Scottyscotty72 said:
Did you get a chance to bikely this? I'd just like to see your version of the elevations versus the one on the MSGong website. Also, I thought I might try a few bits.
I wouldn't mind riding over some of the early parts too.
Sydney to the Gong
- Thread starter LeojVS
- Start date
Did you get a chance to bikely this? I'd just like to see your version of the elevations versus the one on the MSGong website. Also, I thought I might try a few bits.
I wouldn't mind riding over some of the early parts too.
i am looking for some one to ride it with dont want a team this is my first long ride so beginner would be nice interested email [email protected]
LeojVS said:Whos riding this year, whos in a team and whos not. Who wants to join one, and who needs people to join?
Did a search, and no syd to gong turned up???
I would elaborate a bit on the post, but im cookin dinner
thanks muchly scottyscotty72 said:
great map I suspect with elevations yours would be more accurate than the one on the msgong site
OK so what we need is a most unusual combination, a bike rider with a 4WD or GPS to driver over the route and take readiings on a print out of the map! Or am I getting a little too excessive herescotty72 said:
No, my GPS records elevation (and it is on my handlebars - not an evil 4wd). One day, I hope to ride the course to get the readings. I have to find a combination of a day where.46kgToDate said:
a) I have time
b) I am motivated
c) the weather is fine, sunny and reasonably still (for the barometric altimeter to work well)
SCotty
PS. I don't think that the local Wollongong cyclists would like you tearing down their cycleway in a 4wd.
I just made a track record of my ride going towards Waterfall yesterday morning using Garmin eTrex Vista Cx, almost reaching Engadine station before turning back. The elevation recorded fine. With the current crop of GPS units, you don't need to have steady weather as the barometric altimeter auto-recalibrates and averages with the ongoing GPS data. So after the first 30mins or so, the altimeter recording with GPS feedback is as accurate as you can practically get.scotty72 said:
Still not great in dicey weather (like yesterday). Highly changeable and windy.sogood said:
Eg. My new Garmin Edge recorded the spit bridge at 10 metres above (probably close enough). But about an hour later, after the wind had whipped up, we went back over it and the bridge had shot up to about 30m.
I suspect that this was because the wind was much stronger in the valley and the sudden drop in elevation (down Battle Bvd) didn't give it time to auto correct.
Scotty
I'd be surprised that wind has any effect on the altimeter. Altimeter measures the barometric pressure which is not affect by the prevailing wind, although strong winds suggests rapidly changing barometric pressure, but usually won't change that fast.scotty72 said:
But it's an interesting observation. I'll have a look at my track data later and see if I can see such discrepency for the same point over the length of 1/2 a day when the cold front approached.
On the contrary, it does. At least on mine.sogood said:
If you suddenly hit a head wind (cross wind to a lesser extent), especially if you were protected (eg, end of a wall, tuen a corner etc), then that wind will increase the pressure on the sensor in the unit. Remember, it is the pressure of the wind that almost knocks you off your bike - so that much pressure must affect the highly sensitive altimeter.
A good eg is the spirals at olympic park, where you go up the hill by spiraling up about 4 times.
On a good day, you see the profile is a nice steady straight line of about 3%.
Once, on a horrible windy day, the profile went nuts, but in a consistent way. As I was on the side of the hill that was protected, it seemed fine. However, as I swung into the wind the pressure of the wind seemed to register a drop of about 4-5 metres, when I went around with the wind at my back, their was a low pressure on the unit (caused by me acting to block the wind), It then shot up 5-6 metres before settling back on the protected side.
SCotty
I would still say that's an interesting observation and may be more related to the design limitations of your Edge, especially for such a large discrepency. I personally have not seen similar and bear in mind that it does take time for the GPS unit to fully calibrate and should smooth out the altimeter readings. Similar to an altimeter on an aeroplane, the sensors should be well protected from air currents through damping, or as you've observed, it would fluctuate wildly.scotty72 said:
bigkev said:
G'day bigkev
Where in Sydney do you live?
what type of bike will you ride in the Sydney to the Gong Bike Ride?
The 2006 Sydney to the Gong Bike Ride will be the first time I have cycled the event. In 2005 and 2004 I was a volunteer.
This Spring cycle instead of using the internet.
i have a giant boulder with slicks 1 1.15 tyres the longest ride i have done was 45km but would like to do the gong my email is [email protected]
and i do ride to work 2 days a week riverstone to sevenhills
and i do ride to work 2 days a week riverstone to sevenhills
Aspergers said:
A followup to Scotty772. I've now read on other GPS forums that early Edge 305 models suffered certain issues that makes their elevation readings unreliable along with some other tracking issues. The solution lies with updating the firmware. Maybe you should do that.
