana had no speed limits and a few others had set them as high as 90mph?
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Todd Reichert upped his own record to 88.26 mph :o And conditions are supposed to improve for the rest of the week :thumbsup:
And this is what it sounded like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp6JePiGSJY
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The Al-Jazeera piece said 138km/h is "faster than it's legal to drive a car in the US." I thought some states eg Montana had no speed limits and a few others had set them as high as 90mph?
Montana did abolish rural speed limits back in the 1990s but reintroduced them a couple of years later. Highest posted speed limit I've seen personally has been 80 mph on interstates in Texas and Idaho but there may be higher ones wot I've missed.
Anyway, BRITISH women's record for Yasmin Tredell in ARION2 this morning - 67.58 mph. One of the Scousers says she develops as much power as Ken Buckley on account of having been on Team GB's Olympic rowing team before injuring her back and being advised to cycle to aid recovery. As soon as this is over she's back in training for Tokyo 2020 :o
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8414/29623037061_75901984e0_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/M8FNSi)
P9150240 (https://flic.kr/p/M8FNSi) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr
Yasmin (R) in pre-run conversation with some of the Liverpool team's myriad Penniless Student Oaves. IIRC she'll get to run again tonight should she desire, when it'll be a hell of a lot warmer.
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Only sixty dead for Ken tonight because of a disturbing smell as of something rubbing against something it shouldn't have been rubbing against. Whatever it was, it wasn't doing it by the time Yasmin ran in the third heat and she upped her own BRITISH record to 69.94 mph.
Florian Kowalik pushed his own junior record out to 63.86 mph, Andrea Gallo put the Italian record back above the BRITISHone with 76.13 mph and Aurélien Bonneteau was 0.002 seconds off his personal best (which is probably a French national record to boot). Todd only did 86.27. Ten out of the twelve riders tonight had legal wind; natch my man Jan-Marcel was one of those who didn't but he got going without any problems, kept the chain on and did 73.84.
Can't remember what the start order is tomorrow but we're running the long course heats first and there's no skool bus tomorrow so we can close the road at 07:00, so even less sleep for the likes of me chiz.
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I'm assuming the 5 miles of run up is to get those massive gears wound up to max?
Unlike mr Martin's attempt towed behind a truck, are they required go do it all by human power?
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I'm assuming the 5 miles of run up is to get those massive gears wound up to max?
Yes, though there have been some in recent years who've complained that they'd like an even longer run up :o They can't have one, because there's a corner and central rumble strips just south of where our 5 miles begins and the current slowing down zone is mostly slightly uphill as it crosses the bridge over the Reese River shortly after the timed section.
Unlike mr Martin's attempt towed behind a truck, are they required go do it all by human power?
Yes again - you can have instruments, video screens, gear shifts etc powered by batteries (the jury is still out on computer-assisted steering coz no-one has yet managed to make it work) but all the overcoming of aero and mechanical drag is from the rider him/herself. You can have up to 15 metres of push start and/or balance assistance from a pedestrian or sk8er d00d but launch trolleys have been banned for this year which seems irrational and, to many of us1, a mouldy chiz. And your chase vehicle has to stay $DISTANCE behind the machine to prevent "bow waves" from giving the bike a shove2. The rules also required courses to be flat within 2/3 of 1% over the whole length up to the exit of the timed bit which, by sheer luck, "our" stretch of NV-305 is.
1: Especially Damjan Zabovnik, whose last machine was simply too low to be hand- or sk8er-launched by anyone over 3' tall.
2: There is an unproven suspicion that this was what happened when the Cheetah team set the last pre-Battle Mountain record of 68.73 mph as none of their other umpteen runs were close.
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Wossa launch trolley? Like shelf on wheels with sandwiches and that? Oh, I see...
No, does it provide a push or just balance?
