The Husky 100ker

Bermshot

Bermshot

Banned
I know there is no problem in asking but should we really be hitting up the services to marshall? Last year the fireies were at the 4hr which is awesome but an emergency would take precedence, as in a house fire or in case of the cops a bank robb/domestic....

I don't see that as viable.

I should not whine as I didn't help out all and I feel shit now. When it comes to getting marshals does it fall upon the local club or is it solely the organizers responsibility? Ive never heard this stuff about the Fling and that is a small community in it's own right, not to mention others.

Perhaps a long term incentive, 'if you marshal this year you race for free nxt year'?
 
M

mooze

Likes Bikes
At the moment we only use Scouts, VRA and St John Ambulance.
VRA man the road crossing as a fundraiser for them. Scouts unfortunately have had several groups go under in the Nowra area in the last 12 months hence a different group from last year, but it is also a fundraiser for them. St John we pay to be there as well as our paramedics - they use the funds to continue their training and facilities.

We do offer marshall our races and get a free entry (either for bottlebutt or husky, so could have been used this year or next year) or free pair of irule knicks for those not wanting to race. We give them tshirts, lunch, coffees etc plus whatever is in the rider giveaway (mugs this year). We're really not sure what more we can do to get volunteers. Open to suggestions.

Edit to Add - we organise marshalls.
 
sly_artichoke

sly_artichoke

Likes Dirt
mittagongmtb said:
as it was about 300 raced with an attrition rate of about 1 in 5.... Where and why did people pull out once started? Were the bulk of people dnfing due to the conditions/mechanicals/time???.
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Major mechanical for my first DNF. Ever. Anywhere. So disappointed. Was heading for around a 6.00 like last year. Managed to get my derailleur up close and personal to my rear wheel as I tried to ride through that huge bog about 2 kms from the KOM/QOM. Spent an hour trying to cobble together a ghetto single speed which didn't work. Then re-bent the derailleur enough to get a sort-of 3 speed and got going again. Said g'day to the KOM marshalls and stopped for some snakes and pineapple as they were packing up. They thought I was last in the line, but I'd spotted some other riders behind me. Didn't want to risk another 70+kms on dodgy mechanicals so called it a day and cruised back down Forest Rd to the event centre. So a DNF and still lots of moolah to outlay to get a bike in working order. But that's what you have to do in this sport. Sometimes it's costly, sometimes not, but it's bloody good fun most of the time. So no complaints. Good on Blackheart for sticking with it. I know they'd have been looking at the skies Saturday night going, "Oh no, not again". I'll be back next year for sure.
 
R

Rida

Likes Bikes
mooze said:
Thanks for the feedback guys

In terms of marshalls we're doing three things for future so we can use our marshalls where they need to be rather than where they ended up. 1 ) back up from state forests - given we pay a premium to have a "closed forest" for the day we'd like to see some help with maintaining that. 2) we're looking at paying police next year to be there - especially near superbowl and coondoo areas. 3) We will also pay to get more marshalls on course rather than rely on volunteers.

I'll be ordering more large arrows this evening for use at BottleButt and Husky next year. We will still be putting out orange tape, a mix of large and small arrows, and crosses. We'll also get the pre sweeps out again however they didn't have any problems with the course at 1:30am night before at Husky Saturday night/Sunday morning (and they hadn't ridden the course previously).

Thank you to those who have provided feedback. We will do what we can to act on it for future races.
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Thanks to all the Blackheart/iAdventure crew for putting on this race and to your fast, open and level-headed responses to all the feedback (good and bad) you've been heaped with on this forum. Your responses have also provided some good insight into the problems faced by event organisers.

Hopefully next year's race will be bigger and better. And coincide with a period of prolonged drought.
 
