It might be inappropriate for me to come into this current thread as an ex team member -- and the thinking may have changed a little or even a lot over the last 3 months -- but my pennorth is as follows.
The financial support from individuals has been amazing -- and it is still continuing -- funds pass thru an account that I hold before reaching Steve.. it was left like that to avoid all standing orders having to be redirected. The team do not yet know how many of the standing orders will cease after 12 months or whether some, several , many or even lots will continue into 2016 - that will become clearer in early Feb 2016. However if Steve wished to use " faster " bikes by buying them - or relocate to say South of France - then in my judgement the funds were sufficient to allow this, and i am unaware of any dramatic change in the use of cash.
My experience from very early on , up to the time I stepped down -- was very much that Steve decided what he wanted to do -- and that attempting to suggest alternatives that might have been overlooked or not even considered was seen as totally pointless and dismissed out of hand usually --in fact I do not think that these ideas were even put to Steve for him to consider. Remember that for the team there was really no way to "chat" with him -- he was either on the bike, or off and eating, sleeping or updating mileage. Any team conversations, ideas or suggestions had to be channelled thru the team leader -- to minimise the interference with Steves daily routine, and I think that the team leader was 100% behind Steve's personal approach believing that external suggestions were never going to be accepted by Steve -- so forget them - in fact virtually do not even bother to make them .. as there is only one way to tackle this ie ...Steve's way.
Steve as far as i was able to judge was doing it his way -- and there was only this way to do it. No point in debating the rights or wrongs of this approach -- Steve is the bloke grinding out the miles that are just about imaginable to most of us for a few days .. but for a year ,... well way beyond my comprehension of both the physical and mental demands.
In a sense the team was an irrelevancy -- as any ideas that might have helped .. if they conflicted with Steves fixed idea of the way he was going to crack the record .. were not even worth thinking about.
Understand this background which i suspect has not changed (but the diet change could indicate that i am wrong here ) and you will realise that matters such as - relocate to france, faster road bikes, smaller supported drafting ""into the wind"" loops , vehicle transfers , back up hired vehicle travelling with him -- -- from my knowledge -- just not going to happen.
But Steve ... you and your local support at MK ..... still have my immense admiration for what you are attempting and how you are setting about it.
I can only hope that you succeed in your driven ambition.
