Audax rides

If you're not going for a time or using it for stupidbastardmumblearsebiscuitstraining then I HIGHLY recommend a snooze. I was nodding off in the early hours.

I was seriously contemplating using the route sheet as dunny paper for a 'bush push' but given the Garmin grief I didn't want to kill off my only non-electronic navigation aid.

I rode past the entrance to those services after looking at the boom and then had to double back for them. There's an easy hour I could take off just from stupid navigational mistakes.

I didn't really notice any strange looks to be honest. Then again, I've spent long enough wandering around in full lycra that I probably ignore them. There were some youths in a car at a Salisbury? servo in the early hours that asked if I got my kit from gays r us or something similar. For some reason they didn't want to come and have a closer look though.

PBP is an interesting prospect now - I'll only have a month or so of time to adapt to the road bike (totally different saddle) and most of that will be spent trying to walk again after Mersey Roads I guess. I'll also be at the mercy of bunches of dirty foreigners with interesting ideas about bunch etiquette I'm sure... :S

Average toilet paper can take up to 40 days to fully decompose. Generally a bit quicker if it's been buried. Given the environmental and ecological considerations, I don't think burning offers sufficient advantages other than expedience. General advice is that you should try and use a broad leaf for the first wipes and minimal toilet paper to finish off.

This thread just got interesting.

I seriously did search for lightweight trowels. Then realised I have a nice aluminium one I took on tour a little while ago.

I love shitting behind hedges.

^ better to use water and (left) hand for cleaning yourself afterwards; biting your nails afterwards not recommended unless scat is your fetish

@hippy nice work and thanks for helping sort out the crazy bearded guy on the TREK. Never seen someone so happy when told they are going to be riding a 600.

I love shitting behind hedges.

Quoted for posteriority.

I rode with him for a while and we had lunch at the cafe in Hungerford. Nice guy. Epic adventure stories! I'm going to racetracker stalk him during the TransAm.

For RRtY June, could I make an audax route that was say, riding up and down my favourite A road?

Where are your controls?

This is my verified DIY route.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/7011714

No idea. Can you use the same control more than once?

Possibly. Four or five controls, distance between has to be 200km walking. Like this:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Look+mum+no+hands!,+Old+Street,+London&daddr=Blackmore+to:Stonehill+Rd+to:The+Blue+Egg,+Great+Bardfield,+Braintree+to:High+St+to:Great+Dunmow+to:Look+mum+no+hands!,+Old+Street,+London&hl=en&sll=52.143918,0.368385&sspn=0.053831,0.109005&geocode=FT8yEgMdiYX-_yELv32OZU0P2ymBWI4LVxt2SDELv32OZU0P2w%3BFeO8FAMdwdoEACkJsbCyb5XYRzEUMMnzqVmB7g%3BFcarFQMd0ckFAA%3BFfaEGAMdqs0GACFyAXX75Vsl1CkPL3ECd_TYRzFyAXX75Vsl1A%3BFUivGwMddzcFAA%3BFZyEFwMd64QFACkPcNStOI3YRzFgY8K7qBwOBQ%3BFT8yEgMdiYX-_yELv32OZU0P2ymBWI4LVxt2SDELv32OZU0P2w&oq=great+bardfield+blue+&dirflg=w&doflg=ptk&mra=ls&t=m&z=9

Ditchling Devil on the 7th surely?

Maybe easier to use a perm than work out and get a DIY validated. The boat ride perm is a nice route, starts west and is £3 to enter, validation by gps is accepted. http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/PST02/ I will be using that in July for RRTY

Could I just select a section of A road with a pub at each end and use that? What's the min. distance between two controls have to be?

It's a week before the Newbury 12. I want something more specific to the race, ie. more aero/less cake.

That boat ride thing could be a go'er. Another paudax event.

How does validation by gps work?

DIY Perm FAQ
http://events.paudax.com/content/diy-perms-faqs

Exactly.

You just email Paul a gpx track taken from your Garmin after you have ridden, you need to tell him in advance what day you intend to ride on.

I would drop him an email with questions, I would imagine you can't just do a to and back repeated as it could easily be cheated, but I may be wrong (and often am :p)

Cheating at audax... ?

All I was looking to do was a normal training ride, which might be 300k up and down a stretch of A road on the TT bike. Mega feckin' boring but could go some way to securing a RRtY month without having to do an organised, lump, laney, not so good for TTing audax route.

If you are doing DIY by GPS then you'll need to set control points about 80km apart at the most. You can just nominate some point in the road and, as long as you ride through it or reasonably near it (within about 100 meters on your tracklog) you'll be fine. Yes, an out and back on an A road will be just fine for that.

You aren't allowed to ride the same stretch of road twice in the same direction, i.e. you can't do laps.

You'd be well advised to nominate major junctions as a control point in case for any reason you need to divert, you'll still be able to make the control.

You aren't allowed to ride the same stretch of road twice in the same direction, i.e. you can't do laps.

Not strictly true (about the same stretch of ride twice in the same direction). That rule (I don't think it's even a written down rule) was put in place to stop people coming up with rides which were just laps of a certain route (be it endless 1km loops, 20 x 10km laps of Richmond Park or a 200km ride made up of 4 laps of a favourite 50km training route).

There's nothing to say you can't use the same stretch of road twice in the same direction (many calendar rides do it[1]), but you'll be told that any route which is obvious laps of some sort is not allowed.

A simple 100km out and 100km back along the same A road is perfectly fine, it's going to be a fuckload easier to do it as DIY by GPS for the reasons previous posted. A start point, midway point (50km), turning point (100km) midway-back point (150km), finish point (200km). The midway points and the start/finish points can be the same place (my DIY up to Cambridge uses a cashpoint by Putney Railway Station, a garage in Broxbourne and the Tesco on Newmarket Road in Cambridge, then the same garage and cashpoint on the way back).

1. The road to Kings YH for example.
   

Cheers. I think the simplest thing to do is to ride a 'proper' 200 (like that Boat Ride) on a Sat and do my TT stuff on the Sunday.

I did the Ditchling Devil as a DIY by GPS last year as I missed the calendar ride. The process was pretty straight forward although at one point my Garmin came off while I was going down a gravelly descent. Luckily it was all fine. Best thing was that I didn't have to worry about controls and could stop whenever I wanted. Paul was really helpful via email and pretty much walked me through the whole process, apart from the ride of course.

This year I'm doing the calendar ride.

Looking forward to doing my first Audax on Sunday on my trusty marin hybrid/tourer/commuter beast. 100km Canterbury loop here's hoping for no gales....