Thats what plattekill did all season, with adding new features on every race course
Gravity East 2010
- Thread starter Shenzi
- Start date
Perfect info:
I totally agree and OPEN class was created by me to fix the problem
g
at Massanutten
Love Riding the Marquette area. Can't wait for the snow to melt so I can go back up. Have you ever ridden bareback? One of my favorite trails for certain, marquette county has so much awesome terrain I find it hard to believe I ever moved back home.
With a name like kickstand, I bet you scare some people asking that question.
Didn't they have a norba national with a DH race at Alpine valley in southern WI back in like 2002-2003 or something? Give that a shot again. I mean WI isn't a WHOLE lot worse than most of the east coast race tracks. I've ridden a few semi-legit races up there.
You could even maybe have a DH race in Goleta, IL too. There's some skill-hills there I believe. Why not?
You could even maybe have a DH race in Goleta, IL too. There's some skill-hills there I believe. Why not?
hahahaha never thought of it like that.
Michigan has a lot of potential for downhill racing, as does wisconsin and northern wisconsin.
Flint to plattekill or diablo = 10 hours
Flint to MArquette = 6 hours
Flint to Boyne/Nubs/Boyne Highlands = 4 hours
Flint to Searchmont in Soo Canada = 5 hours + border crossing
Chicago to Marquette = 6-7 hours
Chicago to Plattekill= ???
Chicago to Boyne/Nubs/BoyneHighlands = 5-6 hours?
Expect to see a race (or races) at Boyne Highlands next year.hahahaha never thought of it like that.
Michigan has a lot of potential for downhill racing, as does wisconsin and northern wisconsin.
Flint to plattekill or diablo = 10 hours
Flint to MArquette = 6 hours
Flint to Boyne/Nubs/Boyne Highlands = 4 hours
Flint to Searchmont in Soo Canada = 5 hours + border crossing
Chicago to Marquette = 6-7 hours
Chicago to Plattekill= ???
Chicago to Boyne/Nubs/BoyneHighlands = 5-6 hours?
Cannonsburg will have another race.
Forget about Searchmont until it gets sold again. Last I knew, a bank still had it and leases it to the city for the winter. We had some awesome races up there and the terrain is top notch. However, it's hard to run a race when the place is always on the verge of being shut down. They also couldn't get the lift approved for summer use by the povence.
Support the races that are there now and maybe someone will add races in the future. When I started racing DH, there were 8-10 races a year in Michigan. Typically, there were 100-150 people at each. This past year, there were 3 in lower michigan. About 30 people showed up for the Cannonsburg race. 50 or so for the July Boyne and around 20 for the Fall Boyne. No promoter is going to put on races and continue to loose money.
The Wisconsin WORS race is a lot of fun and the course is all downhill.
As Dan pointed out, there was a NORBA national at Alpine Valley in 2002. It was short but a lot of fun. The 4x course is my #2 of all time.
Again, I know that if Boyne Highlands gets a good turnout that they will add races. I also know of another ski resort in northern michigan that is open to a DH race but it would take a good turnout at some other races to convince someone to take the financial risk.
Anyone got pics of vid's of that? The only thing I've ever seen of it is like a 20 sec clip in plush or plush 2.
I think I have less than a minute of footage on this video:
http://highgearracing.com/Video/HighGear2002-1.wmv
It's near the beginning.
its at 11:00
. Nice vid. That Alpine Valley 4x track actually looks REALLY sick. Better than most tracks nowadays for sure.The footage of racing at big bear makes me wanna cry. Every time we went up there this year it made me so sad to ride the amazing trails there and realize that there were once huge nationals there :'(. Although it's pretty cool to do DH runs there when there is literally NO ONE on the mountain.
where is cannonsburg? Any info on solid dates for Boyne races? I'd like to put it on the calendar now. I'd have attended any of them in the past but had never heard of them at all actually having races.