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THURSDAY NIGHT SPEEDS IN ERROR STOP YASMIN OVER 70 STOP JUN TO BE PUBLICLY FLOGGED WITH KMC CHAIN @ 11 AM MEETING ENDS
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So, yes, launch trolley is just for balance and less undignified running about. Usually a wheeled wossname that fits round the tail of the bike and is pulled off when it's going. Preferred method is to have it attached to a piece of string secured at the other end to something secure for e.g. Zabovnik Junior or a Chevrolet as ones discarded by pulling a piece of string inside the bike are prone to failure and might be considered as discarding a piece of the bike after launch, wot is Forbidden. I don't know why anyone would object to them as it's no slower to bung in the chase car than picking up a sk8r d00d and Damjan Zabovnik had a 100% success rate last year, which cannot be said of some of the other teams withe peds or sk8rs.
Just about to head off to the debrief post-morning runs - more Stuffs later.
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Corrected speeds from last night: Ken Buckley: 61.20, Todd Reichert: 87.62, Yasmin Tredell: 70.05. So a better hat and a speeding ticket for Yas, though Officer Aten of the Highway Patrol had the misfortune to get sent to Las Vegas this week so tickets for road traffic violations will have to go by post chiz.
Busy morning with generally benign wind conditions. Sarah Piercy set a new Women's arm-powered record at 24.85 mph, but Ken Buckley dropped ARION2 twice and had to be hauled off for fettling. To the bike, obv, not Ken. He later did 72.33 mph; fastest of the morning was Jan Bos in VeloX 6 at 75.22. Andrew Sourk looked as though he was finally going to get a proper run in but then a knee went SPANGGG and he finished with 18.61 mph with one legged pedalling. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: to the University of Toronto Oaves who managed to run Vortex in all five heats without dropping it, holding up proceedings or dropping seat cushions halfway down the course. Conditions looking better than last night for this evening's runs.
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Kudos to Yasmin (in the modern, Strava, idiom), I can imagine that sitting on an ergo all winter is a similar motion to the recumbent pedalling style, which must help. "Only" 5.7mph off the absolute women's record already on what is her fourth, or fifth, max speed run.
Todd went 87mph I see, so that's filled that little gap in the records, I wonder how much more there is in the tank?
Lookin' good, Mr L:
(https://jnyyz.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/dsc03959.jpg)
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Lookin' good, Mr L:
(https://jnyyz.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/dsc03959.jpg)
Blimey! touch of the Reservoir Dogs or what!
Cool and most definitely menacing I'd say 8)
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I've have you know that those are my bass-player-inna-stoner-rock-band1 sunglasses bought
secondhand off Rick Rubin somewhere poncy in Colorado on a previous trip when I'd contrived to leave my almost-as-cool Ray-Bans at home chiz. That is my grate frend Mr Woolrich in the passenger seat; he hav been here almost as many times as me and even Organisated the whole event in 2004 and 2005. Which takes a bit of doing if you live in Egham.
1: Trufax - someone approached me at a gig a few months ago and asked me if I was Tom Araya out of USAnian thrash metal bozos Slayer :o
(http://www.bassguitarmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/10/Araya-TK-1113-2ndedit_web.jpg)
T Araya in May 2015, yesterday
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I'm as impressed with the beard as I am the sunglasses
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKGai9_81gY
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There were drag races this afternoon, open to anyone without an engine. For the umpteenth time, I didn't go but my Sinister Agents tell me that first place was scooped by Scout, who is Beth & Barclay Henry's golden labrador. Srsly.
So, evening runs and everyone had a wind speed below the legal maximum. Highlights include:
Ken Buckley: New BRITISH record at 76.59 mph
Yasmin Tredell: New BRITISH record at 71.05 mph
Andrea Gallo: New Italian record at 78.85 mph
Aurélien Bonneteau: New French record (I think) at 78.95 mph. Certainly a personal best
Ryohei Komori: New Japanese record at 80.06 mph; 6th member of 80 mph club, 5th fastest person evvah, edging out Damjan Zabovnik's 80.01 on his final run last year.
Florian Kowalik: New Junior Men's World Record at 65.93 mph
For reasons unknown Todd was off the pace with a mere 79.69 mph while my man Jan-Marcel couldn't get top gear and only clocked 73.26. Top marks to the Japanese team for building a bike in a couple of months that cracked 80 pretty much straight out of the box.
