Back to Battle Mountain - WHPSC 2008

Tuesday, October 2 - Good day all around. Show & Tell at the Civic Center this morning at 10, so we started with installing the LED lights in the nose of 'Orange'. The folks in the catch area have trouble seeing some of the bikes in the low light, so in addition to the orange color we thought it would be cool to have lights (and my crewman is a whiz at such things). There is now a row of six red LEDs up the bow of the bonnet that blink in sequence two at a time.

The session at the Civic Center with the school children is a kick every year. They run around going "oooh" and "aaah", and asking for autographs. Most of the grade-schoolers have pictures of HPVs that they've drawn - many good ideas for future projects. The middle school folks are more suave, but still have big eyes. The lights were a hit, and lunch was on the house (the BIG sub).

In the afternoon we added a couple of blocks to the bonnet along the bottom edge to make it easier to assemble at the start. We also picked up a second crew member who will ride shotgun in the Habitat during the speed runs. This fellow, Dan helped us last year. He and his friends are in the area on vacation to see this event and are camping nearby. They fish and see the sights during the day and watch the runs in the evening.

The speed runs are arranged into two waves of five vehicles, due to the amount of time that the road can be closed. The faster 5 bikes make up the second wave because that is when it is most likely to be calm winds (and potential record speeds). Each wave goes off fastest to slowest so as to decrease the likelihood that anyone will be overtaken. Tonight I am the last rider to start.

Temperature is at least 10 deg warmer, better for speed, and the wind is down some (but still a factor). Another clean start and I am down the road. I start out a little fast again, so coast a bit, then pick it up, trying to keep to a speed schedule that I've worked out might get me to 65. The road is still rough (imagine that) and I get some buffetting from the wind. Speed up to 50 at 2 miles to go, somewhat behind schedule. Got to pedal harder. Climbing toward 60 as I get to the timing trap, but not quite there. - Coast down and clean catch by those good folks.

Sitting in the bike as the lid was raised, someone asked if I needed help getting up. I said no, then needed help as my quads were not up to the task. I stood bent over laughing and said to no one in particular: "This is too #%$@ing much fun."

Got my official speed of 59.2 mph at the meeting. Top speed was Sam Whittingham, a little over 78, with another rider, Damjan Zabovnic at 74+. Mine was the fastest speed of the mortals. The other contender in my speed range, Rob Hitchcock did not make it down the course. He steers using a video camera and monitor because his machine has no windshield, to take advantage of improved aerodynamics, and his primary monitor died half-way through the run. Two other Southern California boys, Tom Amick and Larry Lem are sharing a new bike that Larry built, called Baluga for its resemblence to a creature of the same name. Tom did 54+ tonight.

Post-mortum thoughts are that coasting was a bad tactical decision. It meant that I had to use valuable energy in re-acceleration. If I get ahead of schedule, I need to back off but keep pedalling so as not to slow down. That and less wind, and who knows.