Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge (sign up open)

[rcannon100]

Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge
Never Give an ELITE Cyclist an Even Break

Official Frozen Scoreboard

NOTE: Excluded activities: If you post an activity to Strava during the competition period which is not an outdoor bike ride, then it should have the string “#NoBAFS” in the activity name.

Freezing Saddles! The Epic Adventure of a band of ELITE Cyclists, facing the challenges of the wild wild wild bike paths. Confronting the darkest of evenings, the coldest of mornings, and the stupidest of Ninjas – these brave cyclists challenge each other because, if they didnt, they might have to actually do some work during the day.

The saga runs January 1 until the last day of Winter, March 20. It will conclude with a March Madness Playoff that someone will probably design. There will be a Happy Hour at the end with many pointless trophies.

Tribes (teams):

• Composed of ~5 riders or less
• For riders from the #bikedc, Washington DC Bike Forum general community (Washington DC greater metropolitan area)
• Volunteer Captains (captains will address any data problems, negotiate or cause confusion, and provide motivational seminars);
• This is a ten-gallon hat tournament. Riders will be randomly assigned to tribes based on self declared average weekly mileage and days cycled. Tribes will be created so that each tribes’s average weekly point score is roughly equal to everyone else’s. To achieve this, tribes may be composed of differing numbers of riders.
• No late sign ups.
• Interested cyclists must sign up by December 25 Midnight – Tribes will be announced within a couple days.

Scoring: Riders will receive 10 points for each day and 1 point for each mile ridden. Minimum ride is 1 mile. The tribe’s score will be the sum of the tribe members (indoor trainers do not count- you must be freezing in the saddle outside).

Backend: STRAVA (please sign up for an account, and join the “Bike Arlington” club on STRAVA – you should be able to enter data manually or automatically. Additional information will be posted here on the forum.)

This is a self organized group activity based on consensus. No one is in charge or running this thing. Participation is voluntary and entirely at your own risk.

Be Brave. Be Bold. Be…. questful! In the words of Hedley Lamarr:

Men, you are about to embark on a great crusade to stamp out runaway decency on the bike paths. Now you men will only be risking your lives, whilst I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Here are the teams with the new subs

Team one
http://app.strava.com/athletes/126281
Matthew Whatley
Shawn Dread
443749
John Fisher – 608636

Team Two
Pete DeNitto – 768183
Steve Appel
James Hoofnagle
Jason Kyzer
Mega Beth – http://app.strava.com/athletes/136523
Joe Birkenstock – 1154396

Team Three
Trish Newberg
randy napiza 313677
Mark Blacknell
essigmw
obenlandk@gmail.com – http://www.strava.com/athletes/1564295

Team Four
EKR
Kel Moore
Chris Shue
Crystal Bae
Elizabeth MacGregor

Team Five
http://app.strava.com/athletes/benbhsu
307483 (Mark Williams)
Christopher Niebylski
vvill
Kevin Ulrich – http://www.strava.com/athletes/kevin_ulrich

Team Six
Arlingtonrider
sjclaeys
ejwillis@yahoo.com
http://app.strava.com/athletes/302448
feomike@gmail.com – http://www.strava.com/athletes/feomike

Team Seven
Henning Schulzrinne
klizotte
Brad Hancock
Ron Alford
Chris Randall

Team Eight
Ken Buja (1224809)
Kevin Williams, Strava # 580756, BA “GuyContinental”
Lena Varuolo
Hans Lellelid

Team Nine
Steve O
jopamora
Justin Antos (Strava 1473093)
http://app.strava.com/athletes/488016

Team Ten
certifried
strava name Karen Smith (forum poster acl)
Cyndi Janetzko
Rod Smith

Team Eleven (Freezing Saddles Team Mongo (11) on Strava)
Greg Ba
cptjohnc
rcannon100
mdevoll
Sarah Dots
Sean Chisham

Team Twelve
Calpike
BonzaiBuckaroo
Daniel Alexander
ochsendorf@gmail.com

Topic

[vtben]

@ronwalf 40583 wrote:

Oh man, proof of my dork-hood is now forever etched into the interwebs:
Freezing Saddles: Virtual contest pushes area cyclists to rack up real mileage

Are those bar-end mirrors in the pics? Do they work well?

[ronwalf]

@benbhsu 40587 wrote:

Are those bar-end mirrors in the pics? Do they work well?

They seem to (better than the glasses-mount mirror I tried). Nothing beats a good pair of ears and a look over the shoulder, but the mirrors work well to keep track of things that are moving at a similar speed (cars waiting to pass, other riders on a group ride, etc). They fit tightly in my bars – I almost gave up trying to install them before I remembered the golden rule of bicycle maintenance: grease makes everything better.

