Freezing Saddles 2018

[Sunyata]

Oh gosh! There was a lot of discussion over the weekend.

Here is my (rather unimportant, but yet rather indignant) opinion on participation:
Yes, I think there should be some sort of minimum participation requirement. To make it fair, I think a participant must average at least 75 points per week (if we continue with the current method of scoring). They can get these points however they can:

• ride 1 mile per day for seven days = 77 points
• ride one day for 65 miles = 76 points
• ride three days at 15 miles per day = 78 points

As for kicking off non-responsive/non-participating team members after team assignments have been done:
I have a lot of opinions about this… If people communicate with their team members and let them know what (or at least something, maybe not going into details) is going on in their life that may prevent them from participating, I am fine with letting them miss a week or two here and there for vacation, work travel, family emergencies, injuries, sickness, etc. But the key is communication. If someone goes MIA for more than a week with no communication, I think it is fair to start asking questions. If they are MIA for two weeks, boot them. If they come back with a heart-string-tugging story, we can re-evaluate.

I also do not mine being the “judge” for this, if needed. I like to think that I am a reasonable person… 😎

Slackers: As in previous years, I think that the idea of a slacker team is kind of silly and pointless (but then again, this IS BAFS we are speaking of). I like the idea of a “Friends of BAFS” Strava group if needed. I think this would be a great gathering spot for alternates who are waiting for team assignments if a spot opens up.

[dplasters]

As someone who put up a mediocre 1,173 points last year and is now going to be going in with a six month old – generally speaking – would anyone be excited to have me on their team? I can do any team meetup as long as its at Caboose off the W&O or any place in the Mosaic District. I’m super flexible. Swear.

Seriously – I’m looking for a general idea of if I’d meet the bar for “good teammate” or if it’s better for me to sit it out this year.

[chris_s]

@bobco85 167434 wrote:

The underlying question behind nearly every FS discussion that needs to be answered is this: What is the point of Freezing Saddles? (I think everyone has a different answer to this)

I think Freezing Saddles is a competition designed to advocate for cycling in non-ideal conditions which winter tends to be more than willing to provide. It is designed to challenge folks, whether they be a casual weekend rider or a hardcore double-digit weekday commuter or anything between, to try to bike even a little during the time of year that many just say, “It’s just too tough to bike now.” Freezing Saddles gives folks a dose of healthy peer pressure that even though a lot of folks stop biking in winter, here is this group who are interested and are actually doing it, and they’re badass. This leads to the idea that cycling can be done at least 365 days a year for anyone willing to put in the effort and gets more people invested and involved in the cycling community, diverse and disparate as it may be at times.

Keeping that in mind, here’s what I would request for FS2018:

• Participation – riders should be registered and at least minimally involved on the forum, folks on this forum are what brought this whole thing together
• Teams – teams should only have folks willing to ride at least once every 2 weeks, everyone else goes to Slackers team
• E-bikes – yes – biking in the winter is about grit and determination, not athletic prowess
• Team rides – add an incentive for teammates to ride with each other; teams able to do so should get a point bonus (e.g., add 5 points per person per group ride per day to the team score)
• Prizes & Side Bets – yes – this has become such a diverse and bizarre range of prizes that really help make Freezing Saddles so much fun. Keep them coming!
• Serious Fun – my term for group activities that are fun yet still organized and competitive – let’s keep Freezing Saddles that way!

I endorse all of this, with the caveat that adding a point bonus for group rides would require new code and I’m not volunteering to do that nor comfortable creating pressure for anyone else to devote time to doing so.

[Greenbelt]

@dplasters 167565 wrote:

As someone who put up a mediocre 1,173 points last year and is now going to be going in with a six month old – generally speaking – would anyone be excited to have me on their team? I can do any team meetup as long as its at Caboose off the W&O or any place in the Mosaic District. I’m super flexible. Swear.

Seriously – I’m looking for a general idea of if I’d meet the bar for “good teammate” or if it’s better for me to sit it out this year.

We had riders last year that got out for 70+ days and still didn’t get much more than 1,000 points. So that sort of effort is to me totally great teammate material. It’s about the participation and enthusiasm and fun, not the mileage! My 10 cents. -Jeff

[Anonymous]

I don’t think I’ll be handling communications this year. If someone else would like to, I’ll give you the password to the bikkearlingtonfreezingsaddles gmail account (Judd? I think you already have access), and I have some of the past language I’ve used to describe scoring and such I could pass along.

[Steve O]

@jrenaut 167486 wrote:

if you look at the team rankings by mileage vs by points, they don’t really change much.

That may be because the first mile is only worth 10 points. Would the rankings change if the “getting out of bed” part of Freezing Saddles is rewarded more?

I’m a fan (duh) of my scoring system that rewards those who ride when fewer others are riding (proxy for a bad day to ride). Using this scoring system did change the individual rankings a good deal but not as much the team rankings, IIRC. That’s because it had little effect on everyday riders, and there were several of those on each team.

