TheKillerPenguin

Yeah I called the owner today, going to buy it. It's highish miles but in absolutely perfect shape, and the price is ridiculous.

Also going to keep the Saab I think, for now at least. Depends on how the BPV change goes! Project car!

carpediemracing 

I've been looking at cars in Phoenix, but also random ones.

There's a Chevy powered Starion on eBay that got Drive's attention, $7.5k I think. I haven't peeked but on a tiny phone screen it looked impressive.

I have no real good tips to give you other than avoid Euro cars.

topflightpro

Pulled off an Ollie last night. Don't think I've even tried that in about 25 years.

As I was pulling in to the neighborhood last night, I saw a group of teenagers on skateboards very unsuccessfully trying to Ollie. I pulled over, rolled down my window, and offered some instruction. They weren't getting it. So, I got out of my car, walked over, and showed them how to do it. I used to skate when I was around 12-14, but I don't think I've ridden a skateboard since.

Amazingly, I pulled it off and landed it on my first try. I was pretty impressed with myself. I also didn't fall or smack my head, another huge accomplishment.

One of the three had it down. The other two were still struggling.

Ttoc6

Sweet man! I've been thinking about picking up a BMX bike to tool around on when I'm bored. I have a friend down in Austin, real good crit and fixie crit racer that spends a bunch of time posting videos on Instagram of his bmx riding.

Makes me want to learn something my parents never let me do. Not sure why that artificial bound was put on me.. My brother rides bmx and dj bikes now. Maybe I would have been allowed to and I just never asked...

I digress, but it would be fun to learn to do something that isn't entirely endurance focused.

TMonk

very cool.

Flatballer

That's legitimately seriously impressive. I didn't think muscle memory, especially for something that difficult, lasted that long. I tried to learn to skateboard, all my friends were skaters. I couldn't even ride down a driveway more than 50% of the time. My balance is bad.

furiousferret

Nice. I tried one a few years back, maybe got an inch but I was never that good as a kid. I could never ollie up a curb, etc.

topflightpro

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't a big ollie. Maybe two inches. But I was just amazed I could still do it and not crash.

furiousferret

Last night I went to an SCNCA Meeting with the President (who happens to live a few blocks away) and he had a small presentation on the state of the Association.

• Race Participation went from 43,000 in 2016 to 30,000 this year.
• 90% of all members don't renew their licenses after 3 years
• Cat 3's will be able to become 'mentors' and get upgrade points in doing so.
• Integration with Gran Fondo's (with certain requirements) into racing.
• San Diego and other cities have had to cancel events due support costs (i.e. law enforcement, medical) as many have requirements for Police on every corner.
• There's a shortage of support staff (including coaches).

Doom and Gloom for sure, but I don't think the decline of racing here is a due to a decline in cycling as a whole. We had crits that had 30 participants when at the same time 2 miles aways 100+ were doing a practice crit.

Additionally, the SCNCA's schedule is out; unfortunately there's a lot of crossover in events (I suppose there always is). The good thing is there's about 20 events less than 20 miles from my house.

wktmeow

Any details on this? Which events? I'd be interested, not even for the upgrade points, just always thought mentoring would be fun.

wktmeow

Barrio Logan same weekend as Dana Point? Guess we'll have small fields again :\

Doge

I was writing this on the Ride Clean thread, then decided it was too off topic...
I think this is mostly self inflicted.

There is too much cost and effort to grouping riders and provide something for everyone. It costs too much.
It also does not tell the story of how good someone is. Is the 45+ winner "better" than the 30+ winner? The races are different, you can't tell. Racing is at its core competition - measuring against others. If you put others in different groups - less measure, less fun.
The Nats HC - some posted times comparing riders and I was thinking - why didn't they just race them together? It would have been more fun. Why compare a X group rider time to a Y group rider when you can just race them together? As suggested before - race everyone based on ability on the same equipment. Do races by ability and when they get over 100 or so in size, do a new race. That is the Fondo model - and somewhat the Strava one.
Pick the awards from their relative placing in that race (best red head, best 35+) etc. That lets everyone enjoy bigger groups and "real" race tactics and ensures there are no 5 person fields - unless that is all you can get that day.

We have cross, MTB, Fondos and group rides taking from the interest in racing. Some would like to go get muddy over riding circles in the business park, but it makes all fields smaller.

And then there is the junior thing I've been harping on for a decade (2008 emails to USAC). When you force juniors to be handicapped, they go places where the handicap is not so significant, or quit. USA cycling is masters supported. That is cool, they have money, but I don't see much making it fun for the youths coming up.

Ygduf

I think they do lots of separate groups with the idea that more 45+ dudes will show up if they feel they have an opportunity to compete. Which, true or not, they might not think they can be competitive with the 35+. Same in 35+ with the P12. Etc.

Does it work? I dunno. I doubt anyone does. There's no control.

Doge

I don't know either. But some things have been pretty obvious that they won't work.
-Small fields - esp with the police, permit fixed fees

-Purses based on age/gender (so a woman's purse for 20 riders same size as men's of 100+ so the promoter is not shamed). Make it a % of participants and race fee.

-Restricting junior gears in the same race as seniors. I called this years ago (and I hear things). Nobody wants to be public about it. It is unfair and establishes that fairness does not matter. Somehow when the rider cheats, it is bad, but when the organization cheats it is OK. USAC needs to get over their selves. They are not producing world class cyclists and the 5 that are can do the gear things when in Europe.

Could it work? I look at two other areas - I mentioned - All competitors compete together in:
Fondos - which are doing fine. Strava - fine enough to do a website change. Golf (some gender division - sometimes)


At the championship level, there will be groupings. But really the only races that matter are the ones on the path to a job. If all races were on ability only, they could do the same at nats.

