A few weeks ago the nice folks at Tech4o, dropped a Mens Accelerator Running Watch in my mailbox for a review. Since its arrival I have been putting it through the Dukes of Flatbush torture tests and am ready to report. For the rest of this post I will refer to the watch as the Accelerator, because it is shorter and sounds kind of cool.

For me the gold standard of running watches is the Garmin 405 , and was my baseline for comparison and testing for the Accelerator. The first impressions of the watch are that it is a nice fit and of course much smaller than the Garmin. It sits nicely on the wrist and the display is just OK. It could be a little sharper and is probably a level below a Timex Ironman and without the Indiglo feature, so a little tough to read at night, but adequate.

Now lets get to the fuctionality of the Accelerator. My main test of this watch was to see the accuracy of the distance measured against the Garmin 405. For most runners, any watch can tell time and do laps, but the distance measured is the key feature we are looking for. Let me begin by stating I did not really read the manual too well so not sure if I needed to calibrate the watch, but to tell you the truth it did not really matter.

My first run was an easy 4 miler, that wound around Volunteer Park in Seattle. The results were Garmin 4.01 miles, Accelerator 3.98 miles. Not too bad. The second event was a walk around Vancouver BC and the Accelerator and Google Maps both were within 5% of each other. Since I am never sure how accurate Google Maps are, I consider this a win in terms of accuracy. The third and fourth runs were 5 mile runs around Seattle and both times the results were the same. Garmin 5.02 miles, Accelerator 4.97 miles.

So in terms of accuracy, I can say that the Accelerator worked and for a runner that is looking for a general range of distance and is not obsessed like your truly, it is an excellent lower cost alternative to a Garmin. I think the Accelerator is around $70, so compared to $350 for the Garmin, so a pretty good value. The Accelerator has a bunch of other features such as steps, calories burned, dual time and a countdown timer, but I cannot account for how accurate the calories burned works and a timer is a timer and there was no chance I was counting steps.

I will keep the Tech4o in my watch rotation along with the Garmin 405 and a couple of Timex Ironmans

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A bunch of kids in Queen have been outfitting their bicycles with car batteries, amps, computers, DVD players and huge bass cabinets. Talk about rolling thunder. It’s all documented in a movie called Made in Queens - could be worth checking out…

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Radiohead just came out with a new video for their song “House of Cards” off the album In Rainbows. The interesting thing about the video is that no cameras were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. “Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.”

Watch the Making Of Video:

Watch the Video:

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I’m absolutely sick of Hollywood blockbusters. They always show off awesome futuristic crap that you simply can’t live without. I grew up with 8 tracks and wired remotes. My grandchildren will be rocketing around on hoverboards while having sex with a virtual Carmen Electra. I mean it’s good for them, but can I get a little love?

Well, it’s far from Carmen Electra, but I just ran across a browser plugin that simulates an effect we all came to know and love in Minority Report. Remember when Tom Cruise was using that bitchin’ 3D interface to solve crimes? Well, a plug-in called PicLens allows you to search Google and Flickr images, YouTube videos and Amazon products using an exceedingly cool and useful interface shown below. I won’t search those sites the same way again - see for yourself.

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Oh my god.

The Rock-afire Explosion was an animatronic robot band that played in Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants from 1980 to 1991. The show was created and manufactured exclusively for Showbiz by Creative Engineering, Inc. in Orlando, Florida.

Some guy bought one and is running current hits through it. This clip features the band performing Usher. The Gorilla in the gold lame suit and bowtie slays me, as does the Sun who sings backup. The most awesome thing ever.

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Sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do and, I guess, this is one of those times for our beloved admin, erstwhile coach, training partner extraordinaire and certified master of the grill Jeff. He’s packed up the shop, loaded what’s important and is redeploying to the left coast in search of fortune, adventure and cracked crab. As we all navigate the fog caused by last night’s sayonara wumpus, I’d just like to pause for the cause and give a hearty HUZZAH to our partner in crime.

Fare thee well sir. You’ll be sorely missed but we’ve every confidence you’ll quickly get to holdin’ it down out there and swelling the ranks of the Dukes West Coast Chapter. Write when you get work and we’ll come inspect your beachhead.

Vaya con dios y un gato en tu pantalones Amigo.
-mismanagement

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After months of waiting and confusion on delivery dates that I have documented in the past, my Garmin 405 is finally on the way and is being shipped overnight. Now I know many will want to know where this magic shipment of Garmin 405’s came from and shockingly it came from the NYRR. It seems some of the major running clubs got the first shipment of a small number of Garmin 405’s and I was lucky enough to get my order in before they sold out.

