Discussion: the race

Man I figured this would be a monster given how they talked about it on line, but you did survive so that's good. I will be interested in hearing about your UTM plotting technique along with the rest of this epic adventure.

If you are going to be at the sprint tomorrow at EP Tom Sawyer, I can bring the map it is quite impressive covers a 1/4 of my office wall if I hung it. I plan on coming to the sprint if I can walk.

On a 6K bushwack I realized that on events like this, having a teammate really makes sense. Who would have ever found me if I had a mishap? Cell really was limited in this area.

I plan to be there if my work schedule allows it.

I really want to hear about the race. It is on my list for next year.

I will keep an eye out for you. It only being 3hrs away makes it hard not to put on the schedule I just got to figure out more about the bike.

I don't think I had the shock unlocked during the long single track. I wonder if those bike shorts with padding would help. Also, I need some way to mount the map on the bike. It would save a lot of time in the long run. I just need something small enough to see around.

Bike shorts definitely are essential as are padded gloves. Having a mounted map board, even a simple improvised one is a big help. I have a thin sheet of model-building wood (very light), cut to fit between my handlebars, held down with bungee cords. Very minimalist. Works fine on the road bike but for the bouncing of a mountain bike you might need a more robust device.

Thanks Mike - I will look into bike shorts and start thinking about a map board. I had one very old padded glove on at the end, lost the other along the way somehow?

As we discussed last night, A trip to the bike shop to check out the bike shorts is a really good idea. I am going to recommend skipping the typical step of buying regular bike shorts first and go ahead and say buy the bib shorts first. The Bib shorts strike most people as awkward at first so they start with the regular shorts only to discover the bibs work better for them later.

Here is an example of Bib shorts.

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052...

Second some Chamois cream will help, it smooth things out and will add to the amount of time you can ride, and as a side benefit, it can add to the amount of time you can paddle since spending time in the boat sitting in soggy bike shorts applies friction on areas not protected by the shorts padding.

Here is a brand I like

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052...

These are on the Performance bike web site, I would recommend going the bike shop to talk to Carson instead of buying this stuff from the web site simply because it pays to get advise from someone who knows, in case you didn't know, besides Orienteering, Carson and Alison like to ride old bikes, really old bikes like Goliath high wheelers aka Bone shakers, so they know what they are talking about. Going to the shop will allow you try on the shorts to see what fits and pick their brains for fit ideas concerning the bike set up and such. Always pays to have a relationship with the local bike shop.

And finally here is a link to the map board I am buying to use in the next race. It is the one used by the US Mountain bike O team and some the purchase cost helps to support the team.

http://www.us.orienteering.org/us-teams/mountain-b...

This should be enough to get started.

Thanks! I'm all for trying stuff since what I did was not working. What map board style are you getting? What do you need a diameter reduction kit for?

AutoPilot map holder bases are designed to attach to standard 31.8mm wide handlebars. For bikes with thinner handlebars the adaptor allows the map holders to be used with 25.4mm wide handlebars.


I don't think it will be a problem unless you are using some sort of thin racing handlebar or you want to mount the board off to one side or the other where the bar gets thinner. older bikes used to have the thinner bars but now the bars are thicker in the center. I am still trying to work out what board to buy. I am thinking the basic board, the pilot one, but the angle board looks like it might have potential .

The sticking point is visibility of the map and adding this board is going to add drag so something that could be adjusted might be useful.

Here is some discussion of the merits of different map boards

http://www.vicorienteering.asn.au/mtbo/MapboardRev...

Thanks! A lot of stuff to think about.

I went ahead and got the angle board, it offers more clearance so I won't have to worry about hitting it with my knees or whatever. I haven't tried it on a trail ride yet. I need to work out the best way to put the map on.

I will let you know how it goes.

I'm going to work on the basic stuff for this meet. Just got a pair of water shoes, my others fell apart after 5 years. I will try and get bike gloves and bike shorts.

I think this AR coming up will have a lot of paddling! After all it's on a 50,000 acre lake.