Existential Thread: Or What is Freezing Saddles Really All About

[rcannon100]

@lordofthemark 135655 wrote:

I think we could improve Freezing Saddles if we stopped giving points for posting GIFs.

[JonRobot]

I’m another new freezing saddles guy. You can tell by my post history (what little there is) that i’m not huge into commenting on the forum. not because i don’t like you people, i just don’t comment much of anywhere. but i lurk and look at the forum pretty regularly. i haven’t been able to do any group rides with my team or any other; again, not because i don’t like them, but even on a local team, the meetup spot that works best for my team as a whole is 15 miles away from my house, and i don’t have the legs to do a 30 mile round trip in addition to whatever ride is going on. but i commute every day now (except for one sick day and one day i was just too burnt out from work) and ride on the weekends. that being said:

Did you go ride more than before? yeah, last year at this point i had done 10 miles, and today i’m at 313. this year i’ve biked on 54 days, and last year i only bike 4 days by this time. and three of those were inside on a trainer.

Did you want to? for sure. some days i wanted to ride strictly for the points, but i’ve been motivated to ride every day. the only two i’ve missed were because an ear infection made my balance… not so reliable (though now that i think of it i could have racked up some london bridge points), and when i unexpectedly had to be in baltimore for work and couldn’t bring a bike.

Does winter riding seem easier now? yes. i think the coldest ride i’d ever done before was in the mid 40s, and i thought it was horrible. now that’s a heatwave. the winter doesn’t scare me now

More fun? yes. well, not more fun that riding when it’s nice and warm out, but more fun then i expected? hell yes.

Do you go riding out in the snow for fun? yup. i never would have ridden right after a blizzard before, let alone riding out during it. my wife even went out with me. then she hasn’t since, because apparently “the cold is stupid”…

Did seeing other riders out there inspire you? if this means seeing other people doing freezing saddles, no, since as far as i know i haven’t seen anyone else with the shiny green band. but if this means seeing other cyclists at all, then yes. and maybe more than that are the incredulous looks of people in their cars wondering what the hell is wrong with me.

Did seeing the scores/data motivate you? absolutely. i’m part of the just-ice league, and my teammates are kicking ass, and they make me want to not miss days (even though i’ve missed two now)

how all of this plays into the future of freezing saddles, i don’t know. i do know, however, that signing up for this ridiculous thing made me not just bike way more than i ever have or would have before, but also make it so i plan on doing it again next year.

[Steve O]

@Vicegrip 135536 wrote:

Team Points. Miles and days. /

Pointless prizes. Anything goes. The more “anything” the better.

So this is actually what’s going on right now. There are currently about 30 Pointless Prize categories on the list and about 8 ongoing side bets/games. Mostly crickets.

Two years ago we had side bets like Find the Founding Fathers and the Birdges of Arlington County and Strava Art and lots of players got involved. The Founding Fathers thread is over 300 posts long. snugglefestival recently attempted to start a Strava Art side bet and has like 3 entries. vvill is disappointed that only a handful of people are posting in the N+1 side bet thread.

As Unassailable Czar of Ride Titles, I am decidedly underwhelmed this year. Twice as many players, but with the exception of about 5-6, barely a thread of creativity (granted, the loss of phatboing in this regard is huge). I used to see clever titles every day and last year selecting the winners was nearly impossible. This year not so much.

So what has changed? There are 2-3 times as many people playing now than then. I don’t want to believe that more players makes it less fun. And I’m not a fan of capping it either, because I like to believe in “the more, the merrier.”

[Steve O]

On a related note, one thing I believe would be huge, both for Freezing Saddles and for our whole community, would be a really good, centralized calendar.
The first thing you see when you log into The Chain Link is upcoming rides and events. What if that were easily see-able whenever one logs into the forum or WABA or BikeArlington or even Freezing Saddles? All the calendars on these sites are specific to their own stuff, but as a person riding a bike, I’d rather read about all the things going on in one place. What if all the sites referenced a single, centralized calendar that was either linked or partially visible on all the local sites?

Bringing this back to Freezing Saddles, if there were a calendar on the Freezing Saddles website and on the Forum (yes, I know the Forum has a calendar, but it sucks), and people posted their happy hours and rides and Sunday coffees there, it would at least be one way to help with connections. As some have pointed out, socialization is happening, but it’s all fragmented. And I know that events are happening that others would likely want to know about and maybe even participate in, but they just never find out.

[americancyclo]

@Steve O 135713 wrote:

Two years ago we had side bets like Find the Founding Fathers and the Birdges of Arlington County

Didn’t Mikey organize both of those?

@Steve O 135716 wrote:

On a related note, one thing I believe would be huge, both for Freezing Saddles and for our whole community, would be a really good, centralized calendar.

ICAL format for my google calendar please

[Steve O]

@americancyclo 135724 wrote:

Didn’t Mikey organize both of those?

Yes. And he also organized a couple this year that were met with an avalanche of indifference.

[hozn]

I wonder if we could use Facebook APIs and/or Strava to pull in upcoming events. I am leery of creating a new data source for events, but if we could aggregate the current data sources….

Granted, this may not be possible, in which case a new calendar may make sense. (In which case, I would advocate for a moderated/shared Google Calendar.) Or other ideas?

[americancyclo]

@Steve O 135725 wrote:

Yes. And he also organized a couple this year that were met with an avalanche of indifference.

You won FSSB(16) I round 2 – #HeadsUp
Dismal won FSSB(16) 1 – Finders Keepers — Round 1 (NAME TO BE ANNOUNCED) which is also very similar to #bicycletag

seems like there is some buy-in. but then again, I never ran out at lunch to take photos of my bike and presidents, so maybe i’m not the target demographic.

[vvill]

Moderated Google Calendar sounds fine to me.

Seeing the replies from newbies here seems to indicate that FS has been (again) successful. Sidebets are just sidebets. Some of them may get stale, or people may not be as interested or have time to do that much bike-related activities other than just riding through the winter (which is no mean feat). I think the Suburban Labyrinth challenge is great but I haven’t had time to map anything out yet.

I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed with the n+1 challenge, although I would love to see more people borrowing other peoples’ bikes. It doesn’t matter too much though, there’s a whole thread full of bike pictures and descriptions, with a handful of bike tech/gear talk – which is a win to me.

[hozn]

Yeah, I love the N+1 thread even though I haven’t participated — in the correct way

[KayakCyndi]

@vvill 135735 wrote:

….. although I would love to see more people borrowing other peoples’ bikes. It doesn’t matter too much though, there’s a whole thread full of bike pictures and descriptions, with a handful of bike tech/gear talk – which is a win to me.

Next week I’ll begin riding with a pedal wrench. Who is in for a few Haines point laps???

[dcv]

@KayakCyndi 135759 wrote:

Next week I’ll begin riding with a pedal wrench. Who is in for a few Haines point laps???

But that would only help you win

[shardg]

I have been reading the posts and decided to comment as a first year rider with FS.
I have enjoyed the competition and the motivation to ride everyday for the team and for the overall spirit of the “competition”.
Before this winter I had not ridden in temps below 40, never in snow, never at night, and certainly never at midnight just so I could keep the streak going. I have ridden each day on 2 business trips and after getting home late from work and being dog tired. So FS has been impactful and I appreciate the opportunity.
The side bets intrigue me but I simply could not keep up with tag and some of the commuting focused games. I live outside the immediate DC area but have used FS to have others in my area ride in colder weather and they have joined me on my efforts to ride everyday.
As a new member I probably do not join in on the forum and social events as much as I should, but I think most people are slow to engage.
When you reduce the pool you may decide to cut out the outside the beltway people since we are less likely to be as social or commute. That would be understandable and fair. If that happens I would probably try to create a local outside the beltway competition or just use Strava, but the point is by being able to participate this year it has had a great impact on me and my riding.
Thanks for allowing that to happen folks.

[Alcova cyclist]

This is my second year doing FS. After years as a on-and-off mostly just fair weather cycle commuter, last year’s FS converted me over to no kidding every day commuting, something which carried through all last year and right into this year’s contest. It fundamentally changed the way I approached cycling and commuting. For me, this is a huge component of “what FS is really all about” — helping people get over the hump about riding year-round. It also made me transition from a board lurker to occasional poster and I’ve even been to a few social functions and gotten to know several regular riders (unfortunately I’ve been crazy busy and therefore somewhat anti-social this year)

Last year I really enjoyed the competitive aspect (both team and individual) and I feel that was an important part of helping me convert to an every day rider. This year isn’t quite the same… but I think that’s just the unlucky way my team shook out in the standings. I don’t care (too much) that we’re getting crushed overall (18th out of 20 teams), but it’s kind of a bummer that we seem to be really far from the teams above and below us (400+ and 300+ point gaps respectively). That combined with the larger number of team members and I just don’t feel that extra push to do more like I did last year. I think putting a little (friendly) pressure on people (especially newer riders) to push the envelope is integral to getting other riders over the hump.

[jrenaut]

Is there something we can do to increase the competitiveness? I don’t want to take away from Team 15, but they have a 1600 point lead with three weeks to go. This is a fantastic accomplishment for Team 15, who are all ELITE badasses, but doesn’t help motivation for those of us left behind. It was clear my team wasn’t going to be close to the top after the first week.

What if we tried scoring it weekly? Assuming 20 teams, if your team is top this week you get 20 points, 2nd gets 19, etc. The individual leaderboard stays the same, but the team leaderboard is based on the weekly scores? If I get a chance this weekend, I’ll put up the leaderboard if we scored it this way so we can see how much difference it would make. I know last year it was proposed that we do away with the 10 point daily bonus, but that hardly would have changed the leaderboard at all, and i think the 10 point bonus is important for getting people to ride when it sucks outside.

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