Wizard's Birthday Challege

Wizard is planning to participate in a 100 mile bike ride for this year's birthday challenge. I think there might be some wagering interest in his performance, and have proposed a 50/50 prediction contest on the Diversity Tomorrow site. What do you think?

Thanks for the idea, which I support. I don't need to rake the pot -- I say let the winner have all of it.

Light interest indicated on the poll, but if anyone is seriously interested in playing for some "just for fun" stakes, send me a PM.

Mike, if you do the 100 mile bike ride I hope there's a video.

Quote: Greasyjohn

Mike, if you do the 100 mile bike ride I hope there's a video.

I wasn't planning on it. The video of my 50-mile unicycle challenge was so boring that I hate to punish my followers with another.

I enjoyed the 50-mile unicycle video. The bike ride would be great, espically if you travel by some landmarks. Come on, anyone else want to see a video?

Quote: Greasyjohn

I enjoyed the 50-mile unicycle video. The bike ride would be great, espically if you travel by some landmarks. Come on, anyone else want to see a video?

Watch out for those danged Las Vegas flash floods .

Tough to conquer on a bike, let alone a unicycle.

Quote: Wizard

I wasn't planning on it. The video of my 50-mile unicycle challenge was so boring that I hate to punish my followers with another.

speed it up and add some Benny Hill Yakety Sax music to it.

Is this 100 mile bike ride or unicycle ride? If it is a bike ride I don't see the big deal. I am a fat ass and ride 60 miles quite often. I am not sure i could do 100 bur if i rode more and was in shape it woulf be no big deal. Now if we are talking it will be done in under 5 hours then that would be more impressive.

Quote: AxelWolf

speed it up and add some Benny Hill Yakety Sax music to it.

LOL! +1

I would be interested and sent a PM on DT, even though I rarely check in over there.

Would Wizard be willing to answer these questions for the benefit of the predictors?

1) How experienced are you in riding with groups?
2) How many participants are expected?

Quote: AxelWolf

speed it up and add some Benny Hill Yakety Sax music to it.

I was a long-distance runner in my younger days. It takes at least 10 years to become any good. Resting heart-rate was in the high forties. (A nurse who took my pulse at a check up just about fell over.)

One day an old high school friend and I bumped into each other in his home town. Small town, I rarely got back there. Anyway, he thought he was some sort of bicycling champion by then. "Bikes are for sissies," I mused. Well, the grudge match was on. I scrounged up an old girl's bike from someone who still lived in the apartment building in which I once lived across. A real clunker, and too small. He had one of those light-weight aluminium hot rods.

After all my effort of finding a bike on a hot day, we left from the motel his wife ran, and proceeded across country through a couple of other towns, and back. A couple of hours worth, don't really recall. Anyway, I pulled back up to the motel. His wife, and a few others, don't really recall again, with a long face. He pulled up sort of weary looking about twenty minutes later. You might as well say that you could count the number of times I had rode a bike as an adult on the fingers of a few sets of hands.

Stopped running about twenty years ago. Sure, I could still do it today, but any half-serious injury now could prove to be lifelong. And, time moves on. You have to build on it rather than erect memorials to stuff which never was. Otherwise, you'll still be a step behind where you should be now.

My fastest running mile was 13:XX =/

On the other extreme, I once went from Cuba to Salamanca (~35 miles) in just 12 minutes. And yes, I was running.

Running time is directly proportional (I think ) to what is chasing you.
Cops = fast
Bully = not so fast
Grizzly = world record ( no one was filming, so I guess It didn't happen )

Quote: Greasyjohn

I enjoyed the 50-mile unicycle video. The bike ride would be great, espically if you travel by some landmarks. Come on, anyone else want to see a video?

It is a bike ride. I will be going by the Queen Mary and various beaches from Long beach to Newport Beach.

Still leaning against the video. As somebody remarked, it isn't that big a deal.

Quote: jml24

...1) How experienced are you in riding with groups?
2) How many participants are expected?

Are the riders in this event expected to form a group for wind resistance benefits? I understand it isn't that easy to coordinate if folks aren't experienced doing it.

One of my favorite films is about bicycling, 1979's "Breaking Away". It co-starred Jackie Earle Haley as "Moocher" in an outstanding acting job. He was also the motorcycle riding, smoking thug "Kelly Leak" in the original "Bad News Bears". If you haven't seen this movie, put it on your list.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Are the riders in this event expected to form a group for wind resistance benefits? I understand it isn't that easy to coordinate if folks aren't experienced doing it.

There will probably be packs that know each other that do that, but I'll be on my own. I think it is kind of silly if your goal is exercise -- as drafting is just cheating yourself. I think it is only justifiable if you're in a serious race.

Somebody asking about the number participating. Should be a lot. Here is the web site for the ride.

