OzSTOC SS1600K - so it begins.....

[Brock]

I zipped the file, it should download now.

[Pocket STocker]

Were booked, now while the boys ride I SHOP !!!   

[tj189]

very clever Brock, thanks again

I zipped the file, it should download now.

[tj189]

very clever of you too Jean

Were booked, now while the boys ride I SHOP !!!   

[Pocket STocker]

I will bring down the car, so if any of your Pillions wish to travel to Coffs while the guys complete the ride we have transport to complete our own long distance day in the shops at Coffs Harbour 



Pockey 

[Biggles]

I will bring down the car, so if any of your Pillions wish to travel to Coffs while the guys complete the ride we have transport to complete our own long distance day in the shops at Coffs Harbour 
Pockey 

You're just trying to recruit someone to go to the Ladies' Room with you when you're shopping.   

[tj189]

Well everyone, I hope you have had a chance to look at the route and suggested trip plan. Remember if you have any questions regarding the route or excel spreadsheet(now removed) with the suggested plan (you only need to follow the route, where you stop and fuel/rest is up to you)  please ask here.

Just waiting on the final version of the waiver to come back to me before sending it out to everyone.  Once I have that back from all participants I will then call for your payments, then I will send off all the information to the IBA for their verification, if all is well with the paperwork and ride route then I will advise you all as soon as I know.

I would like to have our side finalised by the end of this month, so please if you still need to send me your details, as requested earlier, send them off and when time comes for the waiver and money to be paid also please attend to that quickly if you would not mind.  I would like to ensure plenty of lead in time for the IBA.

cheers
TJ

[Wombattle]

@ TJ,

Just spent some time going through the spreadsheet, WOW! Nice work and the effort is really appreciated. Makes my own planning efforts look like not planning at all! 

A couple of questions, just explanatory stuff about the spreadsheet to help me get my head around it and to get a feel for what I might need to aim at for the day.

1. Is the yellow column the "ideal" for the ride participants, or what we should be looking at having a crack at during the ride?

2. Default moving speed (F3), is that your target Moving Average (MA) in the absence of stops?

3. The speeds used for the calcs real (GPS) speeds not odometer speeds the latter of which will make most of us late. Is that correct?

4. Your column "Average Speed" is that the Overall Average that results from the Default Moving Speed (MA) taking into account the 4 x 20 minute stops? So in X49 we have 94.7 OA that sees us finish at 20:43.?  Extending that your "Slow (95kph), Fast (103kph) and Min (73." are OA's not MA's?

Comment:  I really like that you've included "leave" times to account for the fuel/breaks.  So in areas where it's very likely the MA will exceed the 100kph people can focus on what time they might need to leave on their ride plan to stay on track, not what time they arrive.  And also in areas where time was banked with MA that time could be used to take a quick walk around the bike with full knowledge of the impact on their ride progression.

Once again, awesome work and thanks. A good safe route with lots of options.

[tj189]

@ TJ,

Just spent some time going through the spreadsheet, WOW! Nice work and the effort is really appreciated. Makes my own planning efforts look like not planning at all! 
wish I could accept the accolade for the spreadsheet but it is not mine it came from the IBA site.  I have found this spreadsheet to be the closest timings for my style of riding.  I normally print it out with a whole heap of columns hidden  here is where it comes from http://www.ironbutt.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4226

A couple of questions, just explanatory stuff about the spreadsheet to help me get my head around it and to get a feel for what I might need to aim at for the day.

1. Is the yellow column the "ideal" for the ride participants, or what we should be looking at having a crack at during the ride?
The yellow column shows the expected time of arrival if all goes well, that is, if you are able to maintain the default average speed.  Now we know that to travel the 85Km to the BP at Clybucca should only take the 50min, however there are vairables we just cannot account for, i.e, slow traffic or an accident etc.  So it gives us a good time to aim for.  I used the default average speed of 100Kph knowing that a lot of the ride has 110Kph limits so lost time from the default 100Kph will normally be made up then. you can change the average speed for any specific area by adding what you think may be your average speed in column AA (this agrees with your comments at the end)

