A sunny morning brings out the fair weather cyclists. #30daysofbiking
Ride safe everyone!
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It was the first really nice Saturday of the year. So of course time for a family bike ride. As a special treat, I dragged the Daisy Mayhem out of the depths of the garage.
Proof that the wife and I are tandem compatible.
After a quick spin of High Park, we were feeling guilty so we circled back to pick up Lucy.
It was a spectacular day. Hope that you managed to get out and about.
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Today was the big day for the endurance race. Here is the crowd getting organized for the group shot.
Props to Rose Hulman for lifting their bike with rider.
Bill gets in on the bike lifting action.
Rena and Bill get in some practice on the course.
And here we go! the LeMans start.
We are seeded first, as determined by our position from the Womens’ sprint. Bill gets a much quicker start than everyone else.
Last year’s winner: South Dakota State.
She came in a little too hot into the hairpin turn and went over. Fortunately she was OK.
Bill taking the hairpin.
Two tilting trikes in the competition: this one from Missouri S&T.
This one from UW-Milwaukee.
Bill switches with Calvin.
Calvin in traffic.
Our bike can corner tighter than some.
This padding was added to the prone bike since yesterday. I was told after the race that it didn’t help much.
Now it’s Rena’s turn.
Traffic jam leading up to the hairpin.
#15 is determined to finish.
Rena in the hairpin. SDSU was trying to keep up with her for her entire shift.
On the aerobars..
Grocery dropoff.
In the meantime, the team from Puerto Rico is dancing up a storm in the pits.
MSE leading Harvard.
Rena into the pits after her shift.
Off goes Josh.
Josh takes the checkered flag. We finished 7 laps higher than the next closest team.
Home team MSU was our neighbour in the pits.
On the other side, perennial powerhouse team M S&T, plus a bonus egyptian team.
The team post race.
Alumni Thomas and Bruce join in on the fun.
Luke takes a few hot laps since he didn’t get to ride during the race.
Now the awards.
Overall, the team finished 2nd. Hats off to Ohio U who were first, beating us by less than one point out of 88. They were first in design. For our report, there was a penalty assessed for not having a rollover protection system, which contributed to us only being 4th on design. We had hoped to make up the difference in the dynamic events. Also props to Akron for their pretty bike and the photo finishes with Calvin in the mens’ sprint. Official results here
This was also the first time that we won all the dynamic events, AFAIK.
The team had speculated that with the evolution of the HPVC away from speed, and with the addition of many obstacles to the endurance race, that an ordinary bike would do well. I think that this was fully demonstrated this year.
Special kudos to team captain Bill Kong who brought this idea to fruition, and who expended a huge effort in the past three weeks to get the new bike done.
We’ll regroup after this event to decide what comes next for our team.
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Day 2 dawns a bit foggy. It’s time for the mens’ and women’s sprints. Here we are at the drivers’ meeting.
Now the riders walk the very short, and somewhat curved course, which is also ridden with potholes. I was told that the MSE police changed the sprint venue at the last minute.
We lead off with the qualifying rounds for women. All racers are timed, and then the top sixteen vehicles move on to the double elimination rounds. Here is SDSU, last year’s winner.
Alabama.
Alexandria, and Akron.
The prone bike from Binghamton.
Rena at the start
And she’s off.
You’ll note that we decided to run without fairings. The front fairing was always going to be somewhat problematic in that it could interfere with control. The rear fairing, which was designed with a compartment to carry groceries, failed earlier in the morning, so we ran without that as well.
She did really well and ended up seeded in first place. We start hearing grumbling about how we shouldn’t be allowed to enter an ordinary bike.
Then they did several rounds of head to head racing, and Rena ended up at the top of group A. The women’s finals would be run after the men qualified and ran some rounds of elimination.
Here the men start lining up.
Kudos to these riders whose chains both broke at the start, and then they picked their vehicles up and ran down the course.
Yes that is a badger from Madison.
It was a pleasure to see some old friends from the Michigan HPV crowd. From left to right: Mike E, Mike M, Rick W, and Tim.
This kid from Ohio University was riding a belt drive recumbent that was built by a former faculty member.
Calvin lines up for his first run.
and he’s off.
He also made fairly short work of most of the other vehicles, but he lost a close one to Akron.
By losing, he ended up in the “B” bracket, and was able to keep racing. Here he is enough ahead of a vechicle that he stopped pedaling.
Here is Rena taking the checkered flag in the Womens’ final. Great work Rena!
In the men’s final, Calvin was up against Akron again, and it was an absolute photo finish.
The judges are looking at video to see who one. Turn’s out it was Calvin.
This photo from Tim Potter shows how close it was.
and here is an official video.
This meant that both Toronto are Akron had lost once, and so they had to immediately run a grudge match to see who got to be in first place. This time it was close, but not as close as the last, as Calvin pulls out another win.
A great result for the team: 1st in both women’s and mens’ sprints, the first time the team has achieved this. Overall, our design report was fourth, and Ohio was first in design and just behind us in the sprints, and so they are still in first place. We’ll see how everyone does in the enduro.
After a hard day’s work, its time for ice cream at the MSU diary store.
This was the only HPVC vehicle that we saw that was ridden to the dairy store.
For dinner, I introduced the team to the wonders of the Brody Hall dining area.
Early to bed so that we are in shape for tomorrow’s racing and the drive home. A great day for the team (photo: Tim Potter)
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Friday is a day for making the design presentation, and passing static inspection and safety.
Here is the bike with the fairings mounted.
The spacing between the front and rear fairings is a bit tight for Bill.
Calvin trimming the rear fairing.
That’s a bit better.
Going over to safety, we get a first look at some of the other bikes.
Rose Hulman with a massive front roll bar. The rear one is built into the tail fairing.
Our hosts, Michigan State University with their first time HPV entry
SUNY Binghamton was inspired by Graeme Obree to build a prone bike. Nice big chainring. How the rider is going to get out of the harness to load groceries is beyond me.
Bingham going through the rollover test.
UW-Milwaukee’s interesting tilting trike.
Calvin making a little noise on his trainer at the evening showcase.
Looks like we’re ready to go. Saturday is the sprint event.
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Every Friday evening when the weather is decent, a group of cyclists in the Lansing area meet up at either the Peanut Barrel or the Lansing Bike Coop to go for a group ride and a casual dinner.
My introduction to this group was through good friend and former Michigan neighbour Tim Potter who runs MSU Bikes.
Here is his pretty vintage French bike outside the Peanut Barrel.
and of course we start the evening with a little beer. This one called M-43, a hazy IPA brewed locally in Williamston.
We were joined by Dave, and here is a group picture of us in front of the shark AKA Lex Luthor’s house.
Then a brief ride though the old part of MSU campus to the Breslin centre where we were going to meet up with the rest of the group.
The full complement of LBP folks at Breslin.
Brian had this beautiful 650B randoneuring bike by Lyons.
Off we go.
Construction!
Passing through REO Town. This is a part of south Lansing that I had never biked through. It is named after the REO car company that Olds founded after he left Oldsmobile. This store was just down the street from the original factory site. The correct pronunciation is “Rio town”, as opposed to the initials in a certain seventies band.
Coming upon a fabric art show. I liked this piece of felted wool.
Leaving the gallery for dinner.
Dinner with new found friends.
This crew comes prepared with lights.
Thanks to Tim for introducing me to this group. It was also great to touch base with Jeff after 15 years or so. Great to meet Brian, Dave, Gary and the rest of the crew. If you’re in the Lansing area and want a nice social ride with good folks and no spandex in sight, I recommend the Lansing Bike Party.
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Some updated photos from the Zephyr build:
The front and rear fairings:
Last minute tweaks
The traditional “before” picture (photo by Jack)
Hitting the road to East Lansing only 3 hours behind schedule. Wish us luck.
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