When will planning for Freezing Saddles start?

[dasgeh]

@dasgeh 129008 wrote:

No. Ebikes have always been allowed. Just like NBC. I’m not the only one out on them.

I’m fine saying no ELFs, because they’re too wide.

Though I just remembered that Strava has created a new category “ebike ride” (or similar). Last I looked it wasn’t easy to use, so I wouldn’t use it, though it might get easier/others may use it. Would that mean that the code needs to be changed to look for both “bike rides” and “ebike rides”?

[Sunyata]

So, as the assigner of teams (because you know, that gives me so much authority and all), I have a couple of things to say:

For @dkel’s statement about not riding as much as last year: If you were in the top 24 mileage riders last year and your riding will be significantly reduced either send me a PM or put in the “ringer” section of the form what your approximate weekly mileage will be looking like. It would be awesome if you could provide me a reason, but I know some of them might be quite personal, so do not feel obligated. I think, as a group, we know each other well enough to trust that no one will be a sandbagger and do this without it being legit.

Also, for the whole e-bike discussion: If it is an electric assist bike, sure let them play (as they have been in previous years). They still have to pedal in the cold just like the rest of us. And some of them are even hauling around grumpy toddlers in the cold, too! 😎

As for any “out of the area” folks that want to participate on a team: if the consensus is to let them play (if they are still active members of the forum community and participated in a previous year and do not live in say Florida, I say, go for it), we can have them put their previous zip code on the form.

That is all, other than to say that I am so ready for BAFS2016 that I wanted to feel the winter spirit early and forgot my gloves this morning! Oh, that headwind was brutal! I may put the Bar Mitts on for the ride in tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

@hozn 128970 wrote:

(1) yes, it will be the same, but we have old data still. I will clear the database, though I may leave authorizations in there so folks don’t need to reauth.

(2) good memory! Yeah, it was confusing to use the BA Strava club last year, so I vote we have a new “2016 BAFS” club this year and ask everyone to join that club (and stay joined). That can also be a non-forum way of making general competition announcements (club discussions), which seems helpful.

Done.
https://www.strava.com/clubs/170309

[Vicegrip]

Do we have to use last years miles as a HP for returning participants? This might make people not want to return after a year or two. No one wants to let the team down by not at least making the handicap. I am thinking hard if I have the hours to better last years miles as I don’t want to be a boat anchor for a team. Not saying we need to change anything just noting something that might influence returning players.

[cvcalhoun]

Our previous method of dealing with this was to ask people what miles they had in the last 3 months of the year. This didn’t work very well, because people either didn’t know or lied.

We are really encouraging people to come back even if they won’t have the same miles as last year. Presumably, those who will have fewer miles than last year will be randomly spread out among the teams, and will be balanced by those who have more. And no one will be able to see your miles from last year, so no one will be shamed for not keeping up.

@Vicegrip 129043 wrote:

Do we have to use last years miles as a HP for returning participants? This might make people not want to return after a year or two. No one wants to let the team down by not at least making the handicap. I am thinking hard if I have the hours to better last years miles as I don’t want to be a boat anchor for a team. Not saying we need to change anything just noting something that might influence returning players.

[cvcalhoun]

Can we please fix the Strava authorization form so that the page you get after submitting it directs to this year’s registration form, not last year’s? @hozn 128970 wrote:

(1) yes, it will be the same, but we have old data still. I will clear the database, though I may leave authorizations in there so folks don’t need to reauth.

(2) good memory! Yeah, it was confusing to use the BA Strava club last year, so I vote we have a new “2016 BAFS” club this year and ask everyone to join that club (and stay joined). That can also be a non-forum way of making general competition announcements (club discussions), which seems helpful.

[dkel]

@Sunyata 129018 wrote:

For @dkel’s statement about not riding as much as last year: If you were in the top 24 mileage riders last year and your riding will be significantly reduced either send me a PM or put in the “ringer” section of the form what your approximate weekly mileage will be looking like. It would be awesome if you could provide me a reason, but I know some of them might be quite personal, so do not feel obligated. I think, as a group, we know each other well enough to trust that no one will be a sandbagger and do this without it being legit.

I was 26th on miles, but 23rd on overall points. I don’t know what that means for your planning. I also still don’t know what I’m going to do regarding Slackers…I’m starting to lean towards being on a team, but as someone coming back from an injury, I don’t know whether I’ll be riding 20 miles a week in January, or 60, or more, though I certainly won’t top my performance from last year. Makes it difficult to know what’s best for myself and my potential teammates, and even difficult to know what to put on the registration form.

[cvcalhoun]

Apparently, all the old data (including last year’s miles) got cleared out. This means that people can’t answer the question on the registration form about what their last year’s miles were, which we need for handicapping purposes. Is there some way to put this back? @hozn 128970 wrote:

(1) yes, it will be the same, but we have old data still. I will clear the database, though I may leave authorizations in there so folks don’t need to reauth.

(2) good memory! Yeah, it was confusing to use the BA Strava club last year, so I vote we have a new “2016 BAFS” club this year and ask everyone to join that club (and stay joined). That can also be a non-forum way of making general competition announcements (club discussions), which seems helpful.

[dplasters]

@dkel 129066 wrote:

I was 26th on miles, but 23rd on overall points. I don’t know what that means for your planning. I also still don’t know what I’m going to do regarding Slackers…I’m starting to lean towards being on a team, but as someone coming back from an injury, I don’t know whether I’ll be riding 20 miles a week in January, or 60, or more, though I certainly won’t top my performance from last year. Makes it difficult to know what’s best for myself and my potential teammates, and even difficult to know what to put on the registration form.

You can be a boat anchor on my team. I won’t care. I gotta commiserate with someone about commuting into 15mph+ headwinds.

[vvill]

I’m signed up, but I had to estimate my miles since I don’t remember what I did last year, and the data isn’t visible.

[cvcalhoun]

Yeah, hozn cleared out the data. I’ve changed the link on the registration page to the archived version of the page so people can determine their miles. And I’ve fixed your registration. @vvill 129070 wrote:

I’m signed up, but I had to estimate my miles since I don’t remember what I did last year, and the data isn’t visible.

[sjclaeys]

@rcannon100 128986 wrote:

eBikes have never been allowed. There was an exception once based on (a) the medical condition of (b) a core community member. Otherwise FS was designed as a bicycle challenge of physical enduranced and sportsmanship. While there has been a little confusion about this, based on the ebike debate sort of blurring into the FS debate – this is a bicycle challenge (human powered) and there was an exception once because well we like that person.

In light of Bob’s points, maybe riders of eBikes and other electrically assisted vehicles should be in the Bunch O’ Slackers. That way they can participate but don’t present on unfair advantage in the team vs. team aspect of FS.

[Anonymous]

@cvcalhoun 129071 wrote:

Yeah, hozn cleared out the data. I’ve changed the link on the registration page to the archived version of the page so people can determine their miles. And I’ve fixed your registration.

fyi, I just registered and the archived page link was perfectly sufficient.:o Just in case there was still any concern.

[Mikey]

As for manual entries not working if 1.0 – A few years ago I entered 1.0 for a manual entry of a ride near my house. STRAVA converted to km then FS converted to miles for point allocation and it came in as 9.9999 miles. Hozn fixed it but if I ride a pre-measured ride around my house that is this one mile loop and I have to manual entry I put it in as 1.001 just to be sure.

[Author]

Posts