I need to also see if marquette plans to host any races, I lived there for a long time and mountain biked like crazy but missed all the good races and just ended up sucking dust in ore to shore XC race.
Searchmont is so awesome, I dunno if it is the living in the UP part of me, or what, but I just love that area whenever I go and visit. Love marquette and searchmont equally, I just wish searchmont could get on track, I think the riding (on snow, never been on bike) is SO much better than nubs, boyne, etc. But doesn't have that same draw partially because of the extra 2 hours in the car to get there. So much potential, but unfortunately like you just stated, not enough demand
Last edited:
Not sure on Boyne dates. Jason Wagner is the man with the info but he doesn't get on message boards much. I'll try to find out.
Check this video for some Searchmont footage. http://www.highgearracing.com/Video/HighGear2003-1.wmv
We ran 3 races there in 2003 including an AMBC. Steve Brown (Iceman) ran an AMBC and a couple of other races back around 1998 or so. Scared the crap out of me back then on my GT LTS with a White Brothers DC110 (4" travel) fork. Still pretty technical today.
Check this video for some Searchmont footage. http://www.highgearracing.com/Video/HighGear2003-1.wmv
We ran 3 races there in 2003 including an AMBC. Steve Brown (Iceman) ran an AMBC and a couple of other races back around 1998 or so. Scared the crap out of me back then on my GT LTS with a White Brothers DC110 (4" travel) fork. Still pretty technical today.
oh, I forgot. Cannonsburg is a ski area on the north side of Grand Rapids. About 130 foot of vertical but pretty fun for being 45 minutes from my house.
BTW: I always want to beat down people whining about having to drive 3 hours to Pkill. I wish there was someplace like that within 8 hours.
BTW: I always want to beat down people whining about having to drive 3 hours to Pkill. I wish there was someplace like that within 8 hours.
do you guys make it out to Platty often? that is a hike, but thanks for coming!
After living in LA, I feel your pain!
The last time I rode there was in 2005. Raced there in 2004.
We always make plans to make it to pkill late in the year but then everyone backs out because they are tired of traveling, broke, etc. You know the drill.
Thinking about heading out there for the race the weekend before the US Open and staying on the East Coast for the week. Would really have to find some place to ride DH or MX to justify staying out there and the days off work.
BTW: 10-12 hours to pkill.
For me it's more like.......
Chicago to Windrock = 8+ (Love this place)
Chicago to Snowshoe = 12
Chicago to US Open = 14
Chicago to Platty = 15 (I've yet to make this drive)
I base my travel selection on a simple cost benefit ratio; miles + $ = vert. ft + qty & quality of runs.
Of course this logic is usually blown out of the water when I throw in the AMBC & National races ..I guess one wouldnt understand unless youre hopelessly hooked on this sport, your closest real DH course is 8+ hours away and work for the Man to make it all happen.
J
no never been on bare back but will make Marquette a regular trip in 2010, despite the drive from the Chicagoland!
Google maps says 13:35 for you. That's from your house, not Chicago.
here is the location: 42.326062,-74.649353
Word! I like the regional idea, NE and SE then have a championship race somewhere (alternating yearly) for the GES title or something along those lines.
That's a fact. But man, those trips to Diablo and Windrock were totally worth the insane midnight drives from Chicago. Those marathon road trips just build up the anticipation that much more. I've found when you live at the bottom of such trails, you REALLY start to take those for granted. It blows me away when I here people in and around Socal complain about getting bored on the trails. I should make them spend a year in central Illinois where all they have is farmdale, and thats 45 minutes away!
Never have, tried to this fall when I first heard of it, but couldn't make it happen. $$$$
I am new to this whole traveling to bike thing, I lived in Marquette for 5 years and the trails there were awesome and I had lived under a rock so to say, I never read forums like this so I was limited to just what I knew of locally, next season I plan to make some trips for sure, and I would like to check out platty on a race weekend.
I forgot about windrock, I have been there in my jeep but just realized they have bike trails a couple weeks back, it's on my list.
