[LhasaCM]

Not terribly hard. I didn’t check my work, but, the top 10 with everyone counting:

1. TENacious Decimators – Team 10 BAFS 2017
2. Totally Spoked – BAFS’17 Team 15
3. Podium! Team 7 Freezing Saddles 2017
4. BAFS17 Team 18: Merry Band of Idiots
5. Fourmidable Snow Flakes – BAFS17 Team4
6. Casual Six – BAFS 2017
7. 5 and Dime
8. Team 11 – BAFS 2017. “Up to Eleven”
9. Squadra Quattordici BAFS2017
10. 2Fast, 2Frozen

The top 10 counting only 8 riders per team:

1. TENacious Decimators – Team 10 BAFS 2017
2. Totally Spoked – BAFS’17 Team 15
3. Podium! Team 7 Freezing Saddles 2017
4. BAFS17 Team 18: Merry Band of Idiots
5. Fourmidable Snow Flakes – BAFS17 Team4
6. Casual Six – BAFS 2017
7. 5 and Dime
8. 2Fast, 2Frozen
9. Can’t Catch 22
10. Team 11 – BAFS 2017. “Up to Eleven”

Not terribly different at the top.

[LhasaCM]

@Emm 167690 wrote:

This is my thought exactly. I’d rather be on a team with my friends who I like riding with vs people who ride the most (although there is definitely some overlap between the two groups), but then again I see FS more as a friendship building/encouragement to ride when it sucks out/advocacy tool than a cutthroat competition. Honestly, FS was a big motivator for me while healing from surgery last year, and most of what I loved about it was how I made a great group of friends, and received alot of encouragement to keep riding from the people I did group rides and happy hours with. Sure I didn’t ride every day because I still hurt, but it got me out riding 100% more than I would have ridden otherwise. And although I participated in the forum for a year or two before Freezing Saddles, I did not become a regular attendee at coffee clubs, group rides and happy hours until the competition.

What I would like to know is how prevalent is it that people sign up, and really don’t participate? Can someone run the numbers from a few of the prior years and show how many people per year were below a certain threshold (maybe however many points would equate to 3 shortish rides a week average or something?). If we’re just debating kicking off 5 out of 250 people a year, this doesn’t seem like a big enough issue to debate even if it’s something emotions run high over. But if it’s 20-30 people, I can see a reason to institute some minimum threshold.

I think one idea tossed out was averaging 75 points/week (the every day sleazer, or thrice a week 15 miler, or weekly metric century rider). 2017’s FS was just over 11 weeks, so the cutoff in that scenario would be 836 points. From the current leaderboard still online, it looks like 29 people were under that cutoff at the end of the competition. That’s not to say that more folks didn’t dip under that earlier in the winter, but it’s at least a data point to consider.

[LhasaCM]

@hozn 167683 wrote:

I agree; I think this was a really great suggestion and solves a few problems. Just how the team time trials work!

Don’t team time trials work by taking the Nth place person on the team and having that time be the one that counts for the team?

To build a nice little straw man: we could go the other direction and only count the bottom 2 or 3 scores on a team…that way, the incentive is on the team to encourage/bribe/cajole/etc. those who have participated the least (where participate = ride outside) to participate more. It all gets back to what the whole purpose is/what to prioritize/etc.

[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…

[LhasaCM]

@lordofthemark 167592 wrote:

I don’t get why banning Class 3s (and above), knowing that will be hard to enforce, is somehow worse than banning all ebikes and knowing that will be equally hard to enforce.

Agreed. It’s not like they enforce the ban on motorcycles, or cars, that well. But it has some impact on behavior…

[LhasaCM]

@Judd 167593 wrote:

You can get a badge for reporting glass on the MVT.

Great – give the person more of an incentive to leave it there in the first place. “I was just trying to help folks get their badges…”

[LhasaCM]

@Vicegrip 167549 wrote:

Who is in charge?

Might not be SFW with the sound on…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f96p-IhcZhQ

Good question I do not have an answer to. So, I sent a link to your post and this thread as a message to the site admin. through the “Contact Us” link to see if that gets to anyone…

[LhasaCM]

@Vicegrip 167536 wrote:

One of them got me to waste some time and answer a question it asked. 😡

Can it be set so any post with a link in it has to be approved by a human unless posted by a long term member? Say less than 50 or XX posts you need approval for any posts with hot link. Also set up a volunteer team of Spam Hunters. Four or five frequent visitors so empowered can weed a forum with ease.

I think it’s something that can be done, and I’m pretty sure it can be done even on the older version we’re using here. The question is: who can actually make that happen?