2. Default moving speed (F3), is that your target Moving Average (MA) in the absence of stops?
F4 is the MA for the whole trip, I will normally use this as it adds a buffer when you have areas that have increased speed limits as doe the refuel times of 20 mins, I will not normally take 20 minutes. More explanation of the Default Average Speed below 

3. The speeds used for the calcs real (GPS) speeds not odometer speeds the latter of which will make most of us late. Is that correct?
Yes as I do not believe that our odometers are correct on our bikes

4. Your column "Average Speed" is that the Overall Average that results from the Default Moving Speed (MA) taking into account the 4 x 20 minute stops? So in X49 we have 94.7 OA that sees us finish at 20:43.?  Extending that your "Slow (95kph), Fast (103kph) and Min (73." are OA's not MA's?
Geeze, that one hurt  , The first part of the question, the Average speed column shows what is suggested for that segment.   The second part, as before 94.7 is the OA for that segment.  The third part of your question, the three columns you mention do show the moving average and do not account for any stops.
If you change the Default Average speed to 78 you will find this would be your OA to finish with about 17 minutes to spare. Adding any of the letters from column E into column D will have an obvious affect, it is worthwhile playing with these and adding in what you may think you will do or want to do, then change the Default Average Speed to see what you will need to use as your OA.  It is good fun to play with these figures.  Please also hover your mouse over the cell with the red triangles for more information on what will happen

Comment:  I really like that you've included "leave" times to account for the fuel/breaks.  So in areas where it's very likely the MA will exceed the 100kph people can focus on what time they might need to leave on their ride plan to stay on track, not what time they arrive.  And also in areas where time was banked with MA that time could be used to take a quick walk around the bike with full knowledge of the impact on their ride progression.

Once again, awesome work and thanks. A good safe route with lots of options.

I am not a guru with spread sheets so I hope my explanations are reasonably clear.
Thank you for putting the questions up, it just may help someone else, 

[StinkyPete]

TJ,
Thanks for the spreedsheet.    Wow! The amount of detail is amazing, and I was going to print it, but it's 65 pages when opened with OpenOffice.  I thought we were just going for a ride down the highway and back.   

[tj189]

Biggles, PM on it way

[tj189]

TJ,
Thanks for the spreedsheet.    Wow! The amount of detail is amazing, and I was going to print it, but it's 65 pages when opened with OpenOffice.  I thought we were just going for a ride down the highway and back.   

You are correct Pete, just down the Highway and back.  By all means ignore the excel file if you wish no problems and make something up for yourself, or not, hopefully the excel file will give you some detail that may assist in your ride, i.e, km between points, suggested refuel locations, possible times between locations etc 

I have now removed the spreadsheet

[StinkyPete]

You are correct Pete, just down the Highway and back.  By all means ignore the excel file if you wish no problems and make something up for yourself, or not, hopefully the excel file will give you some detail that may assist in your ride, i.e, km between points, suggested refuel locations, possible times between locations etc 

I didn't mean to downplay the value of the information.  It's a great resource for a long journey, and a good yardstick to ensure that I'll be on track.

[tj189]

I did not interpret your comments as downplay at all Pete, just the opposite all good.  I will however come up with a more suitable suggested plan that  riders may wish to use or not 
cheers

[Wombattle]

Hey TJ,  Don't go to too much trouble mate, everything anyone needed was in the spreadsheet it was just up to us to pick out the bits we needed and maybe factor in a couple of little breaks between the fuel stops for those of us who need to stretch the legs.  I understood it outlined a basic plan for the ride (yellow column) but it also (which was the cool part) gave each of us the opportunity to see what impact a change in speed and/or stopped time would have on the ride progression as a learning tool. e.g. for this ride I would normally expect my MA to be 110 and my OA about 104. 60 minutes of stops in a 17hr day is right on the mark for me. Plug in 110 in the Default moving speed and voila, the whole spreadsheet updates revealing an OA of 103.6. and I see straight away I would have my change to night meal at Clybucca if I needed it. Stunningly good.

Here's some suggested plans that I hope will save you some time.  I seem to have too much today.

Easy Rider: No plan, just follow TJ, get fuel where he does, empty bladder where he does and she'll be right. No more thought required. Ride completion guaranteed barring mechanical issues.

