Best of luck to you, Phil! And cool that you are taking it on ungeared. A faster geared record would be a lot less amazing.
In 1981 I ordered my first big wheel unicycle with the idea of doing a 100 mile record in mind. At that time, the record was 10:37. But by the time my big wheel was delivered in 1982, the record was down to 9:20. I’m glad I never attempted it on that heavy wheel with its steel, double-walled rim and solid rubber tire. Ouch! Of course, those other records were set with steel rims and solid rubber tires too…
For what it’s worth, I don’t think there was any drafting in the 1987 record. Though it was a race, I think mostly the two competitors rode their own race. However I wasn’t there, so they may have been together for part of it.
I love my 5.10 shoes, I have two pair. With 100mm cranks and a heavy 36" wheel, shoe weight is probably not a big factor. Especially when compared to comfort and secure grip over such a long ride.
I like 5:10s for unicycling (I use clipless on bikes). Mine are Impact High-top which are not the lightest shoes but they’re not THAT heavy - good for muni anyway, and the grip is superb. The only bad point for me is that they absorb a lot of water when it’s wet (which is common here) and take ages to dry out. Perhaps for mostly road use a lighter shoe would be good - I know Tue (tujotomi on here, but he doesn’t post much these days) had some light running or climbing shoes (not sure which) resoled with 5:10 rubber for Ride the Lobster. But with ten days to go, ride what you’re used to!
looks like a solid setup. Your aero setup looks pretty ideal for this kind of thing.
Don’t sweat the tube. I never bothered to weigh mine but I did compare by hand the weight of the FOSS tube in the box and a regular 29" tube in a box and they felt almost exactly the same weight. I couldn’t tell any difference in tire feel with the Foss tube installed but it was slightly easier to setup and holds air better.
The Eastern Destination is Goose Bay, Labrador. A couple friends are going on this crazy snowmobile race and I am going as their support person.
The time of year is really not ideal, but it corresponds with the best time to organize this event for university students. Although, trying to train for this while studying engineering is also not ideal, haha. Watching the long-range weather forecast for Saturday is driving me crazy, as it seems to change ±8 degrees every time I check it. I’ll be so happy if it’s 4c sunny and calm (current forecast). But despite the sub-optimal context, I do think I’ve got a shot at it!
I’m really happy with the aero-bars, and I’d highly recommend it. I first got them just before a tour in 2010 to the east coast. I wouldn’t go back. I’ve broken a piece on my KH t-bar twice now because they put too much stress, but it’s still worth it. They’re waaaay flexy on the t-bar, but they definitely work. To whoever finally makes a V-Frame: I will be your first customer! (if I can afford it…)
Eric: wow that sounds fun!
Didn’t think the shoes would be such a hot issue! I like the 5:10s. If I do experiment with shoes later, I’ll probably also try re-soling some light-weight shoes with the 5:10 rubber, but I’d also insert something to make the soles stiff. Personally I find stiff soles make me feel more confident, and are more comfortable after a couple hours of riding. It would be sweet if the 5:10 impacts were even stiffer, but they’re much better than any normal shoe for me.
I do actually think that light-weight is really key as well. I find I can ride the fastest with the least effort if I focus on keeping my feet really “light” on the pedals, sort of just barely touching them. Lighter shoes do help with that.
So, on Saturday I thought it would be cool to have live progress updates on the website. My server is not a tank, so I figured hosting it on google docs and using their API made sense; at least then the data entry from the timers won’t be brought down by any load spike.
Here’s the sheet I drew up with some fake data for now:
There’s a chart on the second sheet (see tabs at the bottom).
I think what I did makes sense, but it would be awesome if someone on here could look it over and let me know if they see any issues that might be worth addressing in advance!
On the chart sheet, I used lap speed instead of the lap time directly, and the horizontal line is the current record pace. Do you think that is the most interesting, or maybe plotting the seconds-per-lap directly would be better?
Of course we’ll also be using paper documentation to fulfil the new IUF record guidelines as well, this is just for the website.
Everything is just about ready to rock and roll, just need to tie up some loose ends still and hope for Sunday’s weather to come Saturday!
You could also plot a deviation from record pace as a bar graph. I would recommend comparing total time elapsed at each lap versus total time at a record pace (assume a linear pace). This difference would then be plotted as a bar graph (in seconds?) for each lap, and it would let us know if you are getting ahead of the pace or falling back towards the pace as time goes on.
