Goldsprints @ the Bernard Shaw, Oct 24th

flickerx

There's another fixie fanatics thing happening on Oct 24th in the Bernard Shaw, so feel free to come out with the usual reactionary rubbish about the riders being trend obsessed fashion victims (yawn, change the record),

but more importantly, the dublin messengers crew are going to have Goldsprints set up. I presume its going to be out in the back smoking area because I cant think of anywhere else it would actually fit in the pub. I was going to throw down a challenge between the dublinfgss crew and the boards.ie road bike lycra geeks, but the Goldsprints are still having a few teething problems, and the organisers want to have a few clean runs before competitions start.

Looks like it'll just be a time trial run and then there'll be quarter finals for the top eight placed spinners. But you lot you should come along anyway because it'll be mental craic altogether, and I imagine you'll still give any hardcore fixie rider a run for their money. Not sure what the prizes are yet but there will be some.

Oh and there'll be no EPO testing, so feel free to do whatever it is that comes naturally to you

Chips Lovell

That's all well and good, but what are Goldsprints?

Vélo

el tonto wrote: »

That's all well and good, but what are Goldsprints?

Here you go

Rob_l

in moments like this i call on the great power of wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsprint

This kinda seems a fun idea drinking cool tunes and trying to murder yourself ona stationary bike

blorg

Sounds cool, bring it on hipsters!

dave2pvd

This is where the roadies invade the hipster's turf and take all the winnings. Then the hipsters sip their PBR and sulk for the rest of the night.

Is PBR available there yet?

Seriously, Goldsprints are a lot of fun. Why did it take so long to bring bike racing inside the pub?

Harrybelafonte

Deadly, won't be able to take part, but definitely will be along to watch. What's the story with bringing kids into pubs these days??

Chips Lovell

Time to go buy some big assed chainrings.

EDIT: My money would be on Mr Cadence, aka blorg

Chips Lovell

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

What's the story with bringing kids into pubs these days??

You could probably lock them to a lamp post outside.

Diarmuid

Do you get bonus points for sprinting in jeans!? :eek:

Rob_l

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Deadly, won't be able to take part, but definitely will be along to watch. What's the story with bringing kids into pubs these days??

its all cool before 9pm so says the law

flickerx

dave2pvd wrote: »

This is where the roadies invade the hipster's turf and take all the winnings. Then the hipsters sip their PBR and sulk for the rest of the night.

Is PBR available there yet?

Seriously, Goldsprints are a lot of fun. Why did it take so long to bring bike racing inside the pub?

In Ireland its called Dutch Gold. But it isnt trendy to drink it. Yet. I'm sure the Irish Times Saturday supplement will feature on it soon though on some piece about recession chic. You cant get it on tap either (or maybe I heard about one pub before having a tap, although that might be an urban legend) so its only cans. I dont think they're quite ready to be serving cans of Dutch Gold in the Bernard Shaw.

There wouldnt have been any way of working out the number of spins you would have done on a roller until computers came along.

Anyway, you get the general jist of it, el tonto? Its roller racing, hooked up to a computer, with a drunken mob screaming your name, telling you go to faster. Very enjoyable.

Chips Lovell

flickerx wrote: »

Anyway, you get the general jist of it, el tonto? Its roller racing, hooked up to a computer, with a drunken mob screaming your name, telling you go to faster. Very enjoyable.

Gotcha now. Will it be pure rollers or with front wheels mounted?

Harrybelafonte

Dutch Gold comes on tap all over Limerick apparently

flickerx

Rob_l wrote: »

its all cool before 9pm so says the law

I think the Goldsprints only start at 9pm.

Harry, I wouldnt consider the outdoor area in the BS a child friendly zone either... its not exactly a quiet Sunday afternoon pint with the papers type of place.

Personally if I had kids I'd definitely bring them along, but it definitely can get a bit rowdy in there. Not in a bad way, there's no fights or anything, just lots of fairly drunk people dancing and jumping around, etc.

flickerx

el tonto wrote: »

Gotcha now. Will it be pure rollers or with front wheels mounted?