Flatballer

You're ollieing (sp?) and meanwhile I messed up my knee at work. At my desk. Sitting down.

I think I had it at a bad angle under my chair and I was kind of engrossed in my work and didn't move for a long while. Now I can't straighten it.

furiousferret

There's a video on the SCNCA FB Page, its probably about 10-20 minutes in. We didn't get much details about it, but it seems like volunteering for a clinic, or creating a clinic would get points (which is a great idea).

I agree and disagree with this. As a lower end Masters athlete, I ultimately want to have the opportunity to win a race, even if I'm terrible at it (comparatively to the guys that post here, I'm terrible). I also understand running an event for 10 hours isn't good for anyone, especially if half the races have under 20 people racing.

The people that run this sport have been successful at it, and because of that's there's a disconnect. A guy who's been pro and had his first win 20 years ago just can't understand the motivations of a 40 year old lining up for the first time.

I do think USAC will / should be forced to integrate Fondos. A major complaint from the promoters there was that cities just aren't interested in the low numbers a bike race brings. Fondos bring more people, actual revenue for the host, and transition people much better into racing.

I agree on the Juniors thing; and I'll add the SCNCA President (Sean Wilson) runs a huge Junior program out here so if you want to reach out to him he'd definitely listen.

Doge

I may have explained badly, and that is on me.
With my suggestion - you'd stand a much better chance of winning. The regular winners get upgraded. Fields would always have 50 or so of those that have not won much at that category. It might be a mix of some 45+, a few women, some juniors a couple good 55+. I would have gear restrictions some entire categories. Example Cat 10 rides 52X16, Cat 9 rides 52X15, Cat 8.... Those that win, get moved up.

In most masters age groups winning is based on who shows up. In SoCal Tinsman and DeMarchi are hard to beat. I had Thurlow my age and a pile of un-named guys. As some don't retire so well, those guys are always there. But my son dukes it out with Thurlow and he is "hey, its you". He is a mentor. Those guys could race together, have fun.

But yea, on a 10 category system you might have to say you are a lowly Cat ___ and it does reduce the amount of coffee shop bike lies that can be told. But at least we'd have races promoters can afford and field sized that somewhat resemble something worth racing in.

Doge

thanks for that. Unfortunately I think it is a USAC thing. Local groups that deviate too much are likely not to get the invite. USAC has a program and path they think juniors should be on and they make rules to coach to it.

topflightpro

We have a huge statewide cross series here. They used to do regular Cross categories and 35, 45 and 55+ masters.

A few years ago, they changed it to 40, 50, 60. You know what happened?

The fields grew. In fact, they're huge now.

The 40 year olds didn't want to race with 35s, so they stopped coming. Once they upped the lower age for the masters, more people showed up.

The road scene here is dying. Cross is booming.

TMonk

Not to be a heretic, but cross is hugely appealing to me. I really wish they had more races in San Diego and that we didn't have to drive up to LA for it. But with the way things are going with road here we're already doing that any way... Road keeps me coming back because I'm part of the San Diego Bicycle Club's racing team (same as @wktmeow) and there is lots of participation from the team which makes for good experiences.

I don't like how dangerous road is, relative to other disciplines.

I do like how cross involves a lot of skill and athleticism in addition to fitness, and also a lot of on/off pedaling and less steady state FTP type stuff. I think I'd be good at cross for the same reason that I'm better at a points race or criterium than a TT. I'm also fairly athletic, did basketball and wrestling in HS.

hubcyclist

I think I've said it before around here, but I've gotten into cross this season (I have two races this weekend and two next!) and I find it appealing for a number of reasons a) there are a ton of events around usually every weekend now, which I find better as a newbie because I feel like each experience is fresh in my mind, whereas road events can be a couple a month, or one each month. b) the time commitment, whether it's training, traveling to races, etc, seems to be a lot more friendly to my other life demands c) cross is a lot more family friendly than road, lots of events have tie-ins to fall festivals and what not and plus it's better than watching people pass once in a long road race

It may just be that it's the flavor of the month and that I'm actually racing in the discipline (and not having done any road racing in two years) but I can see myself really just focusing on cross and then having the spring and early summer to just ride for fun

gsteinb

I understand the draw for people to cross. It's just not my scene, and locally I lament the lack of road events in september and october. They're dipping into late August now also.

Fondos? I guess that's the wave of the future, but I think at that point I'd just be chasing PRs up hills. I thought of doing the VT gran fondo this past summer, to which RacerEx replied..."sure, but what benefit are you getting out of doing a 7 hour ride with 12K feet of vertical right now?" It was tough to argue with the logic a few weeks out of my year's A race.

tetonrider

is "sounds fun" a sufficient benefit?

in that case it might not have been enough to overcome what you were worried about (missing fitness/training for your A race), but sometimes there is a way to have the fun and still be prepared.

for most amateurs, there's a balance to strike, and there's often enough room in a plan for that.

of course, 'fun' is always determined by an individual. one man's suffering is another's fun.

gsteinb

I’m not even sure it would have been fun. 7hours on a bike sounds worse than a lot of medical procedures. I was just looking to alleviate some vacation boredom. Turned out there were better ways. It rained that day anyway and their DNF rate was OFF THE CHARTS.

Doge

If you like Fondos - of the many are pretty fit type do the Mike Nosco ride.
There will be some 20-30 very elite riders out there, and some 5-10 ex-TdF pros (mostly ex-dopers, except Bob Roll of course).
Mike Nosco Memorial Bicycle Ride