OMFG.This is the off-camber after the barrier run-up from 2011
Be the doughnut! (or, how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy mediocrity)
- Thread starter Delish
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Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
at least you could see the course.....
Can't imagine why land managers want to charge $2,000 for a permit.This is the off-camber after the barrier run-up from 2011
Fwiw, this is the what killed cross at Mercer.
If they used it to reseed the land with $200 of seed then ok. But they don't.
Well, I think you know that it isn't as simple as just throwing some seed, just assume for a min that they do the repair:
Depending on the damage and how well the promoter help up their repair clause of the agreement (if there was one), figure a day or two of a the authorities crew OR a consultant:
One staff member, 8 hour day = 8 x $25 = $200. Since this is america and we have to treat everything as if they are billing this out, for the bean counters they show this as a loaded rate with overhead (basically the rate as if you were to hire that person from the authority). Let's shoot low and say that loaded rate has a factor of two. So now that equals 8 x $50 = $400 for one person for 8 hours, $800 for 16 hours
Two person field crew for 16 hours at a loaded rate = $1,600
They have to get use X equipment and show that being charged against the depreciated value of said equipment, $25 / day = $50
Gas for vehicles and equipment = $25
Grass seed / fill dirt = $50
Total $1750 to the bean counters.
I have experience costing items for public agencies and these number probably aren't that far off from realty. So assuming they actually do the repair, they aren't coming out that far ahead.
Now I am sure they need to take into account how much money is being spent in the local area from people that are coming to the race and adjust the daily rate based on that. It is simple to say they are just being crooks, which they quite possibly are, but EVERYTHING is a business and you have to look at it from all angles.
This is...well this is funny. I mean might as well assume that they will also hire a team of grass seed shitting unicorns to crap all over the damaged areas.
I worked very closely with the guy in charge of the grounds at Craigmeur. Before and after the race we seeded the areas we rode on (our cost). When we were done for the day, he was now responsible for the next steps. Let me tell you what he did:
1. Drove over the areas with his car to drive the grass seed into the dirt
2. Went to Florida for the winter the next day
I assume that he did not submit an expense report for the gas he used in his car. But if he did then the county cost was probably about $1.50 for the remediation of the event.
I don't know what happens at other venues, so I can only speak from our own experience.
Dirt and grass pretty damn resilient. A couple weeks after an event you hardly notice. By spring you could wouldn't know anything had happened. After a muddy race the perception of damage is greater than the reality--much of the perceived damage is muddy grass that which quickly goes away after rain and the grass begins to grow again.
Do parks charge thousands of dollars to Pop Warner teams for tearing up grass fields with their cleats? (nevermind the hunderds of thousands of dollars spent on grading and maintaining ball fields to begin with)
The disparity between the different counties is the issue. Morris seems to view their properties as profit centers whereas is other parts the goal is public enrichment.
Do parks charge thousands of dollars to Pop Warner teams for tearing up grass fields with their cleats? (nevermind the hunderds of thousands of dollars spent on grading and maintaining ball fields to begin with)
The disparity between the different counties is the issue. Morris seems to view their properties as profit centers whereas is other parts the goal is public enrichment.
I am playing devils advocate with the cost break down, but you cant tell me that the grass and dirt just magically fixed itself and grew back here:
I know this is a public website that potential venues will unlikely be reading but it was a solid 5 years before the main field of the first year of the Mercer USGP looked like it never happened.
You can't compare maintained athletic fields (i know pop warner may just play in some field) as part of their registration likely goes to whoever owns the park. Not to mention the township / county specifically budgets to maintain those items. Besides, it is a major culture change to provide facilities for non-mainstream sports / activities as seen with the progression of skateparks on public property that took damn near 25 years to be accepted and still most townships dont have anything or have something crappy.
#1 rule of Six Mile is that all the worst crashes happen there. I think that I have only ridden there six times in my life but have crashed hard at least twice and nearly crashed many more times.