The forks are mounted. I think pure rollers would be a bit much, in a pub.

Diarmuid

el tonto wrote: »

Gotcha now. Will it be pure rollers or with front wheels mounted?

I'd imagine that if you wanted to avoid mass carnage it would be the latter.

Rob_l

flickerx wrote: »

I think the Goldsprints only start at 9pm.

Harry, I wouldnt consider the outdoor area in the BS a child friendly zone either... its not exactly a quiet Sunday afternoon pint with the papers type of place.

Personally if I had kids I'd definitely bring them along, but it definitely can get a bit rowdy in there. Not in a bad way, there's no fights or anything, just lots of fairly drunk people dancing and jumping around, etc.

The outside area is the smoking area so probably not the best for the lungs of the children.

As for the regular crowd in the bernard shaw they are defiently not the type for fighting and rowdy behaviour usually a very relaxed nice bunch.

bcmf

Is it who does the most revs in a given amount of time?

Chips Lovell

bcmf wrote: »

Is it who does the most revs in a given amount of time?

I presume it's cover the most distance. Revs alone would favour the ones on low gearing.

Rob_l

el tonto wrote: »

I presume it's cover the most distance. Revs alone would favour the ones on low gearing.

From looking at the pic on the previou page aren't they like fixed gear bikes? so there will be no low gear.

Chips Lovell

Rob_l wrote: »

From looking at the pic on the previou page aren't they like fixed gear bikes? so there will be no low gear.

You can get different varieities of gears on fixies though. Mine might have a 48/16, yours could have a 46/17

niceonetom

I don't think you get to use your own bike, do you?

Rob_l

el tonto wrote: »

You can get different varieities of gears on fixies though. Mine might have a 48/16, yours could have a 46/17

I was assuming there would be bikes setup there rather than me brining my own bike though and that they would all be the same

Flickerx can you confirm?

petethedrummer

How long does the average race last? If its under a minute I think I'll put my name down.

Chips Lovell

niceonetom wrote: »

I don't think you get to use your own bike, do you?

I just presumed you did. Wouldn't favour the longer or short limbed among us if not.

Harrybelafonte

Bugger, thought it'd be around the 3pm mark, didn't rad properly. That's me out then. I genuinely hope this is a great success though. Must try and find that video of Chris Hoy at rollapolooza

flickerx

Yes the two bikes are fixed and on the same gear. And no, you dont get to bring your own one, it takes a good bit of time to set it all up, they couldnt keep doing it every new rider. I dont know what the gear is but I can find out for you. The distance is 500m, so thats probably about... 45 seconds to a minute? Maybe less. But it feels like forever when you're on the rollers cos there's no resistance compared to cycling on the road and you reach your top speed very quickly, in fact I always found myself 'spinning out' (is that the correct term? I dont know), i.e. my legs were just spinning too fast for me to keep control.

Chips Lovell

Ah, I see. So it's all about cadence then rather than real speed.

flickerx

The fastest to cover the 500m distance wins. Obviously.

DirkVoodoo

Just found out that Slane cycles sell the elusive fork mount for the Tacx rollers.

We could easily setup a boards one of these at some stage.

flickerx

el tonto wrote: »

Ah, I see. So it's all about cadence then rather than real speed.

I guess so.
Is there some way of making rollers more resistant?

Chips Lovell

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

We could easily setup a boards one of these at some stage.

We'd need some engineery type to put the electronics on it.

flickerx wrote: »

I guess so.
Is there some way of making rollers more resistant?

Not really, other than upping the gearing on the bikes.

niceonetom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEucX3Hx_9U

beaten by this:

petethedrummer

el tonto wrote: »

We'd need some engineery type to put the electronics on it.

I've been toying with the idea for a while. I'm just not sure what sort of sensor to use for measuring the speed of the wheels(or rollers). Making a nice computerised display would be handy enough.