[Steve O]

@dplasters 167565 wrote:

As someone who put up a mediocre 1,173 points last year and is now going to be going in with a six month old – generally speaking – would anyone be excited to have me on their team? I can do any team meetup as long as its at Caboose off the W&O or any place in the Mosaic District. I’m super flexible. Swear.

Seriously – I’m looking for a general idea of if I’d meet the bar for “good teammate” or if it’s better for me to sit it out this year.

This is the sort of question I don’t like having asked. People should play if Freezing Saddles is working to encourage them to get out and ride more than they would have otherwise and is a catalyst for improving community. The number of points should be secondary to those things, IMO.
So if FS will motivate you to ride more than you would have–even if it’s less than last year, then I want you to play. How many points you contribute to your team is less important than that.
And maybe you can take the wee one out and get some #kidical points.

[jrenaut]

@Steve O 167598 wrote:

This is the sort of question I don’t like having asked. People should play if Freezing Saddles is working to encourage them to get out and ride more than they would have otherwise and is a catalyst for improving community. The number of points should be secondary to those things, IMO.
So if FS will motivate you to ride more than you would have–even if it’s less than last year, then I want you to play. How many points you contribute to your team is less important than that.
And maybe you can take the wee one out and get some #kidical points.

Always remember, children LOVE breweries. At least they do if you bring enough snacks and games

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[LhasaCM]

@jrenaut 167607 wrote:

Always remember, children LOVE breweries. At least they do if you bring enough snacks and games

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Yeah…it’s the entertainment on the way to the brewery that is a challenge for our 6 year old. Which reminds me – I need to find a better/sturdier tablet holder for the trailercycle if I’m going to improve on my “very solid but distant 2nd place” #kidical score this year…

[CBGanimal]

@dplasters 167565 wrote:

As someone who put up a mediocre 1,173 points last year and is now going to be going in with a six month old – generally speaking – would anyone be excited to have me on their team? I can do any team meetup as long as its at Caboose off the W&O or any place in the Mosaic District. I’m super flexible. Swear.

Seriously – I’m looking for a general idea of if I’d meet the bar for “good teammate” or if it’s better for me to sit it out this year.

I agree with Steve O and others…it’s not the points but the effort and camaraderie you build during the season where most people would hang their bike up and wait for spring!

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[Birru]

@CBGanimal 167611 wrote:

I agree with Steve O and others…it’s not the points but the effort and camaraderie you build during the season where most people would hang their bike up and wait for spring!

Hey I didn’t have a team last year and somehow benefitted from the effort and camaraderie. Sometimes… you have to make your own rules (pops collar on leather jacket). 😎

[dkel]

@Steve O 167598 wrote:

This is the sort of question I don’t like having asked. People should play if Freezing Saddles is working to encourage them to get out and ride more than they would have otherwise and is a catalyst for improving community. The number of points should be secondary to those things, IMO.
So if FS will motivate you to ride more than you would have–even if it’s less than last year, then I want you to play. How many points you contribute to your team is less important than that.

This is precisely why I am struggling. BAFS may get me out the door more often during the winter, but only for the daily points bonus, not actually to ride more, so I don’t feel it’s an effective motivator for me. As for improving community, I don’t see how having 250 people out really accomplishes this when so many aren’t really invested in the game, let alone the community. For me, BAFS would meet these standards if the game were limited to people who are going to compete in a positive way: I would be more likely to increase my mileage if I felt it would make any difference to the team, and playing with other people who are invested would definitely facilitate improving community. As it stands now, I feel like we’re just carrying a lot of dead weight. I find it very telling that the so-called slacker team is largely comprised of people who are more dedicated to winter riding than many who are on actual teams.

[jrenaut]

@dkel 167618 wrote:

…As it stands now, I feel like we’re just carrying a lot of dead weight. I find it very telling that the so-called slacker team is largely comprised of people who are more dedicated to winter riding than many who are on actual teams.

Yes, this.

If I weren’t lazy and sort of busy, I’d love to go back and see how many active forum members we’ve picked up who never posted before their first BAFS and now contribute, or at least attend forum gatherings.

[Rod Smith]

We had a ten rider team in the National Bike Challenge. Might be nice if we allowed that team to become a Freezing Saddles team. Because camaraderie, the spirit of Freezing Saddles, encouraging people to ride more, reindeer games, puppies and stuff like that.

[musclys]

@jrenaut 167619 wrote:

If I weren’t lazy and sort of busy, I’d love to go back and see how many active forum members we’ve picked up who never posted before their first BAFS and now contribute, or at least attend forum gatherings.

Well, we’re early on here, but BAFS 2018 brought me to the forum, and now I find myself following this thread and poking around others. Turnover/regeneration would probably be useful. If there really is dead weight, drop it, create more space for new players, then after the winter re-evaluate to identify new dead weight.

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