Back to topic of the Gong ride. What's people's opinion on the return transport? There's no way I would consider riding back to Sydney, so it'll either be a seat on their bus and truck the bike or catch the train. My concern with the bus/truck option is damage to the bike. Does anyone have any experiences with this option? As for trains, will there be a nasty queue at the station?
Back to topic of the Gong ride. What's people's opinion on the return transport? There's no way I would consider riding back to Sydney, so it'll either be a seat on their bus and truck the bike or catch the train. My concern with the bus/truck option is damage to the bike. Does anyone have any experiences with this option? As for trains, will there be a nasty queue at the station?
Yes, I used their bike lift once - never agian - 'nuff said.sogood said:A followup to Scotty772. I've now read on other GPS forums that early Edge 305 models suffered certain issues that makes their elevation readings unreliable along with some other tracking issues. The solution lies with updating the firmware. Maybe you should do that.
Back to topic of the Gong ride. What's people's opinion on the return transport? There's no way I would consider riding back to Sydney, so it'll either be a seat on their bus and truck the bike or catch the train. My concern with the bus/truck option is damage to the bike. Does anyone have any experiences with this option? As for trains, will there be a nasty queue at the station?
Queues at the station - more than likely.
You could ride a few stations to the south or ride back to Waterfall and catch a regular suburban train.
Scotty
Same as with Scotty's experience - the pieces of bubble wrap they give you don't really do much to protect your frame at all.sogood said:My concern with the bus/truck option is damage to the bike. Does anyone have any experiences with this option? As for trains, will there be a nasty queue at the station?
Trains - usually there are queues, even though sh*ttyrail are putting on extra services. Hasn't really been a big deal IMHO in the past though, and I will be taking this option. Won't really have it in me to ride back, since I'm a best man at a mate's wedding the previous night.
If you neither of these options work for you, then you could either get somebody to pick you up, or if you're doing it with a mate where one of you can spare a car for an evening, leave a car down in the gong, and drive up with it on the return trip.
HTH,
n
Hi everybody. how's your Gong training going?
Today I decided to try out the Gong Ride by myself. I wrote down the directions & rode the route to see what it was like.
The hill climbs aren't that bad - The ride up to Waterfall is a gradual climb & the ride out of the national park is quite achievable if you go down a few gears.
There are some good downhill sections - particulary down past Waterfall into the national park & down past Stanwell Park.
If you're hungry there is a place at Otford which sells home-made apple & rhubarb pies, served with icecream - Very yummy!
Once you join the shared pathways at Thirroul, it's flat & easy going. I managed to get up to 32Km along these paths.
But most of all the scenery was awesome - the view of the coastline, as you leave the national park & go past the lookouts, is the worth the effort.
I managed to ride the 90Km in 4 hours & 27mins (not including water/food stops).
I could have gone a little bit faster, but I focused on the scenery & not my average speed.
I also rode 26 Km - from the Northern Beaches to St Peter's. Then there was the 2/3 Km ride from the the Wollongong lighthouse to the railway station, then a train trip to Martin Place, an easy spin to Circular Quay, a ferry to Manly & then a 7km bike ride home.
Total distance 125.2Km - with a total riding time of 6 hours & 34mins. I think I'm going to a little sore tomorrow after that long day.
Today I decided to try out the Gong Ride by myself. I wrote down the directions & rode the route to see what it was like.
The hill climbs aren't that bad - The ride up to Waterfall is a gradual climb & the ride out of the national park is quite achievable if you go down a few gears.
There are some good downhill sections - particulary down past Waterfall into the national park & down past Stanwell Park.
If you're hungry there is a place at Otford which sells home-made apple & rhubarb pies, served with icecream - Very yummy!
Once you join the shared pathways at Thirroul, it's flat & easy going. I managed to get up to 32Km along these paths.
But most of all the scenery was awesome - the view of the coastline, as you leave the national park & go past the lookouts, is the worth the effort.
I managed to ride the 90Km in 4 hours & 27mins (not including water/food stops).
I could have gone a little bit faster, but I focused on the scenery & not my average speed.
I also rode 26 Km - from the Northern Beaches to St Peter's. Then there was the 2/3 Km ride from the the Wollongong lighthouse to the railway station, then a train trip to Martin Place, an easy spin to Circular Quay, a ferry to Manly & then a 7km bike ride home.
Total distance 125.2Km - with a total riding time of 6 hours & 34mins. I think I'm going to a little sore tomorrow after that long day.