[LhasaCM]

@secstate 167220 wrote:

I didn’t realize the bike industry was putting out talking points on e-bikes, but of course they are!

MYTH: E-bike riders will go further into remote areas and won’t be able to pedal out if their batteries die.

Heh. This conjures visions of dozens of e-bikers, starving and out of water, roaming the streets of Woodbridge, growing increasingly ragged and desperate by the day.

As the “fact” says – that is a lesson you learn the hard way.

[LhasaCM]

@secstate 167218 wrote:

Time to vote, then?

Wait – what about the People For Bikes 10 myths about e-bikes blog post from Monday, or did I miss that? I always like the “Myth/Fact” approach to debates that are really “Opinion/Different Opinion”

[LhasaCM]

@vern 167196 wrote:

If I go 55 on the beltway (posted speed limit) I get blow away by virtually every other driver. So why do you think that mentality wouldn’t carryover to a speed limit on the trails? Public safety reasons? In a better world, maybe, but this ain’t it. I think the only thing that would keep most from surpassing a posted speed limit on the trails is the limits imposed by their own quads.

Quads and brains. As a “non-roadie” but numbers nerd – especially for my morning commute to school (where pacing myself for a longer ride isn’t an issue and we’re often cutting it close on time), I go as fast as I reasonably can given the conditions and congestion. Most of my morning commute is on the MBT. When there aren’t a lot of people out (as happened to be this morning) and things are clear and dry, even with my heavy bike and my daughter on the trailercycle, I can get through the MBT Sector 1 (between Franklin and the zigzag at R) averaging 19-20mph thanks to it being downhill. Even my median effort in 400 attempts is an average of around 17mph; my average speed for that sector is below 15mph (the nominal speed limit) only 10% of the time and were almost all when (1) I was on a CaBi or (2) my wife was on a CaBi and was with us.

On the flip side – the “MBT: Lane Switchin With The Sweat Drippin” segment that is going up the hill – I’ve cracked an average of 15mph once in 360 tries and that was the last time I went solo with the goal of going as fast as I could for those few minutes. I consider it a success (especially with daughter in tow) when I break 10mph on that segment heading home, so the speed limit wouldn’t impact me at all.

[LhasaCM]

@lordofthemark 167193 wrote:

2. I am not sure why California chose 20MPH as the cutoff point rather than 15MPH. IIUC at least some European countries make 15 (the metric equivalent, rather) the cutoff – not sure of the full range in all Euro countries. Not sure if it would be viable for Va to establish a different standard (and I strongly think it would be good if at least Va, Md, and DC had common classifications). Note also, the classification does not only impact the question of legality on trails – at least in California class 3 ebikes are not allowed to be ridden by riders under 16, and helmet use is mandatory for adults riding them – which is not the case for class 1 and 2, which are treated more like bikes in those regards.

The 15MPH limit in most European countries is tied to a EU directive that defines an e-bike as a pedal-assist, maximum 250W motor, and limits the assist to 25kph (roughly 15.5mph); the motor cuts out after that speed is attained.

CA and most other states that have done something here tie to the federal Consumer Product Safety Act, which defined a “low speed electric bicycle” as having a maximum 750W motor and the bike is only capable of 20mph when powered solely by the motor. To be more stringent than that speed standard at the state level probably wouldn’t be realistic.

[LhasaCM]

Somehow, I managed to talk my wife into the McIntosh route (really, once you adjust for the ride to and from the start given where we live, it’s just as long as the DC Bike Ride was for us but without the hurry up and wait at the start…and she’s done so much more biking since then!), so assuming she doesn’t change her mind because of the weather/cold, the three of us (I’ll have our 6yo on the trailer cycle per usual) will be on the shorter route taking our time…

[LhasaCM]

@DismalScientist 167022 wrote:

Hydration
Unfortunately, 40s do not fit in standard water bottle cages, but 24 oz cans do.

That’s why I like my Looney Bin – it adapts to a large variety of drink containers (including 40s).

[LhasaCM]

@huskerdont 166932 wrote:

There were some that didn’t like the Knog Oi. I can’t find the old thread for when it was kickstarted, but there were some complaints. One was that the spring was too weak. Both of mine are still working fine, but you can see that the hammer is pulled away from the ring a bit, so eventually the spring will likely be sprung. One thing I like about it is that it has always worked in the rain, rather than giving that clunk that Incredibells do. It also works with road handlebars.

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?10150-Innovative-bike-lights-bell-and-navigation-system had a lot of chatter about it. On the plus side, they’ve gotten quite a bit cheaper at retail (so are in line with the Kickstarter “discounted” price)

[Author]

Replies