Gavin

Go simple and just have a magnetic sensor, hook it up to some sort of pic microprocessor with a rs232 or usb pc interface.

or

RFID tag and reader. Might not be able to handle the speed.

or

Go fancy and use a garmin edge mount and hack up an ant+ reciever for the pc.

or hack an old ball mouse and use one of the sensors against the wheel and a straight interface to the pc.

etc etc

blorg

Some cadence from Craig MacLean there, he has the lycra advantage over Hoy. He's not exactly a stranger to a track bike himself of course. Also interesting that Hoy keeps his hands on the tops while MacLean is down in the drops- theoretically hands on the tops should help with breathing and no aero disadvantage as the bike isn't moving, although most cyclists are used to sprinting in the drops... You would probably have to specialize in Goldsprints to excel in the hands on the tops method

@flickerx: Do you know what the story is with pedals- I am presuming it will be toe clips with straps?

TinyExplosions

http://opensprints.org/ will give you all the info on electronics and stuff needed...

The bikes are (or were last I saw em) Kona Paddywaggons -the gearing is the stock 42-16

It really is a test of cadence, so I reckon Blorg could have it, though 500m isn't a trivial distance!

TinyExplosions

blorg wrote: »

@flickerx: Do you know what the story is with pedals- I am presuming it will be toe clips with straps?

Flat pedals, no clips or straps or anything iirc

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

The bikes are (or were last I saw em) Kona Paddywaggons -the gearing is the stock 42-16

It really is a test of cadence, so I reckon Blorg could have it, though 500m isn't a trivial distance!

Yikes, that's a very small gear alright. It'll really someone with the coordination to ride a high cadence in that case.

flickerx

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Flat pedals, no clips or straps or anything iirc

What?? Surely there has got be toeclips and straps.

Chips Lovell

With that gearing, you'd need a cadence of 151:eek: to break 50kph.

petethedrummer

Gavin wrote: »

Go simple and just have a magnetic sensor, hook it up to some sort of pic microprocessor with a rs232 or usb pc interface.

........snip..

I was thinking of mounting a rotary encoder to the roller, It would be very very accurate, but very very expensive and difficult (for me) to mount.

I'll ask someone more clued in than I. Hardware and sensors are not my forte.

flickerx

El tonto, are you going to do it?

TinyExplosions

flickerx wrote: »

What?? Surely there has got be toeclips and straps.

There wasn't in Jan, which was the last time I was playing with the gear

TinyExplosions

petethedrummer wrote: »

I was thinking of mounting a rotary encoder to the roller, It would be very very accurate, but very very expensive and difficult (for me) to mount.

I'll ask someone more clued in than I. Hardware and sensors are not my forte.

The link I gave above sells kits for $180 for all the electronic gear you need -simply add cables and bikes (and computer!)

blorg

flickerx wrote: »

What?? Surely there has got be toeclips and straps.

I would concur with this, nuts to try this sort of thing without any retention. The bikes are after all fixed to a stand so it's not as if there is any downside like people can fall off tied in to the pedals. I would strongly lobby for toeclips...

eltonto wrote:

With that gearing, you'd need a cadence of 151:eek: to break 50kph.

Look at Craig MacLean's legs in the video... then read the stats from the guy who beat his record (higher gearing than 42x16 too.)

500m in 17.90 seconds
100.6 kmh
85 inch gear (44x14)
Average cadence 254rpm

petethedrummer

TinyExplosions wrote: »

The link I gave above sells kits for $180 for all the electronic gear you need -simply add cables and bikes (and computer!)

Woops, didn't see your post. I'll look into it.

billy.fish

Turn up on the day jobbie or what is the plan?

Done a few of these in the Uk before, time to see if i can break my time from last one!

dave2pvd

For measuring speed or distance, go non-contact. Encoders are just a bit too delicate and come with mounting problems.

Find a cycle computer than can be adjusted to a wide range of wheel diameters. Tie wrap the wheel magnet to a roller. Tie wrap on the sensor head. Calibrate. Done.

Right?

petethedrummer

dave2pvd wrote: »

Find a cycle computer than can be adjusted to a wide range of wheel diameters. Tie wrap the wheel magnet to a roller.

I had considered something similar to this. Anyways I'll never get round to doing it.