South Pole Cycle Challenge

vektarman

No, it's not a sportif but having said that I'll never complain about a tough sportif again if they can complete this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16345232

Lumen

Uphill at walking pace on those tyres, I'm not sure that a bicycle is more efficient than on foot.

I'd like to see it done as a race against a pedestrian.

smacl

805km uphill all the way according to the article. Even at a mild uphill gradient of 2.5% that gives her a total 20k of altitude gain, which obviously isn't the case. There must be a reasonable amount of downhill in there as well, in which the bike would score over a pedestrian. I'd say roughness of terrain would be as much of a problem as gradient, there must be fair sized stretches where you couldn't cycle regardless of the tyres. Looks like a dog of a bike to have to carry.

Fair play to her in any case, one seriously tough journey!

Lumen

smacl wrote: »

I'd say roughness of terrain would be as much of a problem as gradient, there must be fair sized stretches where you couldn't cycle regardless of the tyres. Looks like a dog of a bike to have to carry

Indeed. 20kg of bike plus equipment. Hard core cyclocross.

leftism

Having just finished reading a book on Scott's ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic over a century ago, this once again reinforces my belief British Polar explorers are a bunch of idiots....

cantalach

leftism wrote: »

Having just finished reading a book on Scott's ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic over a century ago, this once again reinforces my belief British Polar explorers are a bunch of idiots....

But Shackleton and Crean were Irish. Then again, they turned back on both occasions so perhaps you have a point.

ROK ON

cantalach wrote: »

But Shackleton and Crean were Irish. Then again, they turned back on both occasions so perhaps you have a point.

My favourite cycling routes in Ireland go past the houses where these men grew up.

cantalach

ROK ON wrote: »

My favourite cycling routes in Ireland go past the houses where these men grew up.

Very different houses I imagine!

ROK ON

cantalach wrote: »

Very different houses I imagine!

Yep.

There are Shackleton properties all over Kildare. I was in my local coffee shop last year and I saw that they were using Shackleton flour to make bread etc. They told me that it is the very same Shackleton family from Kildare.
I guess that they owned a few flour mills. IIRC, the abandoned flour mill on the Starwberry Beds outside Lucan is a Shackleton mill.

leftism

cantalach wrote: »

But Shackleton and Crean were Irish. Then again, they turned back on both occasions so perhaps you have a point.

Prior to departure from South Georgia Island, Shackleton was repeatedly told by Norwegian whalers that it was a terrible idea to sail through the Weddell Sea, due to the danger of becoming trapped in the ice sheets. So in his case, he was an Irish idiot...

532 days later, when 3 starving, hypothermic sailors in tattered clothes came crawling into town, i'm pretty sure some of those same local whalers were thinking "well lads, we did tell ya"!

In fairness to Tom Crean, i get the impression that most of the time he just went along with whatever Scott or Shackleton were doing... He was being paid well, enjoyed adventure and was in no position to argue with British officers! In typical Kerry fashion, he just got on with the job, while muttering "feckin eejits" under his breath.

leftism

ROK ON wrote: »

Yep.

There are Shackleton properties all over Kildare. I was in my local coffee shop last year and I saw that they were using Shackleton flour to make bread etc. They told me that it is the very same Shackleton family from Kildare.
I guess that they owned a few flour mills. IIRC, the abandoned flour mill on the Starwberry Beds outside Lucan is a Shackleton mill.

Very true! The weir outside the mill is known as Shackletons weir. In fact the Shackleton flour mill in Lucan is the reason the Kildare football team are known as the Lillywhites. The flour produced here was branded "Lillywhites flour" and apparently the Kildare footballers used to just wear these old canvas flour bags as jerseys. Hence they became known as the Lillywhites!

funnights74

Stumbled across this on the BBC Site, is this even possible?:eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16345232

Beasty

Threads merged

Beasty

Lumen

leftism wrote: »

In fact the Shackleton flour mill in Lucan is the reason the Kildare football team are known as the Lillywhites. The flour produced here was branded "Lillywhites flour" and apparently the Kildare footballers used to just wear these old canvas flour bags as jerseys. Hence they became known as the Lillywhites!

Say what you like about the idiocy of the British, at least we don't play football wearing flour bags. :pac:

Morrisseeee

The frame also needs to be as light and aerodynamic as possible, as well as durable.
It is made from

............carbon, surely............

.........seamless aluminium aircraft tubing, which is heat treated to withstand the harshest environments

:eek::pac:

Lumen

Morrisseeee wrote: »

:eek::pac:

"Aircraft grade aluminium" is one of those bicycle bullshít bingo phrases that means precisely nothing.

There is clearly some scrimping going on here, what with steel being used in the tyre belts when kevlar would do the job better.

Anyway, it's nice to read that despite being manufactured in LA the pole-trotting ice bike uses aluminium rather than the much inferior aluminum and is equipped with tyres rather than tires.

Top hole!

petethedrummer

Surely they would need larger radius wheels? It would be a nightmare going over bumbs and hollows, of which I assume there are many.

And how in the name of god will she keep her feet warm in the Antarctic?

Morrisseeee

Lumen wrote: »

There is clearly some scrimping going on here, what with steel being used in the tyre belts when kevlar would do the job better.

It's hard to believe that they would scrimp on the one thing that is trying to get them to their destination, the one thing that the whole challenge is about. If it was an RTE production then I'd understand

petethedrummer wrote:

Surely they would need larger radius wheels?

I think it's tied in with the whole idea of a lower centre of gravity.

gctest50

http://marialeijerstam.blogspot.ie/