Quote:

One of my favorite films is about bicycling, 1979's "Breaking Away". It co-starred Jackie Earle Haley as "Moocher" in an outstanding acting job. He was also the motorcycle riding, smoking thug "Kelly Leak" in the original "Bad News Bears". If you haven't seen this movie, put it on your list.

Yes, great movie. Ultra low-budget too, from what I hear.

Quote: Wizard

There will probably be packs that know each other that do that, but I'll be on my own. I think it is kind of silly if your goal is exercise -- as drafting is just cheating yourself. I think it is only justifiable if you're in a serious race.

Somebody asking about the number participating. Should be a lot. Here is the web site for the ride.



Yes, great movie. Ultra low-budget too, from what I hear.

I agree, "Breaking Away" is a great movie. I participate in lots of long distance rides with my friends and we often form a pace line. The events are not races but there is a time limit and checkpoints we have to make in specific times. I understand your point of view on "cheating yourself" but if I am going to ride with other people it seems silly to not take advantage.

Quote: jml24

I agree, "Breaking Away" is a great movie. I participate in lots of long distance rides with my friends and we often form a pace line. The events are not races but there is a time limit and checkpoints we have to make in specific times. I understand your point of view on "cheating yourself" but if I am going to ride with other people it seems silly to not take advantage.

I think it comes down to your reason for riding. If you are just out for a training ride, then I don't think you need to be serious about drafting off each other. In fact, I think it would be counter-productive, as you should welcome the extra resistance. Same reason for deliberately riding up hills.

Of course, if you have checkpoints to reach, and you need to draft to make them, then draft.

A similar topic is shaving legs. Bikers always seem to do that. However, if I were in training for something, and wanted the extra resistance, I deliberately wouldn't. Same as swimmers. I am pretty sure that Olympic swimmers will put on a lot of hair, including the face, right up to the Olympics, for the extra resistance. Then shave it all off right before the Olympics and it will feel effortless.

Quote: Wizard

I think it comes down to your reason for riding. If you are just out for a training ride, then I don't think you need to be serious about drafting off each other. In fact, I think it would be counter-productive, as you should welcome the extra resistance. Same reason for deliberately riding up hills.

Of course, if you have checkpoints to reach, and you need to draft to make them, then draft.

A similar topic is shaving legs. Bikers always seem to do that. However, if I were in training for something, and wanted the extra resistance, I deliberately wouldn't. Same as swimmers. I am pretty sure that Olympic swimmers will put on a lot of hair, including the face, right up to the Olympics, for the extra resistance. Then shave it all off right before the Olympics and it will feel effortless.

I Never understood that. Would shaving legs and face really make that much of a different when biking?

Quote: GWAE

I Never understood that. Would shaving legs and face really make that much of a different when biking?

You got me thinking with this question. I previously thought the reason for shaving was less air resistance. Evidently, that is only a part of it. Please see the article To Shave Or Not To Shave?. It says that shaving cuts only 5 seconds off of a 40-kilometer ride. However, I think the real reason is it makes the legs look better.

Quote: AxelWolf

speed it up and add some Benny Hill Yakety Sax music to it.

That is now stuck in my head. Add the occasional bare breasted PYT on the sidelines and I guarantee the entire forum will watch.

Quote: Wizard

You got me thinking with this question. I previously thought the reason for shaving was less air resistance. Evidently, that is only a part of it. Please see the article To Shave Or Not To Shave?. It says that shaving cuts only 5 seconds off of a 40-kilometer ride. However, I think the real reason is it makes the legs look better.

Shaving was a big deal in competitive swimming 40 years ago. It was just coming into fashion, with the guys debating the leg, then the arm hair, and a lot of resistance to both, not to mention body hair. Now it's routine. (Fwiw, women were already shaving all but head).

Was also a big deal for men to wear caps, which was routine for women. But once the best broke the mold, men wore them a lot. It would be pretty hard to claim those things were effeminate now, but back then, it was like being a ballet dancer before Baryshnikov.

Made a huge difference in times. Probably more than in air, but I bet it's still significant.

At the highest levels of time trial or velodrome races, a few tenths (or hundredths) of a second separate the winner from the first loser, so any advantage is worth pursuing.

However, I understand in the Tour de France, perhaps the world's premier road race, that they will award the same time to all the members of a peloton, even though there could be several seconds separating the lead rider from the last one in the pack.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Wizard is planning to participate in a 100 mile bike ride for this year's birthday challenge. I think there might be some wagering interest in his performance, and have proposed a 50/50 prediction contest on the Diversity Tomorrow site. What do you think?

Time to decide... If anyone else wants in, send me a PM.

And a happy birthday to the Wizard!

I simply wish him another happy birthday. Good ride, bad ride, who cares?
At least he's still riding.
If it takes him 3 days, I'm OK with that.
Prolly take me 4 days, with the appropriate composition of dancing girls each night.
Otherwise might take me 5 days, no rush, I'm out here for the exercise and the scenery ;-)