As soon as my Gamin 405 is delivered I will take it out for a test run and have a review with pictures. Pray for UPS and some nice weather tomorrow.

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The Dukes of Flatbush planned to use a SPOT Satellite Messenger in their bid for the 2008 Baja 1000, but just learned that another device with the same capabilities has been mandated by SCORE. It’s called IriTrack and was already mandatory equipment in the Paris Dakar rally.

Here’s a description of the unit from that site:

“IriTrack satellite monitoring is a new system which enables you to benefit from enhanced safety and is a real communication tool. It enables real-time monitoring of positions and tracking of competitors, thereby making it easier to follow the race.

The system responds to most situations which require vehicles or participants to be monitored in all parts of the world, including those not covered by telephone networks as in the desert. Clearing any doubt by voice phone questioning, alert following a violent shock, automatic transmission of alarms to the PC, satellite telephone, etc… a host of options making the system an indispensable tool.

IRITRACK and your safety

IriTrack enables you to transmit qualified information to the race PC in real time. If you come up against a problem, you can be pinpointed by the organization whom you can speak with remotely.

Fields of application are as follows:

* Triggering or requesting emergency help in case of a serious incident (you or another competitor).
* Signal a distress situation which might prevent you from continuing / or compromise your health.

With two possible modes:

* Transmission of an alarm and/or telephone contact with the race PC
* Automatic: if a brutal shock or a prolonged halt of the vehicle is detected, the system transmits an alarm message to the race PC indicating the competitor’s GPS position. With the telephone function, the race PC may contact him without any action on his part (automatic receiver pick-up and inbuilt microphone) to establish dialogue.”

This device will also allow SCORE to monitor a team’s speed on paved sections of the Baja 1000 course which is limited to 60mph.If you exceed that speed, your team receives a time penalty which could affect your standing or worse, your ability to complete the race in the alloted time.

These units are available for rental and for sale - I guess we’ll figure out what option makes the most sense. One big question: where the hell does this thing go on a bike?

Good discussions about this issue on baja.net forums - read the thread.

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One of the pieces of gear we’ll bring to Mexico for the 2008 Baja 1000 is a SPOT Satellite Messenger. This device can alert your team and send GPS coordinates if you run into problems, but a really cool feature is something called ’spotcasting’. SPOT can acquire and send your GPS coordinates to your account every 10 minutes. This information can be ported to Google Maps so everyone with access to the Internet can keep up with your progress.

I tried this functionality out for the first time on our Utah training run. My biggest mistake was putting the unit in a padded pocket deep inside of my Camelbak. Without a clear line of sight, this unit only works intermittently. I expected to see hundreds of waypoints, but only clocked 37 over the course of three days. Stupid is as stupid does. On our next training run, I’ll affix the unit to the outside of the backpack. I expect this will solve the problem and I’ll be able to see an accurate reflection of the course I travelled. It was cool to check out the waypoints we did capture in Google Earth. Take a gander…

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A sound communication strategy is an important component of our bid for the 2008 Baja 1000. Communication systems can be broken down into two groups: ones for riders and ones for support.

Rider Communication

We’ll be riding a modified Honda CRF 450X motorcycle so we need to use a portable radio that can be handed off at driver changes.

We’ll then adapt the radio to the particular demands of off-road racing. Since it’s a race, the driver must be able to ride and talk at the same time. This requires a ‘push to talk’ button that can be mounted on a motorcycle handlebar, and a helmet wiring kit with mouthpiece and headphones:

The primary function of this set-up is to allow communication with the pits. A lot can go wrong out on the course and if you need anything other that fuel at your next pit stop, it’s best to let them know in advance. That way a new wheel, light, air filter, etc. can be waiting for you when you pull-in - keeping pit time to a minimum. This radio will be set to JCR Pit frequency, the outfit providing the Dukes pit service during the 2008 Baja 1000.

The second function of the radio is preparedness for an emergency situation. In case of a medical emergency, the driver will primarily rely upon a SPOT Satellite Messenger, a device that can send an emergency message along with exact GPS coordinates to your support crew. The support crew would then head to your location while contacting Weatherman, BFG relay, SCORE Ops (Operations) and onto SCORE Medical (Emergency Medical Services). If for some reason SPOT failed, a driver would turn to his portable radio. The radios aren’t that powerful so he’d try to contact the Weatherman, then BFG Relay - if both failed, he’d try and find a passing rider. There is a good article on this chain of command.

For those of you who don’t know about the Weatherman, he’s a legendary figure in the Baja 1000. He volunteers each year, setting up a radio outpost on top of a windy mountaintop. He becomes the central relay point for all communications during the race. Everyone involved in the Baja 1000 should know the proper way to relay communication to the Weatherman.