A figure I’d want to be told during the event is the average speed (and/or lap time this corresponds to) which you need to keep up for the remaining time to match the record. That would help show what you need to do, especially if you slip below the overall required average you can see how hard you need to work to make up. Hopefully that’s not needed though!
Anyway, hope it’s as awesome as the hype
Sadly I’m moving flat tomorrow so won’t be watching the live results, but I look forward to hearing about a new record after!
Yes, that graph is what I meant. I might change the units to minutes, since we are talking about six hours of riding. I would also probably change the sign of the time deviation to show how far ahead of the record pace you were riding. It is generally more pleasing to see good results in the upper right quadrant of the graph rather than the lower right.
Have a great day tomorrow! When will the results start appearing online? Will you post a link?
2 hours until I start. Hoping to ride from 11:30am to 6pm EST.
Thanks for all the support everyone.
It’s currently -6c, and should rise to -3c for most of the ride. That is colder than I wanted an will make this really difficult, but I’m still going for it!
Cool, thanks for thinking this through. The graph now shows bars for lap deviations in seconds, and the line in minutes. Maybe a bit more confusing, but hopefully both will show on a meaningful scale once I’m going. And it’s flipped to show second/minutes ahead as positive on the y-axis.
The support and enthusiasm from everyone here has been amazing! I hope this excitement can translate to more people taking unicycling more seriously. Or less seriously, but doing more of it.
What are the rules for this type of world record attempt? Do you have to go around a track?
Phil was riding around a 900 M track. Unlike riding in a straight line, you need to accelerate on every turn. Riding on a small track will take a lot more effort than riding on a long course at the same pace. I believe the old world record track was set up differently, with an out-and-back circuit on a road, but I cannot find the post that described it.
If I were going to set up a track to attempt the 100 mile record (which will never happen–I am too slow), I would find a nice flat stretch of road and set up two pylons, perhaps five miles apart. The rider would then ride back and forth around the pylons. Almost all the riding would be on a straight path, and only the turns at the each end would slow down the rider. The distance would need to be verified, and officials would need to be there to count and time each lap. Would this type of track be allowed for an official 100 mile world record attempt?
Sorry about the lack of updates – nobody at the track felt like using a computer much in the -10c windchill. They were awesome enough to keep that spreadsheet up (I was counting on it for info).
I’ll do a write-up of the ride this evening or tomorrow. Bottom line I wasn’t in shape for it, but to be honest the main point of the event was to promote sustainable food. The record attempt is a real goal of mine, but if I were really serious I wouldn’t have tried in early March. There were extenuating circumstances that would have made it really unlikely that I could have broken it even if I were in proper shape, but I don’t think I was there anyway. There were a lot of times in the past couple months where I had to make decisions between training and working on the event, and I worked on the event. There was a team helping me out with this, but a relatively small portion of the tasks were effectively delegated, which was a real failure of leadership on my part. The record part wasn’t just a publicity grab though, I wouldn’t have planned this if I didn’t think I might have been able to pull it together and have a real shot at it. I’m sorry, however, if anyone felt mislead by my claims and faux-confidence given that I did know I had pretty slim chances. It’s a tough line to walk, especially when a cause you believe in is riding on it.
It was a big learning experience on many levels.
Ok. Resisting the urge to spend an afternoon reliving yesterday through the computer, because I do have a lot of work to catch up on. Answers to a couple questions though:
My track was 837m. That’s from someone who measured it with one of those wheel things three times and took an average. I don’t have an official surveyor’s report at this moment. Turns are tough, but I’ll save a track description for the write-up.
I think it would be hard to find five miles of straight flat road that would meet the guideline criteria. Ken, is the final draft public yet? The rider must be visible at all times to the witnesses, and I think five miles would be pushing it on that front. Being able to just push out 5 miles at a time on a straight flat stretch would be really really nice though.
I applaud you for trying such a daunting feat. Even though you failed at the attempt, you succeeded in so many ways. The record is there, it will be there, eventually to be broken. But to have the experience, that isn’t something that can be broken. Think of all those you’ve inspired to try something that seems out of reach. For example, riding a unicycle in the first place. Many people think its impossible, but by you attempting this record, has inspired one person to try to ride, then not all is lost. Train harder and you will get it, you have my support.
