Pedal Prix 2016

[bounding star]

Another season of pedal prix has come and gone, and unfortunately I haven't been able to do more frequent updates.

For those of you who don't know, Here is a brief explanation of what the pedal prix races are: http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,59323.0.html
Like last year, our races were riddled with mechanical problems, as our trike is getting quite old and worn, and takes quite a beating through the races.

The first 6hr this year, our trike had a major structural failure, where one of the steering columns fractured, taking part of the chassis with it. We were able to finish the race, although we lost a lot of time and with heavily damaged steering control, it was quite scary going around the track.

Our 2nd and 3rd 6hr races were much cleaner and we were able to improve the team and make some minor improvements to our trike. Still, with a few weak points in the team, and some minor mechanical issues, we didn't quite reach what we were aiming for. However, we climbed the leaderboard more each race, and got closer to our rivals.

The 24hr race was the best race for the team so far, with a stronger and more even team thanks to hard work at training. Once again we were let down by the trike, breaking a chain, breaking the steering twice, and the seat collapsing. The times that we were averaging would have allowed a top 10 position, possibly 6-7th, but with almost 2 hours out of the race fixing the trike, we had to settle for 17th. For the season, we finished 11th, which is great considering how the trike went.
That was my last race for a school team, hopefully I will return next season with an adult team.

I didn't get many photos this season, but I have had a go at making my own video for the 24hr race. Enjoy.
(it starts off showing training, but the race is a couple minutes in)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5e-d_dquBk&ab_channel=GereddHayes

[Grant Lamontagne]

Congratulations on another season!

I am fascinated by your races and I have watched the las videos a number of times.  I'll watch this one shortly.

I'm sorry to hear the trike was giving you problems, but you have to expect these things with machinery that gets driven hard, and it's all a part of the challenge of endurance racing.

If I recall, there were a lot of teams last year, so assuming a similar number this year, 17th and especially 11th is well worth celebrating!

Have you got a new team scoped out yet?

Def

[bounding star]

In our category there were 50 teams, all up 200 teams, slightly less than last year as the track was shortened a bit. Some friends from a rival team who are also looking to join an adult team have invited me to help form a new one, although we will probably start out with a pretty bad vehicle (hopefully we will improve it over the years). Either way it will be good to be back racing, even if we are barely competitive to start with

[Grant Lamontagne]

So 11th out of 200.... nothing to sneeze at there!

I really wish there was something like that here.... or that we had enough of a budget to have an MTO team!  With all of the cyclists on our roster here I'll bet we could be quite competitive!

Def

[bounding star]

not quite, 17th out of 47, which puts us at 64th out of 202. Still not bad with the time we lost. We could probably get a team together if enough of us were nearby in south australia, with sponsors a team could just about break even with running costs, and a second hand trike could be got for maybe $3000-$5000 (divided between a dozen thats not to costly)

[Etherealicer]

So 11th out of 200.... nothing to sneeze at there!

I really wish there was something like that here.... or that we had enough of a budget to have an MTO team!  With all of the cyclists on our roster here I'll bet we could be quite competitive!

Def

Yeah but we would sabotage it on purpose, so we can pull out our MT's for repair...