Wizards 50th Birthday

Bummer. Hope you are feeling better soon Wizard!.... and stay away from Guatemalan taco stands with no signs. Your health and Superbowl weekend don't seem to go together.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Bummer. Hope you are feeling better soon Wizard!.... and stay away from Guatemalan taco stands with no signs. Your health and Superbowl weekend don't seem to go together.

Thank you. This is nothing compared to almost dying, literally, from that Guatemalan restaurant.

I did the Red Rock look today, for the first time on a unicycle in about ten years. Not only that, but I started from the Calico Basin picnic area, which added another 5 miles, for a total of 20.17. Check out the details at Strava. I know I've done much more than 20 before, but parts of the Red Rock loop are quite steep. According to Strava, my gross elevation gain was 1,822 feet. The steepest parts had a 7.8% slope, or angle of 4.5 degrees. I did it on my 29" and am proud to say I never had to walk it. I'm pretty sure when I did it about ten years ago on my old 24" unicycle I had to walk the steepest sections. Next time I try it on my 36."

I almost forgot that my wife got me a GPS watch for Christmas a few years ago. I never had the patience before to figure out how to use it and shelved it. However, when I was actually shopping for one on Amazon I suddenly remember that I already had one and took the time to at least use the GPS feature in its most basic form. To get the point, I recorded the ride on by my iPhone Strava app and the Garmin GPS watch. Here are the recorded distances:

Garmin: 20.17 miles
iPhone: 20.3 miles

So, the iPhone added 0.65% due to the wobble effect.

I still can't upload my rides from the watch as the software doesn't work. However, it is handy to at least record distance traveled while you're riding as well as your pace.

Quote: Wizard

I still can't upload my rides from the watch as the software doesn't work. .

Did you mean to say 'because I can't operate the software'.

Quote: Evenbob

Did you mean to say 'because I can't operate the software'.

No. I downloaded the software and the icon appears on my list of programs. However, when I double click it absolutely nothing happens.

Quote: Wizard

No. I downloaded the software and the icon appears on my list of programs. However, when I double click it absolutely nothing happens.

As I recall, nothing much happens. All it installs is a driver file.

Log into strava and click the 'plus' to upload the ride. There should be an option to upload from a Garmin. Click that, and magic happens. Obviously the watch has to be plugged in and the computer has to recognize the watch.

With the preliminary planning for the Spring Fling going on at WoV, have you given some thought to the date and route for the 50 mile Challenge?

Quote: Ayecarumba

With the preliminary planning for the Spring Fling going on at WoV, have you given some thought to the date and route for the 50 mile Challenge?

I think it would be fun to arrange both the Spring Fling and unicycle challenge the weekend before my actual birthday.

The route will be hard to decide. Central Las Vegas is nice and flat but there are street crossings everywhere. Maybe I'll arrange for the challenge to end in downtown Vegas. I'm thinking I could meander around the west side for 40 miles and do the last ten directly towards downtown. I'd still have to cross a lot of intersections but Alta has a nice wide bike lane, which would make it more enjoyable at least.

I did the "Lone Mountain Loop" for the first time today on my 36". The hardest part was the hill between Cheyenne and Lake Mead, which has a 5.8% slope. It isn't so much that it is that steep but it is that steep for a solid mile.

Strava Entry

Quote: Wizard

The hardest part was the hill between Cheyenne and Lake Mead, which has a 5.8% slope. It isn't so much that it is that steep but it is that steep for a solid mile.

It looks like you did 7.6 miles in the first hour, and up to 15.1 miles by the second hour. It's pretty remarkable that you could maintain speed over the hills at the same rate as the flat. Did you change cranks halfway? there is no mention of crank length.