The wife's/life partner's watching SPOT plan:
Riding MA of 100kpm (easy) based on the spreasheet. Short breaks factored given in most areas MA will be closer to 110 which in theory will give at least 10, up to 20 minutes spare time each leg. Give a copy to the wife/life partner before you leave.
Leave Coffs Harbour 2am
Leave Jilliby Caltex 6.40am full of fuel
Leave Dog on Tuckerbox 11.31am full of fuel.  Don't forget to turn around!
Leave Jilliby 16:22pm full of fuel.
Arrive Coffs Harbour 20:43 find Wombattle, he might have some beer.
If something unexpected happens to slow us down it doesn't matter, revert to "Easy Rider Plan" or "Sure Fired" plan and text wife/life partner.

Sure Fired Plan
List all relevant fuel options.
Buy an etrex 10 or locate someone in the ride who has one. 
Find the trip computer on it and locate the OA reading.
Make sure it's reset it at 2.00am at Coffs
Ride to the Dog on the Tuckerbox and back and never let the OA get below 73.9kph.
Don't care about anything else except remembering that when you stop to buy fuel the OA will drop between 10 and 3 kph so don't muck about.

Your own Personal Plan:
Don't need to share it but the rest of us will worry about you so text someone from time to time to let them know you are OK.

If you want to do something more detailed for the exercise, practice or want to tweak numbers just to see what a small difference in speed or shorter/longer stops do to the plan I suggest you look at TJ's spreadsheet if you were lucky enough to get it. Most of that work has been done and it takes a shedload of time to do it yourself. This is a simple, non time pressured IBA ride. A perfect opportunity to gather as much info as you can and see if you can develop/follow a plan and at the very least compare what you did with what you thought you might do.
I can't wait! Finally starting to Farkle the ST.

[Abe]

That's the same plan I have Craig, nice and simple and straight forward. 

[Biggles]

I have a little spreadsheet to make sure I'm running on time.

[Biggles]

Here's a little encouragement that I got in the mail today. 
Participants in the OzSTOC SS1600 will receive something similar, but they will get theirs straight away, not 2 months (or sometimes more) later.

[StinkyPete]

Nicely done Bill.   

I've been doing some farkling during this last week, in prep for some training rides before our SS1600k.     I've replaced my defective grip heaters,  installed a new Garmin 590 as a replacement for my old Garmin Quest, which had died after 12 years of service, and fitted a pair of 3000 lumen (each) LED spotties to aid with night vision.

[alans1100]

Good one Bill.

[tj189]

Bill, that is a good one, good to see you got the OzSTOC on it 
You are lucky I am still waiting for 2 from the beginning of last year and one from around October last year (and one that I just sent in over Easter)...all good things come to those who wait.

[Gadget]

Well done Bill!

I'm getting the parts together to fit my CB radio to the bike.  Just need some bolts and some time.  Off to Coventry fasteners on the way home tomorrow. 

At this stage I won't have hands free, but at least if I can hear it, I'm half way there.

[ST2UP]

 

Well done Bill!

I'm getting the parts together to fit my CB radio to the bike.  Just need some bolts and some time.  Off to Coventry fasteners on the way home tomorrow. 

At this stage I won't have hands free, but at least if I can hear it, I'm half way there.

So how are you doing this Gary ?? Are you using a 3.5mm stereo lead (as a mono) from your chosen radio back into your ? Sena headset ??

If so and your using a handheld radio you could purchase the speaker/mic for the radio as most of these have the 3.5mm jack on top of the spkr/mic for a covert ear bud......then lead from mic to Sena and Spkr/Mic clipped on your jacket......a little awkward but functional as a short term solution if you can transmit out of the wind or at lower speeds ?


 

[Gadget]

I'm going to be using an icom 400 pro I already have as it is a waterproof radio.  As it is an industrial quality radio it has a very loud speaker.  If I set it up right I might be able to use the mike that comes with it.  It will just have to be or straight pieces of road. 

Later on I plan to buy the Senna SR10 and adapter, but I'll have to wait until after my daughters wedding.    And of course I have to get permission from SWMBO. 

[ST2UP]

Gotcha......and the 400 pro is good gear  and made in Japan