If/When you make the trip to marquette let me know, my buddy who I rode with in college lives in chicago and him and I would definitely be down for a trip up there to ride. Both the ski hill as well as the other trails in the area. Have you ridden up there much?
I know these posts are a little old regarding the use of transponders for timing but I wanted to reply. As the owner of a company that has been timing MTB races (DH, DS, XC, ST, etc) and have used both transponders and photocells/timers for timing cycling, I would not recommend transponders for MTB DH. We time all our events "live" to the internet, provide display boards in the finish and live announcer screens. We generally provide these options with transponders or without but know that timing a DH with transponders is less accurate than using photocells at the start and finish.Participating venues willing to unify timing and registration for consideration as a GE venue would be great.
Dealing with a different set of volunteers at each venue, trying to figure out their version of registration challenges ones patience. It's usually the first thing you do upon arrival after having driven for several hours so it's a big deal. Almost as important as the timing.
What beats live timing? Maybe live timing with transponders? Transponders work. AMA as well as many other well organized sports use them. I worked a sag wagon at a triathalon a couple of years ago and everyone wore an anklet that gave the 3000 plus participants their time instantly as they crossed the finish line. Volunteers cut them from the athletes ankles and threw them into a box to be reused. Very cool.
Mistakes on the timing side happen everywhere and usually for different reasons. Using one good/state of the art timing company should greatly reduce reruns.
As far as the amount of races go, I think there should be more that just one dropped race. If there are any overlapping races at all it could ruin a riders chance to qualify. Without the 11 venues this year Neko wouldn't have been able to get 8 races in. Try as you might, there's no chance that you're going to get 8 races that don't overlap anything. Especially in the pro ranks.
The idea of a GES NE and a GES Mid Atlantic sounds like something to work towards in 2011.
Besides the logistical issues of distributing, mounting the same distance from the front tire on every bike which is the only way to get the same time, dealing with broken bikes/bike switches, forgetting to move transponders, bike crashes moving or destroying transponders on the bike, collecting chips that cost $110 each (anything cheaper isn't even close to accurate enough, and a transponder for autoracing can cost from $250 up to $700), not to mention the challenge of getting data from the decoder at the start which can't be transmitted over simple telephone/communication wire and needs a data network to send data, they just aren't as accurate as a properly installed traditional timing system.
Sure, we, use them for triathlons, counting laps in cyclecross, running races and even XC skiing and everyone gets times, but even in auto racing they are only used for track placement and lap counting and not official finish times where photofinish actually provides the time because the accuracy is not the same. Same with events like the Tour or the Olympics, transponders are used for the announcers and TV and not officials times, but with these events with low numbers of competitors and big budgets they can have all the timimg equipment they want. The transponders commonly used at triathlons and running races actually aren't transponders at all but passive RFID chips and are barely accurate to 1/10 of a second. For these devices that come at a low cost (less than $10 each) you need a mat in which the time could be read anywhere on the mat. In fact every manufacturer recommends multiple mats in which your time could be read anywhere. These mats also don't work well with cycling, especially mountain biking. They are slippery when wet. Need I say more?
To use a simple wire loop for an accurate transponder system that can be buried under a little bit of dirt or attached to the ground by various means you need an "active" battery powered transponder and they can be very expensive.
We would recommend transponders for XC, Super-D, and short track, where everyone racing against each other starts at the same time and photofinish or even a video camera and a good crew can back them up, but NOT for DH or a TT, where the start and finish are far apart and when one person starts at a time. In these cases truly accurate timing is essential for determination of results (no just order of placement).
Just a little bit of information.
See you in 2010 at a MTB race near you.
nice post I would have thought transponders would be good too, but there is always more too it.
Edit: I live in the northeast and would hate to see the ges become a smaller and smaller region. The whole east should be used, I don't mind driving down south.
Edit: I live in the northeast and would hate to see the ges become a smaller and smaller region. The whole east should be used, I don't mind driving down south.
Last edited: