1-2 fleche teammates wanted

12 replies [Last post]

Thu, 03/15/2007 - 1:07pm

Anonymous

"Grace Pineda, Ellen Jaffe and I have formed a team for the upcoming NJ fleche (an ACP randonneuring event).
Full details about a fleche are available here:

http://www.rusa.org/flecherules.html

Basically, we'll be attempting to complete a 227 mile ride within 24 hours (with no sleep stops). We're starting from the Newark NJ train station on April 7th (arrive via PATH or NJ Transit) and will come home from Princeton Junction via NJ Transit on April 8th.

We are 3 enthusiastic rookies hoping to add 1-2 teammates. If you're interested in this challenge, please send me an email. You can meet me, Ellen, and Grace next Sunday and preview the first part of the route if you join our century-a-month club ride on Sun, March 25th.

Since we'll be riding through the night, a good lighting system and reflective clothing will be required. And of course since the ride is only 3 weeks away, you should already be doing some serious training."

Thu, 03/15/2007 - 1:27pm

jon (not verified)

Kay - do these things qualify for Brevets - pbp qualifying?

Thu, 03/15/2007 - 1:43pm

Kay Gunn (not verified)

PBP qualifier

"
No, it is not a qualifier for PBP. You will need a 200, 300, 400, and 600 for that. However, it will count towards the RUSA distance awards:

http://www.rusa.org/rusaaward.html

I look at it as good practice for the upcoming 400 and 600 events. And it will be fun in a weird sort of way."

Thu, 03/15/2007 - 2:35pm

Bob Ross (not verified)

"""And it will be fun in a weird sort of way"""

Aw, for that reason alone I'd love to join you!

Alas...

Thu, 03/15/2007 - 2:42pm

Paul (not verified)

If you wait until June

- I can join you
- You'll get two additional hours of daylight

Thu, 03/15/2007 - 2:54pm

Kay Gunn (not verified)

so much fun

Perhaps we'll have so much fun that we'll want to do it again. But it only counts as an official fleche if we do it over Easter weekend.

This would actually make a really nice 2-3 day adventure with sleepover(s) in Lambertville or Princeton. I'll submit the cuesheet to our ride library after the event.

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 6:42am

Rob Marcus (not verified)

"Go Kay Go

There is nothing worse than biking or camping in the deepest darkest tree cover and then have your flashlight die.

I salute you and your team.

I understood that this was restricted to those under
5'5"". lol

Have fun, in a sick kinda way.

Robert ""Not the Slowest"" Marcus"

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 7:35am

Paul (not verified)

>>Since we'll be riding through the night, a good lighting system and reflective clothing will be required<<

I was thinking about this on the ride home last night as the battery on my light starting flashing which indicates that I was running on reserve. I have a rather strong light which pulls about 10-12 watts using 12 volts. Since you'll spend ~11 hours riding through the night (sunrise at 6.30 and sunset at 7.27), you'd each need a battery with a 12-15ah capacity for each rider, which is pricey and potentially heavy. This is assuming you won't be using one of those little LED blinkies which may last forever, but provide no beneficial lighting.

An alternative is to have each rider have their own light, but only use it when leading. That way, if each person's battery lasts, say 4 hours and you have 3 riders, you'll last throughout the night.

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 8:08am

Kay Gunn (not verified)

lights

"The 3 of us each have Dynamo hubs.

Schmidt Dynohub

I also use a cateye el500 as backup. It will burn for about 30 hours on 4 AA batteries. Some randonneurs will get by with 2 of these.

Cateye EL500

There are lots of lighting discussions in this long distance riding forum:

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=231

Also, the NJ Randonnuers message board had 2 recent threads about lighting:

http://www.njrando.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5

Here are some good overall articles about equipment:

http://www.ultracycling.com/equipment/equipment.html"

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 9:04am

Paul (not verified)

Thanks for the links on the dynamos. I've always liked them but never went that route as I just don't feel visible enough with them, even in the city. However, if you have a few people together with them, the clustering effect will keep you quite visible.

Since I typically ride alone, I ended up building my own light a year ago and it's about as bright as a single car light. The only downside is that you're sol if it malfunctions (happened once when I was 30 miles from home) or on a trip lasting longer than battery capacity.

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 8:31am

#10

Mordecai Silver (not verified)

LED headlights can be excellent

"My current system is two 1-watt Busch & Müller headlights. They each run on 4 NiMH AA rechargeable batteries. A fully-charged light runs 6 hours on full power, 13 hours on low power. Two B&M headlights on full power are quite sufficient for riding at 20 mph or more. Spare batteries are light and cheap.

Many people ride 1200 km brevets (such as BMB or PBP) on battery-powered light alone. That can mean three nights of riding. Of course, if you don't want to worry about batteries dying, you can use a generator light, such as the Schmidt dynamo hub.

Since Kay's team has to ride at an average of 9.5 mph over 24 hours to complete the fleche successfully, and the course is not very hilly (about 7,000 ft of climbing), I doubt that they will need to ride throughout the night."

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 9:21am

#11

Kay Gunn (not verified)

thanks Mordecai

I'm in the process of choosing better backup lights and/or good lights I can use on my other bike for good weather 200/300s. The Cateyes are cheap and OK, but I'm not comfortable going over more than 12mph with them. These Busch & Muller look pretty good. You have the IXON?

We hope not to have to ride all night. If we can make good time during the day, we'll hang out at a diner and at our last controle. But the rules state that we have to take the whole 24 hours to finish and no rest break can be more than 2 hours, so that pretty much rules out any real sleep time.

Fri, 03/16/2007 - 10:25am

#12

Ellen (not verified)

Ixon

Kay....the Ixon rocks. Had a single head(AA operated) coming home from the bridge (on the bikepath) last Saturday night. One head + spotty park lighting = totally adequate. I'm thinking of two to get me through this gruel-athalon.

NYCC.org

1-2 fleche teammates wanted