I'll have to hold off trying to view Mr Weasel's YouBend link until Sunday night coz the Internets here make the Slow Children look like Komori-san.
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Too windy this morning for all but one run to be legal and the fast girls and boys stayed in bed anyway. Some of them without telling us Offishuls that they were doing so; apologies from Delft and Liverpool written on the back of a $100 bill will do nicely. Then the gathering of all the machines, riders, volunteers, thieves, vagabonds and drag-racing dogs outside the Civic Center for the photos. Minus Plymouth and Dave Sianez, who had left already, and Adam Ince who we think CBA.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8436/29710519536_118d78bacd_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/MgqbmQ)
P9170326 (https://flic.kr/p/MgqbmQ) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr
L-R riders: Jan Bos, Barclay Henry, Andrew Sourk, Greg Thomas, Peter Borenstadt, Gareth Hanks, Alexei Kristaev, Ellen van Vugt, Jan-Marcel van Dijken, Ryohei Komori, Todd Reichert, Calvin Moes, Andrea Gallo, Florian Kowalik, Larry Lem, Aurélien Bonneteau, Yasmin Tredell, Ken Buckley, $MEXICAN PSO, $TORONTO_PSO, Chris Williams, Sherry Shi, $TORONTO_PSO_2
L-R machines: VeloX 6, Take2, TRIage, DF Velomobile, All Overzealous, Tetiva 4, VeloX XS, Cygnus Chronos, Super Ketta Machine 162, Eta, Eta Prime, PulsaR, Velox S (aka "Gee Bee"), Super 8, Altaïr 5, ARION2, The Mexican bike, Vortex
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7795/29710521726_1ba2284d9f_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Mgqc1A)
P9170328 (https://flic.kr/p/Mgqc1A) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr
Winner of the drag races
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8038/29710578916_3c4f25b8ca_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Mgqu1C)
P9170340 (https://flic.kr/p/Mgqu1C) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr
Team Cygnus (2016): Hayco, Western Half-Devil Monster Face van Schaik, Tom Araya Mr Larrington, Jan-Marcel, Sjaak
Last runs tonight. Should be exciting.
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Just in from the awards bash. New multi-track record for Gareth Hanks: 73.95 mph. Improved Japanese record by Ryohei Komori: 82.03 mph. New world record by Todd Reichert: 89.59 mph :o
Sadly for we BRITONS Ken Buckley stacked ARION2 for reasons as yet unknown, but possibly to do with wind. He's OK and the bike wasn't too bad but bad enough to deny Yasmin Tredell a chance to run, which is a chiz coz she reckoned she was in with a shout of surpassing Barbara Buatois' world mark :'(
Nice People George and Carole Leone gave me one of two Launch Area Appreciation Awards and I've been promoted to Official Member of Team Cygnus which means two packets of Stroopwafels. And the boys have entrusted me with the care and feeding of the 2D version of Western Half-Devil Monster Face Thomas van Schaik for the rest of the trip.
The Automatic Diary and photos on flickr won't see much new Stuffs tonight because slow internets and general knackerdom but should resume by this time tomorrow.
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Battle Mountain makes it to Her Majesty's BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-37395538 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-37395538)
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Well, that is all over for another twelvemonth and, in a spirit of international cooperation and magnanimous wossnamery, here is notorious Frenchman Aurélien Bonneteau being persuaded to wear a Team Cygnus T-shaped shirt by Radio Goddess and all-round top gel Marieke Ligtvoet:
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8776/29484205600_85b4ef4aa3_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/LVqg7q)
Auré & Marieke (https://flic.kr/p/LVqg7q) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr
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New world record by Todd Reichert: 89.59 mph :o
Sadly for we BRITONS Ken Buckley stacked ARION2 for reasons as yet unknown, but possibly to do with wind. He's OK and the bike wasn't too bad but bad enough to deny Yasmin Tredell a chance to run, which is a chiz coz she reckoned she was in with a shout of surpassing Barbara Buatois' world mark :'(
Great stuff Dave. You'll have to go again next year to tell us what happens.