[jopamora]

That iBert mount always scares the bejewels outta me.

[ronwalf]

@jopamora 40593 wrote:

That iBert mount always scares the bejewels outta me.

I hear that comment quite often! It’s not your jewels you should watch out for, but your knees instead. The spike is not any less blunt than your top tube or stem, but it sticks out to the side when turning, so you can catch it while pedaling if you’re not careful.

[Amalitza]

:confused:My coworker in the office next door informs me that there are a number of perfectly good bikes in the gym, out of the rain.:confused:

[KelOnWheels]

@acl 40608 wrote:

My coworker in the office next door informs me that there are a number of perfectly good bikes in the gym, out of the rain.

Treadmills are inside too, but they’re still horrible

[DCAKen]

@ronwalf 40583 wrote:

Oh man, proof of my dork-hood is now forever etched into the interwebs:
Freezing Saddles: Virtual contest pushes area cyclists to rack up real mileage

It’s a nice article, but the subheading (when you copy the link into Facebook) is pretty annoying: “Popular app Strava allows cyclists, runners to compete in never-ending virtual contests, but is it unsafe?”

[consularrider]

@acl 40608 wrote:

:confused:My coworker in the office next door informs me that there are a number of perfectly good bikes in the gym, out of the rain.:confused:

I like my BikeArlington sticker that I’ve put on my two commuting bikes, “Can your treadmill get you to work?”

[rcannon100]

@acl 40608 wrote:

:confused:My coworker in the office next door informs me that there are a number of perfectly good bikes in the gym, out of the rain.:confused:

Every now and again I pass by one of those glass cages in the zoo, where they keep the humans on their exercise wheels, feeding them snippets of Fox News or some soap opera up on the opium-screen.

Wait, the humans are in their voluntarily? Wait?!? they pay money to have themselves put in the exercise zoos?

[rcannon100]

I am pleased to announce that Team 11 is full force. Y’all are doomed!

[Arlingtonrider]

Dear Weather Gods,

Rain tutorial completed. I’ve learned a whole lot – what to wear, how to take care of my bike, how well my tires and brakes grip under wet conditions, and most importantly, that it’s actually fine to head out on a bike on a rainy day, or even a rainy night. I never would have deliberately set out to ride in rain previously and will no longer automatically plan to ride the bus and metro when it’s raining. I’m very grateful for that.

Have we earned wet weather commuting certificates? Some sun would be awfully nice.

With many thanks,

Kathy

[consularrider]

@Arlingtonrider 40670 wrote:

Dear Weather Gods,

Rain tutorial completed. I’ve learned a whole lot – what to wear, how to take care of my bike, how well my tires grip under wet conditions, and most importantly, that it’s actually fine to head out on a bike on a rainy day, or even a rainy night. I never would have deliberately set out to ride in rain previously and will no longer automatically plan to ride the bus and metro when it’s raining. I’m very grateful for that.

Have we earned wet weather commuting certificates? Some sun would be awfully nice.

With many thanks,

Kathy

Wednesday has arrived, and still no sun in sight. Maybe some snow tomorrow?

[PotomacCyclist]

@consularrider 40615 wrote:

I like my BikeArlington sticker that I’ve put on my two commuting bikes, “Can your treadmill get you to work?”

Look here now. This treadmill can get you to work. Plus it looks super cool. Endorsed by Aaron Rodgers, Michelle Obama and Justin Bieber. (OK, not really.)

[consularrider]

@DCAKen 40614 wrote:

It’s a nice article, but the subheading (when you copy the link into Facebook) is pretty annoying: “Popular app Strava allows cyclists, runners to compete in never-ending virtual contests, but is it unsafe?”

The article also incorrectly states that the forum users were unaware of the two accidents the author mentioned. I’m not going to bother with the seach, but I’m pretty sure we did have a discussion thread about this on the forum at the time. Since the author never talked with me, I’m not sure what constituted his research into our collective knowledge of the incidents.

[Tim Kelley]

@consularrider 40677 wrote:

The article also incorrectly states that the forum users were unaware of the two accidents the author mentioned. I’m not going to bother with the seach, but I’m pretty sure we did have a discussion thread about this on the forum at the time. Since the author never talked with me, I’m not sure what constituted his research into our collective knowledge of the incidents.

I took it to mean that the forum hadn’t heard of any similar incidents that had happened around here…

Larry definitely knew that the forum knew about the San Fran stuff.

[Author]

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