A "Sleeze Ride" by any other name?

[MarkinDC]

So as a Freezing Saddles first timer I made the mistake of reading the roughly 30 some pages of posts in the Freezing Saddles 2018 thread after I signed up and instantly began wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. I mostly ride my bikes for fun/training and I ride bike shares for transportation around the city because of the pervasive bike theft problem. In Fall 2016 I made a deal with myself that if I bought a new bike I needed to ride it all winter long and between late November and early March last year I rode about 900 mi. When I signed up for Freezing Saddles I assumed this winter would be similar to last winter (35-40’F)and I’d be able to do two 20-25mi commute + workout ride days during the week plus a 30-40mi ride each Saturday and that would be my contribution to my team. Well this January has not started off like last winter and I’m not inclined to do long fast rides in traffic when it’s below freezing and potentially icy. So far all my FS miles have been on bikeshares, and if I weren’t participating in FS these are trips I would have otherwise walked or taken the bus, but I don’t want to bring down my future team and have no points for the week so I turn on my Garmin and hop on a bikeshare. While all these bikeshare trips have been taken to get on the board for the day otherwise I would have walked, they have been actual trips I needed to take and not just riding my bike around the block to hit a mile. So what I’m asking is what defines a “sleeze ride”? Is it just a ride to nowhere for the sake of points, or if you are actually using a bike to get to the store or a bar or whatever that happens to be 1.1 mi away are you free from “sleeze ride” shame?

Topic

[Edelweiss]

Hey, Eddy,
Not Only are Sleaze Rides an essential component of this game we are playing, I am offering a cherished pointless prize for sleazing in the nick of time before midnight, or just after midnight, to get your ride checked off the list for the day. An extra bonus for the most 2-for rides. See my PAUL Reevere Ride pointless prize thread.
And keep on sleazing, and eat more doughnuts, too.
edelweiss

[Rod Smith]

@chuxtr 170921 wrote:

Sleazing/sleezing is a badge of honor! More so if it’s a ride to nowhere simply to get 10 points!

Eleven!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16049[/ATTACH]

[kwarkentien]

And for the record, the “sleaze queen (or king)” is a coveted prize. I enjoyed my reign as Queen. [emoji41]

Also, a point of clarification: the sleaze leaderboard is for most sleaze DAYS, not sleaze RIDES. So long as you ride a cumulative total of at least 1 but not more than 2 miles a day, you get credit for a sleaze day. But if you ride 3 sleaze “rides” of 1 mile each, you get 13 points for the day but NO credit as a sleaze DAY since you exceeded the 2 mile threshold. Got it or more confused than ever? Well then, welcome to the conundrum/enigma/nonsense that is the wonderful world of Freezing Saddles!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jrenaut]

It makes sense to do it by day rather than ride – for example, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the gym at the crack of dawn before the family is awake. During Freezing Saddles, I CaBi home. It’s 0.7 miles. Then, on most Tuesdays and Thursdays, I take the kids to school (5 mile round trip) and pick them up (same). So, yes, I did do a ride that was super short, but that’s because it’s faster than walking, and those 0.7 miles add up (to maybe 10 miles per year!).

[Nadine]

@MarkinDC 170914 wrote:

….. if I weren’t participating in FS these are trips I would have otherwise walked or taken the bus, but I don’t want to bring down my future team and have no points for the week so I turn on my Garmin and hop on a bikeshare.

Welcome to freezing saddles, MarkinDC!
This ^^ that you said here is my understanding of one of the main points of FS – to get people to ride when they otherwise wouldn’t.

Though personally I’ve gotten SO MUCH MORE* out of it than that… But what you described above happens to me too, and though I’ve biked through the winter for as long as I can remember, I bike MORE in winter now, BOTH mileage – wise and every day I can, because of the points-for-my-team thing and because I now have a bigger & more motivated pool of people to suck into riding with me! (when it’s not for transportation.)

---

* Idk if you’re interested, but I’m verbose, so I’ll tell you…. The BIG thing I get out of freezing saddles is the community of cheery like minded people, always inviting the rest of us on rides that are always fun and often silly and informative. It’s just wonderful.

And in that spirit, I hope you find a whole lot more than your competitive spirit is driving you to… Though you’ll get that too! [emoji1]

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Author]

Replies