What would be good to see is Yasmin and Barbara there at the same time :-)
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My hotel room is already booked for next year though that'll get messed up if the event is moved to late August to get better weather. AeroVelo's Cam Robertson says 90 mph is aiming too low, and they're also looking at having a go at the Hour if they can figure out how to stop Todd from cooking himself medium rare.
Yasmin said she's allowed three weeks off from rowing training per year and would like to take them around September 2017 :thumbsup: ARION2 wasn't too badly damaged - less so than ARION1 when Ken stuffed it midweek last year - but they're supposed to be doing a handcycle project with Alan Grace next year and many of their PSOs will have graduated before the 2017 event. No-one has heard a peep out of Barbara for ages, though Georgi Geogiev has built a new bike and was rumoured to be bringing it to this year's event in the hope of finding a rider. He didn't appear chiz. There were high hopes for Teagan Patterson as well but she seems to have dropped off the grid as thoroughly as Barbara.
Delft's latest bike was a bit of a donkey though at least it didn't fall over all the time like wot VeloX 5 did last year. Their problem is that they (have to?) build a new bike every year and not much info seems to be passed between separate generations of Oaves. Jan Bos went faster in VeloX 2. The Italians are hoping to put together a new bike for Andrea, but it seems unlikely that Komori-san and his team will be back as Super Ketta Machine 162 was built purely for a TV show. And neither Yasmin nor Ken would fit in it anyway. Gareth Hanks says that "if he comes back it'll be on two wheels". And I don't know why Cygnus Chronos is slower than the larger Cygnus Beta (which had to accommodate Western Half-Devil Monster Face van Schaik) but we need either a lot more starting practice or a sk8r d00d.
No-one knows what the French are likely to do next :demon:
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You need a quad skater and an inline skater.
The quad skater can squat right down, literally sitting on their heels. The inline skater can push their shoulders.
That gives you a configuration that can support the lowest of the low racers.
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The Mormon temple in yesterday's Automatic Diary looks as if architecturally it's taken straight from Moscow, probably one of the Lomonosov University buildings up on the hills.
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Are the two wheeled machines allowed to have some sort of gyro stabilisation? I can't imagine how you would keep one upright when your view of the outside world is limited to a TV screen.
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Are the two wheeled machines allowed to have some sort of gyro stabilisation? I can't imagine how you would keep one upright when your view of the outside world is limited to a TV screen.
I don't think anybody's tried it yet so the jury hasn't even been appointed, never mind sent out. My gut feeling would be that it wouldn't be allowed. People have been riding camera bikes without balance issues for the thick end of twenty years and systems are much more reliable and have much less time lag now than they did then.
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I can't imagine how you would keep one upright when your view of the outside world is limited to a TV screen.
Presumably it's a lot like keeping a bike upright with your eyes closed (try it some time, when you've got lots of space without anything to crash into), only with the added bonus of knowing where you're going.
Not to belittle the challenge of keeping any of these machines upright, of course.
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Ah good thought, like the time on the Dun Run when I woke up on the wrong side of the road! ???
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Bicycle hits 88 mph, travels back in time! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUcyURXe5yU
(sorry if already posted)
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Just in from the awards bash. New multi-track record for Gareth Hanks: 73.95 mph...
What's involved in the multi-track record?
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Just in from the awards bash. New multi-track record for Gareth Hanks: 73.95 mph...
What's involved in the multi-track record?
>2 wheels?
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Just in from the awards bash. New multi-track record for Gareth Hanks: 73.95 mph...
What's involved in the multi-track record?
>2 wheels?
And not in-line, to prevent piss-taking from people dangling a skate wheel under a bike.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8088/29655723896_855558d09e_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Mbzkwq)
P9140229 (https://flic.kr/p/Mbzkwq) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr. Current iteration of All Overzealous setting off for a 72.6 mph run on the Wednesday.
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Just in from the awards bash. New multi-track record for Gareth Hanks: 73.95 mph...
What's involved in the multi-track record?
>2 wheels?
And not in-line, to prevent piss-taking from people dangling a skate wheel under a bike.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8088/29655723896_855558d09e_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Mbzkwq)
P9140229 (https://flic.kr/p/Mbzkwq) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr. Current iteration of All Overzealous setting off for a 72.6 mph run on the Wednesday.