Lukespook

Lukespook

Likes Bikes
Smiker said:
Someone mentioned earlier about having more guernies post event to minimise waiting time - I agree, but think another option would be to have an official/volunteer (or someone trained) actually doing the washing on a 1 -2 minute timer (30-60s each side of the bike). This would be enough time to give the bike a good enough clean (get the worst of the gunk off the bike) and keep the line moving. Alternatively a couple of guerneys on different times with gold coin donations.
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I was with a team mate in Austria in June, the bikes were dirty and the jet wash line was long. We challenged each other to sub 2minute cleaning. Jobs done in 145, no problem. But it takes experience, and most mtbers fear of a jet washer prevents that.

Smiker[/QUOTE]

I saw someone who had a good idea to clean there bike/s after the race - they had a 4 or 5 litre pump pressure sprayer (like you get from Bunnings gardening section) - just filled it up from the tap and away they went to clean their bike/s with minimal waiting/water wastage.
 
P

pinkbike

Likes Dirt
Lukespook said:
I saw someone who had a good idea to clean there bike/s after the race - they had a 4 or 5 litre pump pressure sprayer (like you get from Bunnings gardening section) - just filled it up from the tap and away they went to clean their bike/s with minimal waiting/water wastage.
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That might have been us - it's just a Bunnings weed sprayer that you manually pump up and takes about 5L - good for washing the riders too after races like that one.
 
M

mooze

Likes Bikes
pinkbike said:
That might have been us - it's just a Bunnings weed sprayer that you manually pump up and takes about 5L - good for washing the riders too after races like that one.
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Those things also work a treat for a quick drivetrain wash at enduro events (Scott 24hr etc) as you can have it in the pit and readily available.
 
top_oz_bloke

top_oz_bloke

Likes Dirt
Is there a rough number someone can throw up as to how much time the shortcut would have wiped off?

Just for my own interest, because at the moment I think my result is a bit inflated as everyone who was caught out has been placed behind me, but I'm keen to get more of an idea where I should have come in in terms of ability.

Also, regarding the water stations. The best setup I've seen was the water cart at the 50k point in Dirt Works. My recollection was that it was a dirty big water tanker with a bunch of tap outlets down the side. Seemed like a really quick and efficient way for a bunch or riders to get filled up at once and more capacity than you could poke a stick at.
 
top_oz_bloke

top_oz_bloke

Likes Dirt
Wow, that is totally shitty if the 'wrong turn' was a result of some knob moving the markers around.

I actually went past a moto riding on the course towards the end - no markings to indicate they were part of the event.
 
M

mikecin

Squid
mooze said:
Those things also work a treat for a quick drivetrain wash at enduro events (Scott 24hr etc) as you can have it in the pit and readily available.
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500 metres down the road at the beach was a beach shower (with fresh water) for the bikes, and an ocean for the humans. The ocean was a little bit "brass monkeys", but got myself and my knicks cleanish and doubled as a recovery ice bath!
 
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M

mikecin

Squid
mooze said:
Thanks for the feedback guys

In terms of marshalls we're doing three things for future so we can use our marshalls where they need to be rather than where they ended up. 1 ) back up from state forests - given we pay a premium to have a "closed forest" for the day we'd like to see some help with maintaining that. 2) we're looking at paying police next year to be there - especially near superbowl and coondoo areas. 3) We will also pay to get more marshalls on course rather than rely on volunteers.

I'll be ordering more large arrows this evening for use at BottleButt and Husky next year. We will still be putting out orange tape, a mix of large and small arrows, and crosses. We'll also get the pre sweeps out again however they didn't have any problems with the course at 1:30am night before at Husky Saturday night/Sunday morning (and they hadn't ridden the course previously).

Thank you to those who have provided feedback. We will do what we can to act on it for future races.
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I think the marshall's were pretty good. At other races, such as Dirtworks, there are not 100's of marshalls.

I agree with most on this post that having more marshalls would not have stopped our group taking the short cut. I quick bit of bunting between two trees at the start of the single track would have done the trick - don't use logs (!!) as these are just part of normal mountain biking and we'll hop over them and continue on.
 
Mr Pants

Mr Pants

skanky media ho
Thanks for the props but credit also where it's due, Real Insurance and Cyclenation are behind the production of the videos and big thanks to Theo Grobler from Cyclenation for the awesome shots he got from the moto.
 
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