Good news/bad news on RUSA perms
 

Looks like they got insurance. Still can't ride a perm

I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't been able to talk myself into riding even a 100k during the lockdown. I know some people have been riding long rides, particularly in states that didn't lock down.

First year with a rusa membership and I doubt I will get a rusa ride in this year. Most I've done outside has been an imperial century but the weather here hasn't been very encouraging for outside riding, especially in light of my zwift addiction...

I've done a couple of 100 mile rides since the lockdown but they all started from my house and were made up of loops back to my house for refueling. I'll probably do another this coming weekend. Our club (GLR) is offering a century up in Wisconsin this weekend. Wisconsin, the state whose bars have been full since the Supreme Court tossed out the governor's shelter-in-place guidelines. As much as I'd like a change of scenery for my rides, I'm just not ready to ride into a hotbed of activity.

Is there an announcement? I've seen hints but no specifics.

3 of my perm routes go by my house at about halfway, so I could do those without stopping anywhere. Probably wouldn't finish all 200k though, that was always the problem with those routes.

They announced it somewhere, facebook maybe? It said that Crista would be contacting perm owners. So apparently it's changing in some way

The local club had a posted email that was sent to RBAs, but not to the general membership.
Evidently, they are doing a major rework on some of the perm arrangements, but I have no idea what or how that is being reworked. As a perm owner, I haven't heard anything yet.

Yes, I figured out that a couple of RBAs posted it on facebook. It sounds like possibly some significant changes

Assuming you already know the route, what difference does it make if RUSA sponsors the permanent or not? Illinois has been under a stay-at-home order since March, and I'm riding just as much this season as always.

I didn't really want to be out for many hours on my bike when I thought people should be staying home. Nothing has really changed as far as that's concerned. I'm only really happy about going out riding in the forest. All of happy valley is a spread out suburb of State College. There is very little truly rural area around here.

The difference is whether you can count perm riding towards RUSA distance awards such as K-Hound.
There were people doing 10,000k plus a year of RUSA rides that were exclusively perms.
What I've found from a practical standpoint in the rides is that if it's not a RUSA event, people are more inclined to do their own things, so you wind up riding around by yourself more.

I get that in normal years, but even if RUSA opens up perms this year people won't have enough time to get a K-Hound on perms will they?

One of our local riders managed 40,000k in one year a while back, so yes, they will. It'll depend on when they get opened and how. I've got 9 K-hounds and was working on #10 until all this mess, so if I can, I'll get it this year.

Wow! That's a lot of permanents. Hope RUSA is able to get them insured so you can keep your streak going :thumb:. There's no way I could ever get enough rides to complete a K-Hound in our ~6-month season so I've never ridden a single perm.

Down here, the basic strategy is to go ride a 200k every Saturday, and 52x200 = 10,000+. In reality, you miss a Saturday here or there, but you ride a 300k or 400k here or there, too, so it evens out.
With a 6-month season, you go ride a 200k every Saturday AND every Sunday. And if you have a chance, spend a few days in Texas or AZ or CA or someplace warmer towards the end of the year and make up any shortage.
Another strategy is to get a 100k route you can ride after work during the week. Not easily done in large urban areas, but you can easily work another 100k or 200k in during the week.
It helps if you have like-minded people to ride with, then this all becomes social hour as well.
If you're going for 40,000k in a year, you ride your time trial bikes and get 90-100 miles in about 4 weekdays a week then ride on weekends, too.

K-hound isn't something very many Midwesterners attempt, I only know of 2, which is probably why permanents aren't as big of a deal up here. Even if you didn't have any other demands on your time, you would have a lot of really crappy cold/wet rides if you had to get in a 200k every Saturday and Sunday April-September.

RUSA just sent out an email to perm owners. RUSA is going own all perms and handle all administration of perm rides. Single one-time fee for the year. Current owners are requested to update their routes on ride with gps and submit them so they can be entered into the RUSA system. I definitely like the fact that I am no longer associated with anyone's ride. I do have a little sense of loss that they are no longer my rides, but I'll get over that. I'm trying to decide which routes to submit.

What email? I own 4 perms. No email as of this morning.

ETA: I found it on the Google Groups Perms List just now

I'm interested about what they are going to do about free route perms. I see no reason to get rid of them, but all of my free route perms have better preferred routes. If they only have one route in the database, that's not going to be that great. I might have to add controls. But since everybody but Bill uses a gps for proof of passage, adding info controls isn't going to slow anyone down.