Support Communication

At this point, it’s unclear how many chase vehicles we’ll need for the race, but each one will require a radio. The primary chase vehicle will be a Toyota FJ Cruiser equipped with a Kenwood TM-D710A, or something similar:

The advantages of this radio are sheer power and the ability to monitor two separate frequencies.This allows support to simultaneously monitor the JCR Pit and Weatherman channels, allowing support to keep abreast of their team as well as the race.

It will be critical to program all race radios with important channels. Here’s a list from a Baja 1000 a few years back:

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One essential piece of gear in the Dukes bid for the 2008 Baja 1000 is a GPS. I picked up a Garmin Zumo 450 for the race bike, a model specifically designed for motorcycles.

The obvious question: what’s the difference between an automotive GPS and a motorcycle GPS? Does the little icon change from a car to a bike? It does in fact change to a bike, but there are other differences. The screen is readable in sunlight, the unit is waterproof and the left-handed controls (important) are glove-friendly.

Before the race, SCORE distributes the GPS waypoints to all contestants. These waypoints are essentially pins that mark the course on a map, each pin stuck in every 5 miles or so. These are the waypoints for the 2007 Baja 1000.

We will pre-run the course to become familiar with it, but you can always get turned around, especially at night and in fog. Trust the GPS - it will bring you home. We will add waypoints for the JCR Honda pits as well as any hazards we discover during pre-run. The GPS also serves other functions - it can tell you fuel consumption and your speed.

Speed is important because there are short sections of the race that occur on pavement. If you exceed 60mph, you get a time penalty.

One last thing which is superfluous, but fun is that you can customize the start-up screen. I added the Dukes of Flatbush logo to ours.

And to echo the last post, we’d certainly appreciate a back-up for the pre-run bike. Garmin?

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For many years I have been on the fence about purchasing a GPS enabled watch to track my runs. On the positive side the watch monitors time, distance, pace and heart rate and usually comes with some mapping software so you can accurately record all of your runs. On the negative side, most of these watches are enormous due to the GPS antenna and I did not like running with a PC/alarm clock strapped to my wrist.

Well it looks like Garmin may have come up with a solution. They recently announced the Garmin 405, a “normal” size watch that performs all the functions mentioned above and to top it all, wirelessly sends data to your computer and other Garmin 405 users in range. I really hope that the Garmin 405 lives up to the announcements and I can finally purchase a GPS watch.

Garmin has announced that this product will be available at the end of Q1 of 2008.

If the folks at Garmin are looking for people to test wear their products, the Dukes of Flatbush would be happy to oblige and you can be sure we would put the Garmin 405 through its paces.

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One of the amazing things about preparing for the Baja 1000 is how many disparate and interesting requirements there are. Solving them in enlightened ways is definitely going to be half the pleasure of involvement for some of us. As touched on below in the SPOT Satellite post, there are a raft of communication issues surrounding a team’s entry in the race. One is purely the relaying of rider/bike coordinates and the potential for emergency notification. We’re hopeful that the SPOT unit will do a good job of at least the emergency beacon portion, and hopefully the GPS coordinates piece as well.

There is, however, a larger issue to be solved. Command and Control. How does a team, potentially comprised of one race bike, as many as four chase vehicles, and a fixed-location Command and Control center, stay in constant communication with one another?

Effective real time communication, the ability to relay accurate and timely information between all parties, lies at the heart of logistical success or failure for an effort like this. Cellular and Satellite phones are not a realistic solution; cell service is non-existent and there are is a finite amount of Sat. spectrum bandwidth available to support a drastically increased regional user population during race week.

The Dukes Baja 1000 team, in conjunction with our systems partner SpecialAI, are currently investigating a number of promising avenues for solving this problem. SpecialAI are experts at engineering flexible communications systems and have serious experience with mobile, survivable and platform integrated solutions engineered around the Asterisk Open Source IP PBX. Currently, the most promising area of focus involves deploying some manner of AVRS (Automatic Voice Relay System) interfaced with Asterisk.

This solution would likely mate a vehicle based APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) web with an IRLP (Internet radio Linking Project) gateway, thus allowing for the rapid & reliable exchange of rich information, via commonly available relayed radio transmission, with a centrally (local) deployed IP soft switch. The goal is to provide a head’s up view of all elements and translate that information, via VoIP codec, for transmission back to NYC based mission control.

Obviously this is a very rough sketch; experience dictates that the final system will, in all likelihood, bear only passing resemblance to what we’re thinking about now. There are countless variables yet to be nailed down, but It’s an exciting project and we’ve every confidence that we’ll be able to deploy a system which will give the Dukes of Flatbush a greater chance of safe success in a harsh operating environment.

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