I don't get to ride that place often but ever since acquiring a disc cx bike that take 40c tires I can't seem to get enough. Earlier this week I had a couple of meetings very near by so I stole an an hour or so to rip a quick lap. Despite the fact The Loop is burned in pretty well, I have never not missed a turn. Things were going swimmingly until I got mixed up where White spilts from Red to head up towards Jaques lane. I quickly flipped a u-turn and in doing so rode about a foot off trail and the next thing I knew I was the unsuspecting star of one of those chain-the-shit-bike-to-a-tree-and-leave-it-unlocked pranks that are so popular on the instaweb right now
I scraped myself off the ground to figure out 1) what the hell happened and 2) where the hidden camera was and discovered this:
Somehow the the errant piece of barbed wire had gotten wrapped around my hub but miraculously no spokes were broken, it didn't bend the rotor, and despite the fact that the brake hose was severely kinked, it still works just fine. Other than a big bruise on my thigh, I survived unscathed too. I'm still waiting to the video to surface on the the internet.
I don't get to ride that place often but ever since acquiring a disc cx bike that take 40c tires I can't seem to get enough. Earlier this week I had a couple of meetings very near by so I stole an an hour or so to rip a quick lap. Despite the fact The Loop is burned in pretty well, I have never not missed a turn. Things were going swimmingly until I got mixed up where White spilts from Red to head up towards Jaques lane. I quickly flipped a u-turn and in doing so rode about a foot off trail and the next thing I knew I was the unsuspecting star of one of those chain-the-shit-bike-to-a-tree-and-leave-it-unlocked pranks that are so popular on the instaweb right now
I scraped myself off the ground to figure out 1) what the hell happened and 2) where the hidden camera was and discovered this:
Somehow the the errant piece of barbed wire had gotten wrapped around my hub but miraculously no spokes were broken, it didn't bend the rotor, and despite the fact that the brake hose was severely kinked, it still works just fine. Other than a big bruise on my thigh, I survived unscathed too. I'm still waiting to the video to surface on the the internet.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Was it as bad as when you did that wheelie at CR and landed right on your spine?
Wow, over a month and no updates. Unfortunately there's not much so a very quick and painfully boring update to bring us up to speed.
Racing: Nov 5th: I raced bubbleCX. I felt like poo and the race went poorly--no power and couldn't recover. By the next morning I had had a full blown sickness and....
Travel: The day after Bubble I flew to California for a week. Despite feeling like complete poo, I went for a most excellent ride in SF and Marin with an old friend, then came home and had the worst sinus infection I've ever had.
Not-racing: Sick for Northampton and still sick for Supercross. Felt ok on Thanksgiving but then got the flu right afterwards. Sick for Westwood. Still sick for Limestone but i decided to race anyway. Didn't actually race (see "freakin report")
Bikes: I sold a really pretty blue steel road bike made by somebody in MA and acquired a really ugly but wonderful riding carbon bike made by somebody in France.
Instead of bringing you tales of riding bikes, some non-fiction from the annals of puppy ownership.
This fall we adopted a dog. According to Wisdompanel DNA testing service she is 50% Weimariner, 25% Walker Treeing Coonhound and 25% WTF? According to my own research she is 1000% nuts. When she finally mellows out she will be a great dog but right now she’s still very much a puppy.
On Saturday I let the dog play by herself in our back yard for a while #becausenuts. About an hour later @Dominos yells at me in that special tone of voice reserved for those times I have completely fucked something up. I race into the kitchen to see what’s up, pretending to appear casual. There is a heaping pile of brown stuff oozing onto the floor. She points to it, says she is going to barf then tries to run outside. She is not generally squeamish and I try to explain to her that she is being melodramatic and that no barf is necessary.