OK, ta :)
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I assume there isn't a ruling on human-powered segways...
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I assume there isn't a ruling on human-powered segways...
As long as it has a fairing to protect the occupant
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Today I experimentally dunked a stroopwafel in my tea. Not bad.
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More seriously: Why aren't the aeroshells these bikes are covered in not see-through?
OK, I can see that aesthetically, having all the gubbins on show wouldn't be so pretty, but it would give the rider more chance of seeing where they are in the world.
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Most of the shells these days are structural and even those that aren't have to be pretty sturdy if they're to stay in one piece if the rider decks it at R17. Carbon/kevlar mixture generally required.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/653/21395306078_19ffe388ea_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/yACx6y)
P9190109 (https://flic.kr/p/yACx6y) by Mr Larrington (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/), on Flickr. Damage to Eivie 4.2 sustained on the final night of the 2015 event when Damjan Zabovnik decked it with a flat tyre in the slowing down phase after an 80 mph pass and bounced off the bridge rails.
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Transparent materials that can be formed to the sort of aero shapes seen at Battle Mountain also require sturdiness to maintain the aero properties. The shell would need to be around 3mm thick, compared with 1.5mm or so of a carbon/kevlar skin. It would also be difficult to achieve an undistorted view through such complex multiply curved surfaces.
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Plus the transparency would be impaired as soon as the first guy decks it.
And condensation might be a problem? Not familiar enough with the weather conditions...
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First thing in the morning it's usually a bit nippy - close to freezing usually. Back in the old days, when we didn't have these new-fangled morning runs, it wasn't an issue.
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Hurrah! For the return of Mr. Larrington safe from Leftpondia.
Hurrah! For the continuing drivel literature od teh Automatic Diary.
Boo! For the slowness of Leftpondian Intertubes.
Dave! Where's the book1?
1'Everything That Is Crap About Modern Life' by Mr. Larrington
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Ah yes, I was forgetting about just how stiff and light the shell has to be. I guess that once you've got the hang of steering it, darkness inside helps with the contrast on the LCD screens.
One thing that is messing with my noggin (I can't find the link I read this from now, sorry) is that on that "slow" run on the Friday afternoon, Todd could tell the bike wasn't quite set up right because he has an on-screen read out of how it's doing against the power/drag ratio he's supposedly putting out. So he went through the traps at like, 79mph, just cruising. Later that evening, the team found a bug squashed on the nose of the shell which caused measurable drag (!!) and Todd to abort the run. They re-waxed the shell for Saturday's WR run. That is just a crazy level of detail.
PS. A nice moment when the crowd in the bleachers saw that anything starting 4-point-something for 200m on the timing clock was going to be a speed north of 89.48mph and a new World Record https://www.facebook.com/paul.gracey.3/posts/1334965463188180 (https://www.facebook.com/paul.gracey.3/posts/1334965463188180)
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The boys spent so much time polishing Eta round the side of the Super 8 that you could see the whites of the eyes of the giant cowboy outside the firework store on the other side of the vacant lot next door reflected in it, and people would wander round there just to be amazed at teh Shiny. The catchers reported that the very shiny Super Ketta Machine 162 was difficult to keep hold of when it came in to land; AeroVelo used their own chaps, who were probably wearing special gloves or something.
Todd said he was feeling a bit sub-par on the Friday night. "Saving it for tomorrow?" I asked. He smole a smile and said "Something like that."
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It's too early to start a 2017 thread, but one of my Sinister Agents1 tell me that a Mr M Burrows has become ensnared in another (potential at this stage) BRITISH entry and, no, it doesn't involve Mr G Martin.
1: A "Mr M Burrows"
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Want to race at Battle Mountain but lack the time / 1337 5ki11z / shed space to knock out a 'liner? Look no further: the Eiviestretto is on the market (http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6833) ;D
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This Unit has now booked flight + motor-car so, TЯump permitting, there will be despatches from the front line again :)
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This Unit has now booked flight + motor-car so, TЯump permitting, there will be despatches from the front line again :)
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: