Freezing Saddles 2015

[cyclingfool]

@KayakCyndi 99983 wrote:

I volunteer to be on Rod’s team!

Oh and to:
– Crown the King/Queen of the world (fear not, I have no int’l travel plans).
– Hopefully not crash and miss most of the January.

Lentement mais Surement reunion!

I’m definitely in for FS again this year. My base miles from the fall for handicapping purposes are pretty much guaranteed not to be indicative of my actual riding in the winter this year, since my employment status and/or location are changing as of 1/1/15, if not sooner. I’ll either be still at my current employer (with reduced hours cobbled together perhaps with other part time gigs and thus reduced commuting opportunities), or gainfully employed elsewhere. The elsewhere could mean a longer but still realistic bike commute or, gasp, a return to metro (or even worse, car) for most of my commuting for a while. My hopes right now are squarely pinned on a job opportunity panning out that would increase my daily commute miles by from 14-15 daily up to 20! That would be ideal!

IOW, I have no idea how many miles I’ll be able to put up. So, apologies (or you’re welcomes) in advance to my teammates depending on whether I under- or overperform.

[cyclingfool]

@Arlingtonrider 99987 wrote:

I’ll provide the award for most miles ridden on Jan 1, 2015.

The gauntlet has been thrown.

[dasgeh]

@cyclingfool 99988 wrote:

IOW, I have no idea how many miles I’ll be able to put up. So, apologies (or you’re welcomes) in advance to my teammates depending on whether I under- or overperform.

I just realized I’m in a similar boat. Uncertainty FTW.

[Mikey]

we must be crazy. After the first really cold morning, and we all are like, “I can’t wait to spend the next 3 months in this weather, you guys in or what?”

[vern]

I wasn’t around these here boards last year, so I am new to this game, but I think I would like to play. Cavaet is that I don’t have a bike set up for snow so a snowy winter will chew up my miles.

[rcannon100]

Freezing Saddles is a disorganized game amongst friends, based out of the BA Forum.

• FS is NOT bicycle advocacy.
• FS is not run by any organization
• FS is not sponsored by any organization
• There is no purpose to FS other than goofing off

FS is consensus driven by the disorganized group. We start with last years game – and modify it as we see fit if we reach consensus. If no consensus is reached, then the assumption is that last years game rules pretty much stay in place.

FS is entirely volunteer run. If you are participating, you should be volunteering. For something. Somehow. Lots and lots of people contribute small pieces. If you volunteer to do something, it is up to you to do it – no one is supervising you.

The first order of business – well beyond ArlingtonRider planning a happy hour which is really the only important part – how shall we play the game. What are the rules of the game? should the rules, the teams, the point, be changed or revised in any way?

B

[KayakCyndi]

@rcannon100 99998 wrote:

…. What are the rules of the game? should the rules, the teams, the point, be changed or revised in any way?

Keep it simple and don’t change a thing. I see little reason to tinker with what worked so well the past two years!

[rcannon100]

The first year we had teams of 5. If one person was not able to complete the game, it harmed the team a lot.

The second year we had teams of 10. That seemed clearly better.

We had a HORRIBLE time with substitutes and with late additions to the game.

The teams are created by handicaps where each team is designed to start with the same handicap. I really dont think this worked. 1/3 of you sandbagged your handicap and I dont think the handicaps were reliable. Completely randomly assigning people to teams probably would have been as successful as the handicaps.

Also last year we had a HUGE problem of scale. The game grew a lot, with everyone inviting outsiders to the game.

What should we do with the teams? Teams of 10? Teams of 20 (and therefore one person going to Kiev for a while wont make a difference)?

How should the teams be selected? Purely random? Let people form their own teams? Still use the handicaps? If we use the handicaps, is there a way to make them better, more reliable?

Can we limit the game to just members of the forum? This is after all a game among friends. Kinda defeats the purpose if all these outsiders sign up who are not part of the forum who will not come to happy hours or group rides.

Should we use captains again this year to resolve sticky wicket problems?

I am glad to volunteer to run the registration again this year. Someone else can volunteer to do late registrations or be the substitution czar.

B

[Powerful Pete]

I would very much like to participate. I was negotiating my new DC based job when I came across the forum and was mightily impressed by the entire FS thing last winter. I want to be one of the cool people with icicle boogers.

I am in. 20~30 km a day of riding, beyond occasional business travel and wussing out due to my ultra-pansiness.

I am a great organizer, if you consider Italians who consider everything as a detail not worth focusing on as someone who is a worthwhile organizer.

But I will do as I am told, more or less.

[americancyclo]

@rcannon100 100002 wrote:

The first year we had teams of 5. If one person was not able to complete the game, it harmed the team a lot.

The second year we had teams of 10. That seemed clearly better.

We had a HORRIBLE time with substitutes and with late additions to the game.

The teams are created by handicaps where each team is designed to start with the same handicap. I really dont think this worked. 1/3 of you sandbagged your handicap and I dont think the handicaps were reliable. Completely randomly assigning people to teams probably would have been as successful as the handicaps.

Also last year we had a HUGE problem of scale. The game grew a lot, with everyone inviting outsiders to the game.

What should we do with the teams? Teams of 10? Teams of 20 (and therefore one person going to Kiev for a while wont make a difference)?

How should the teams be selected? Purely random? Let people form their own teams? Still use the handicaps? If we use the handicaps, is there a way to make them better, more reliable?

Can we limit the game to just members of the forum? This is after all a game among friends. Kinda defeats the purpose if all these outsiders sign up who are not part of the forum who will not come to happy hours or group rides.

Should we use captains again this year to resolve sticky wicket problems?

I am glad to volunteer to run the registration again this year. Someone else can volunteer to do late registrations or be the substitution czar.

B

I liked the teams of 10

use last years FS mileage as the handicap number? if handicaps didn’t really work, then why go through the effort of handicapping? why not just randomize?

in regards to outsiders, isn’t this supposed to bring others in to the fold? if not, then require at least one forum post since March 20, 2014 to be eligible to join FS2015.

I support captains.

[sethpo]

Just to throw this bomb in the mix w/ no intention of doing anything about it….

What if the teams had some kind of geographic component so the folks on the teams could somehow, you know, do team stuff like basketball or swimming?

[sjclaeys]

@rcannon100 100002 wrote:

The first year we had teams of 5. If one person was not able to complete the game, it harmed the team a lot.

The second year we had teams of 10. That seemed clearly better.

We had a HORRIBLE time with substitutes and with late additions to the game.

The teams are created by handicaps where each team is designed to start with the same handicap. I really dont think this worked. 1/3 of you sandbagged your handicap and I dont think the handicaps were reliable. Completely randomly assigning people to teams probably would have been as successful as the handicaps.

Also last year we had a HUGE problem of scale. The game grew a lot, with everyone inviting outsiders to the game.

What should we do with the teams? Teams of 10? Teams of 20 (and therefore one person going to Kiev for a while wont make a difference)?

How should the teams be selected? Purely random? Let people form their own teams? Still use the handicaps? If we use the handicaps, is there a way to make them better, more reliable?

Can we limit the game to just members of the forum? This is after all a game among friends. Kinda defeats the purpose if all these outsiders sign up who are not part of the forum who will not come to happy hours or group rides.

Should we use captains again this year to resolve sticky wicket problems?

I am glad to volunteer to run the registration again this year. Someone else can volunteer to do late registrations or be the substitution czar.

B

Here are my thoughts.:

10 people on a team is ideal. The (mostly) friendly competition between teams, development of team spirit within the teams, and getting to know other forum members are among the best aspects of FS. I think that these will be lost with larger teams. Letting people form their own teams is probably the worse option, creating bad dynamics. Is using the data from this year’s FS to develop handicaps possible? That would seem to avoid the sandbagging problem, except for those who purposely sandbagged in this year’s FS anticipating that the data would be used for handicapping in next year’s. Limiting the game to just members of the forum is a good idea, though it is not too terribly high a hurdle. At the very least, although this is a friendly game, it should be made clear that the point of all of this is to ride your bike during the game. Myself and other captains had team members who only rode once or twice. I’m not saying ride everyday, but a little effort should be given. Speaking of captains, I think having captains again is a good idea to handle problems and develop team esprit de corps. I am happy to be a captain again. Can we solve the substitution and late registration problems by not having them? That is all.

[Arlingtonrider]

I would vote for keeping FS the same as last year to the greatest extent manageable and making teams of 10 or maybe 12 depending on how many people sign up. I don’t especially like dividing it geographically since we all are within riding distance of each other. (Update: I can see benefits both ways – I don’t feel strongly about this.) No late sign ups. Also, I think its awesome when teams get together as a group and also invite any other FS member who wants to join them for a particular event or ride. This was the spirit of the competition the last couple of years.

[Greenbelt]

@rcannon100 100002 wrote:

The first year we had teams of 5. If one person was not able to complete the game, it harmed the team a lot.

The second year we had teams of 10. That seemed clearly better.

We had a HORRIBLE time with substitutes and with late additions to the game.

The teams are created by handicaps where each team is designed to start with the same handicap. I really dont think this worked. 1/3 of you sandbagged your handicap and I dont think the handicaps were reliable. Completely randomly assigning people to teams probably would have been as successful as the handicaps.

Also last year we had a HUGE problem of scale. The game grew a lot, with everyone inviting outsiders to the game.

What should we do with the teams? Teams of 10? Teams of 20 (and therefore one person going to Kiev for a while wont make a difference)?

How should the teams be selected? Purely random? Let people form their own teams? Still use the handicaps? If we use the handicaps, is there a way to make them better, more reliable?

Can we limit the game to just members of the forum? This is after all a game among friends. Kinda defeats the purpose if all these outsiders sign up who are not part of the forum who will not come to happy hours or group rides.

Should we use captains again this year to resolve sticky wicket problems?

I am glad to volunteer to run the registration again this year. Someone else can volunteer to do late registrations or be the substitution czar.

B

My two cents is that the team size of 5-10 is good, allows team-level social events and rides pretty well. Smaller teams have more volatile results, which keeps it interesting to follow the leaderboard.

Maybe ask people to give their December ride averages as a handicap, rather than (mis) estimating?

Since winning didn’t matter though, maybe that would be overkill.

I enjoy stuff like this, helps get through the winter, which is not my favorite season…

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Powerful Pete 100004 wrote:

I am a great organizer, if you consider Italians who consider everything as a detail not worth focusing on as someone who is a worthwhile organizer.

But I will do as I am told, more or less.

A game run by Italians?! What could possibly go wrong?

[Author]

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