Then the smell hits me. The kitchen smells as if a dog has eaten a big steaming pile of shit then barfed it up on the floor. This is because the dog HAS IN FACT eaten a big steaming pile of shit--presumably her own--and then barfed it up on the floor. It is the worst thing I have ever smelled. @Dominos is frantically pawing at the sliding glass door trying to make it outside before she barfs as I continue to insist that she is actually NOT going to barf. For reasons not entire clear to me we begin hysterically laughing at the absurdity of the situation. The laughter makes her need to barf even more but even less capable of opening the sliding door so instead she barfs into a nearby pint glass. This causes us to laugh even harder. At this point I am laughing trying to clean up the poo-barf that I begin to feel as though I might barf too. Somehow I don’t. I let @Dominos clean up her own barf-barf (mostly rainbow sprinkled holiday cookies--a literal technicolor yawn of tossed cookies). Meanwhile, a 3 y/o and 5 y/o are standing watching this entire situation...probably scarred for life.
This is a pretty good metaphor for life the past couple months. Life gives you poo-barf and you can either laugh about it or get angry. Sometimes being able to laugh about life's ups and downs is the only thing that keeps you sane. It's much easier said than done.
Racing: Nov 5th: I raced bubbleCX. I felt like poo and the race went poorly--no power and couldn't recover. By the next morning I had had a full blown sickness and....
Travel: The day after Bubble I flew to California for a week. Despite feeling like complete poo, I went for a most excellent ride in SF and Marin with an old friend, then came home and had the worst sinus infection I've ever had.
Not-racing: Sick for Northampton and still sick for Supercross. Felt ok on Thanksgiving but then got the flu right afterwards. Sick for Westwood. Still sick for Limestone but i decided to race anyway. Didn't actually race (see "freakin report")
Bikes: I sold a really pretty blue steel road bike made by somebody in MA and acquired a really ugly but wonderful riding carbon bike made by somebody in France.
Instead of bringing you tales of riding bikes, some non-fiction from the annals of puppy ownership.
This fall we adopted a dog. According to Wisdompanel DNA testing service she is 50% Weimariner, 25% Walker Treeing Coonhound and 25% WTF? According to my own research she is 1000% nuts. When she finally mellows out she will be a great dog but right now she’s still very much a puppy.
On Saturday I let the dog play by herself in our back yard for a while #becausenuts. About an hour later @Dominos yells at me in that special tone of voice reserved for those times I have completely fucked something up. I race into the kitchen to see what’s up, pretending to appear casual. There is a heaping pile of brown stuff oozing onto the floor. She points to it, says she is going to barf then tries to run outside. She is not generally squeamish and I try to explain to her that she is being melodramatic and that no barf is necessary.
Then the smell hits me. The kitchen smells as if a dog has eaten a big steaming pile of shit then barfed it up on the floor. This is because the dog HAS IN FACT eaten a big steaming pile of shit--presumably her own--and then barfed it up on the floor. It is the worst thing I have ever smelled. @Dominos is frantically pawing at the sliding glass door trying to make it outside before she barfs as I continue to insist that she is actually NOT going to barf. For reasons not entire clear to me we begin hysterically laughing at the absurdity of the situation. The laughter makes her need to barf even more but even less capable of opening the sliding door so instead she barfs into a nearby pint glass. This causes us to laugh even harder. At this point I am laughing trying to clean up the poo-barf that I begin to feel as though I might barf too. Somehow I don’t. I let @Dominos clean up her own barf-barf (mostly rainbow sprinkled holiday cookies--a literal technicolor yawn of tossed cookies). Meanwhile, a 3 y/o and 5 y/o are standing watching this entire situation...probably scarred for life.
This is a pretty good metaphor for life the past couple months. Life gives you poo-barf and you can either laugh about it or get angry. Sometimes being able to laugh about life's ups and downs is the only thing that keeps you sane. It's much easier said than done.
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Our dog loves to eat her own shit. We can't leave her alone in the yard when she needs to shit, because if she shits and sees us not looking, she will eat it. We've yelled at her enough that she knows it's bad, but apparently it tastes delicious.