The coolest feature of the headlamp and why it is tailored for runners is the focus of the light beam. It is a strong, oval beam that illuminates the path directly in front of you and not just a dispersed bright light. An easier way to explain it is it shoots a spotlight right in front of your feet so you can really see what is in front of you, not a dispersed light that will brighten a room. For those that care about technical specs the LED produces 68 lumens at its brightest setting, which really means it is really, really bright. Another great feature for runners is a red strobe light in the back so cars and other people can see you coming and going.This switch can be turned off so as not to annoy other runners if you happen to be running in a pack.

Some of the other cool features are a rechargeable battery, which really lightens the load of this headlamp to 100g/3.5oz, probably the lightest running headlamp out there and has a 6 hour charge time, so it will burn for 5 hours on the highest setting and something like 60+ hours on a dim setting.

Forgot to mention one of the most important features of the Black Diamond Sprinter, it actually feels good on your head. It has a great balance and you do not feel it flying around or worry that it is going to come off at any moment. A major problem I have had with other headlamps. I know it might not look that great in these pictures, but at the end of the day, who cares. It is dark out and this light is meant to shine in front of you, not on you.

The Clymb is the latest site to jump on the private sale/sample sale bandwagon but their merchandise is different. They sell an amazing array of outdoor, bike and ski/snow brand with one company featured every week and a limited number of products for sale, which usually sells out by the second day. I have ordered two separate items from them and except for a delay in the shipment of one Dakine backpack , I have been very happy with the service and the products they have. The prices are great, maybe a little too good as I have to keep myself from buying something every week.

If you want to check out The Clymb, here is an invite code so you can check it out https://www.theclymb.com/invite-from/JeffreyEckhaus

In early April of 2008, when I first purchased my 405, the people at Garmin stated that the software, Garmin Connect, for the 405 was not ready yet for Mac OSX users and would be ready soon. This message quickly changed to Fall of 2008. I was a little confused that Garmin would not make software compatible with a Mac but figured they could do it in 6 months, how hard could this be. Well, Fall of 2008 came and went and still no software for Mac users.

I was hoping that maybe the New Year would bring some good news, and looked at the dedicated Garmin page for Mac and saw a note, “Coming January 2009″. I was starting to get hopeful again until I saw another notice a few days later “Coming Q1 2009″. Are you serious?????

For anyone from Garmin reading this, why are you abandoning your Mac users? A full year, probably more, to make Garmin Connect compatible with Mac’s in not acceptable. Step up and take care of this already. If you are not planning on it then let us know, and if there are delays let us know why?

For a company that states “Garmin is founded on the principles of innovation, convenience, performance, value, and service” you have not lived up to your values.

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

Just how far are we chunkin these punkins? The world record currently stands at 4434.28 feet, a little under a mile. Are you kidding me? The event is held in Bridgeville, Delaware from October 31 – November 2 this year. Count me in. I’ll blend in perfectly…

Watch the Making Of Video:

Watch the Video:

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.

This installation is on the scale of “The Gates” by Christo and Jeanne-Claude that filled Central Park with saffron-colored fabric panels back in 2005. I wasn’t that excited to see “The Gates”, but was taken aback by the beauty and scale when I did make the trip. It was really extraordinary. Make sure you don’t miss this one…

Kudos to Mayor Bloomberg who helped the artists navigate the NYC bureaucracy to get over 30 separate permits to make this a reality. Well played sir.

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.

On the ride up I experienced one of those moments that every rider dreads, the kind of thing that puts a not in your gut just thinking about. I blew a front tire on the Merritt traveling at highway speed in failing light. Blowing a front shoe is one of those things you hear about happening but is by no means a regular occurrence. In fact, most of the folks I know who’ve been riding for a lifetime have never had their number come up. Let me tell you something – it is not a good time.

The tire went flat in about 10-15 seconds. Not with a bang or a pop…just all of the sudden the handling characteristics changed. At first subtly enough to wonder if it was odd pavement. And then, very quickly, the front forks started traveling about a foot in either direction, yanking the steering back, serpentining the bike and generally making it impossible to control. Mind you 75% of the braking on most bikes, and prob 90% on mine, is done with the front brake. So it was a pretty impossible situation to get the bike to rapidly slow while keeping it upright.

With mountains of luck, and a formation of Dukes behind me making sure I wasn’t struck by an oncoming car, I managed to keep the shiny side up and get to the shoulder. Where I no doubt would have remained if it weren’t for the formidable aid and patience of Sergeant Raymond LaPlante of the Orange PD. Ray pulled up on his police Harley to see what was doing and, over the course of the next 12 hours, not only helped us sort out local accommodations, sustenance/beverages and a great mechanic, but actually borrowed a trailer and, (on his morning off with his young son in tow!), pulled the wounded SuperBad from where I’d stashed her in the woods overnight to the shop for an early am fix that got us back on the road.

Ray’s effort not only saved our trip from ruin, it reminded all of us a bit about what’s so special about riding. That it’s appreciably different than traveling the roads in a steel cage. There’s a different connectedness to the experience of moving from place to place. You don’t always know what might happen (especially on an old bike), but that the journey in and of itself is adventure. And, more than anything else, the camaraderie of two wheels and that bikers look after one another.

So a hearty DOFB thanks and toast to Ray LaPlante. We sent many a cold beer to it’s maker this past weekend and damn it all if most of mine weren’t dedicated to his awesomeocity. Keep the rubber side down and looking forward to when we get to ride together!

The SuperBad being seen to by Art Handleman @ Valley Motorsports in Ansonia, CT. If you’re ever in a pinch with your machine in CT – Art’s the man to get you back on the road.
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Turns out – I had a “rust-based failure”. On older bikes that have seen weather at one point or another, the insides of the rims can get to rusting. Small metal filings eventually peel off and will, inevitably, roughly have their way with your tube. Here’s the shop tech de-rustifying the inside of my front rim.

To recap = small metal filings + rubber innertube + highway speed = bad. Put it on your list of shit to think about if you have a late model ride.
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Sergeant Ray and his awesome little boy Nathan flying the DOFB flag after dropping our side-show off at the shop. Nathan’s already bewitched by bikes and shows great promise. Rumor has it Ray may be heading up to NH this weekend as well. Boundless thanks to both of them for spending their morning sorting us out – couldn’t have done it without you fellahs. Have an awesome ride to the granite state Ray!
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Th big man…..Emperor of the Rage Hut, host for this Bike Week jaunt and head of the New Hampshire DOFB Chapter. Not a finer NH specimen to be found.
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Ride on Winni to the Wiers for a peek around, some grub and one (read:10) Margarita.
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Graham lends a helping hand to a parched Hombre
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2300 CC Triumph Rocket Sled….daaaaamn.
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Sweet trike art – Rowwwrrrrrr.
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The next day the Big Man took us on an epic ride up over the Sandwich Notch road, around through Waterville Valley and back over the Kank. Being dirt, recently graded and pretty steep in many places, The Notch road was especially challenging for some of the bikes. Fritz on the Yammie FJR1300 gets the hero’s salute for muscling that beast all the way through safely. That bike was built for smooth speed and she was more than a little ornery about the conditions. He rodeoed it though and, in exchange, was treated to a singular adventure through pristine NH back country. Nice work man.
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Big and mean never goes out of style in NH.
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DOFB, now with more Back Road Action!
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Juanito going native. The arm stripes perhaps suggest some sort of vestment. A man of the cloth? A country bishop perhaps?

Subsequently gathered evidence would seem to contravene this hypothesis.
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Graham loves it.
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Like Rodin’s thinker, this Duke too is made of granite. NH Chapter member (and lead carpenter) Whitney on his KLR. The KLR really is a perfect match for this guy and his natural surroundings.
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Top of the Kank….one of the best roads for riding on the East Coast and my personal favorite. The Dukes relay team will also be running the Kank this coming fall in the “Reach the Beach” 200+ mile relay. A painful reality not lost on those of us who’ll be on the squad as we climbed upward for 13 miles….
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Stop in Chocorua to visit the DOFB patron Saint – Ghee. Here’s she’s getting her annual ride around the block on the back of the Guzzer.
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Fritz on the Yammie. Can you believe he just took that 600lb beast over 20+ miles of mushy dirt logging roads?!?
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Heading back into the Wiers we start to get a taste of the action.
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Bike traffic for miles.
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Some local fauna met in traffic. The lady on the front claimed to have been arrested at last year’s bike week for mistakenly slugging a cop. Oops. Things can get a little dicey at Bike Week but come on ladies. These two sisters seemed a wee interested in a certain debonair Duke.
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This guy – can you believe it? No accounting for taste I suppose…
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Sunset at the rage Hut
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That pretty much concludes our trip. There were some other adventures had…a visit to the Franklin Girls’ natural lair, a few ‘old bike’ struggles with the Guzzi, electrical gremlins with the Triumph and many many coordinated high speed drifts to the curb of the highway for one dangling plate/about to be lost luggage/ atomic wedgie or another. But you’ll get that on these rolling thunder jobs.

Next year we’ll hope to have a bit more time and get a little more submersion into the epicenter of Bike Week. But I know I wouldn’t trade the ride we had on Saturday for much of anything – pure magic.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in making it happen this year…Ray and Chris especially!

Learn for yourself!

It takes about 30 minutes to change a front tube and about 45 minutes to change a rear one, and that is by someone who really knows their stuff. The Baja 1000 is a timed race where the possibility of not finishing is quite real. In fact, only about 35% of teams finish the race each year. Each second is precious so you want to avoid flats at all costs.

One thing I heard repeatedly in Baja was that you should run a Michelin Bib Mousse on your front tire and a heavy duty tube on your rear tire. I would nod in accordance all the time thinking to myself, what the hell does a Bull Moose have to do with any of this?

Once I got the spelling right, I found out that it’s “a foam insert that can replace conventional inner tubes in off road motorcycle tires. It is a ring of butyl honeycomb foam with its cells filled with nitrogen. It has a smooth-molded outer skin that is designed to slip into specific size off-road motorcycle tire. Bib-Mousse have a considerable advantage over normal inner-tubes, as they do not and cannot be punctured or burst.”

I have never ridden on this type of tube, but was told that it rides differently than a regular tube. It feels heavier and carries more momentum which can take some getting used to, especially as you come into corners. I have seen some disclaimers that it shouldn’t be ridden on hard surfaces for more than 20 miles at high speed which presents a bit of a dilemma since the Baja 1000 contains longer sections of pavement that connect parts of the course. I guess you grin and bear it. Certainly beats a flat…

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

The Garmin 405 is way smaller than the 305 or other previous generations. I do not have a big wrist and this watch felt “normal” on my wrist as opposed to an alarm clock on my wrist, which is how I would describe the previous generations when I tried them on. You can wear this watch on a daily basis and not notice it.

Now comes the interesting part, figuring out how this works:

Setup – The Garmin walks you through a menu set up and is very simple to get set up. Piece of cake

Satellites - I am not sure if it is NYC or this watch, but acquiring satellites for the first time took a few minutes. Once acquired I think I lost the signal a few times as the time on the watch showed a half hour before actual time. It took about 25 minutes for the correct time to appear

Screen – I have not gone through many screen, but viewing the screen was easy. I know there were worries that the screen size would be too small but I could see all readouts simply. The other cool thing is if you touch both sides of the bezel at the same time the backlight will go on, super simple and easy. This is a great feature when running at night.

Bezel – I am still working out how the bezel works and it is not that simple. The first thing I did was shut off the beeps for each touch of the bezel, it will drive you insane. Going through the menus is simple but figuring out what to do next and programming is not easy, but a few days with the manual and I think it will be OK.

Heart Rate Monitor – I have not tried this part out yet, so TBD

Pace Accuracy – I ran a route that I know is 5 miles and the Garmin came back with 5.01 miles, so pretty good there. I felt a ran a solid 7:40/mile pace and the Garmin told me I was running a 7:37. Unfortunately the pace was not accurate the whole way through as the satellites went in and out.

Overall I am a big fan of the Garmin 405 and if you do not mind spending (it is pricey) then pick one up if you can find it

Now to step off my preachers box and explain why this new product from Nike makes me happy, which is strange since I really do not like most Nike running gear.

The Nike + Sportband is the first product that allows runners to use the Nike + system without having to use their Ipod Nano at the same time . So this means you can use all the cool Nike systems without having to listen to music while you run.

Below is the info from Nike and their marketing wizards:

Nike+ SportBand allows runners to see their distance, pace, time and calories burned when they run, in addition to gaining access to all of the features and tools on nikeplus.com. Designed for runners who choose not to run with music and for those times when you can’t use music, the Nike+ SportBand provides all the benefits of Nike+ technology, but opens up the Nike+ experience to a broader audience of runners. Runners who enjoy that extra motivation, or who are music fans, can continue to hear their run details through an iPod nano system.

Well now Garmin has delayed the release date to the mysterious Q2 2008. It seems they are pushing back the release date to coincide with the 2008 Boston Marathon. Great for marketing, terrible for us early adopters who need to receive the first shipment of running gear.

Garmin has decided to appease us with new shots of the display of the Garmin 405 and this did not help. It only made me wish I had this yesterday.

UPDATE ON 04/29/08 – See my post on delivery  

Check these out:

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.

We were headed due West into a blinding, setting sun. I couldn’t see and slipped out of the rut I was driving in. When things go wrong, they go wrong quickly. In a split second, the bike was down and I was lying on my right side. I was only going around 20 MPH, but the impact was intense. I took the force of it on my right shoulder and head. My head was fine, but my shoulder was seriously bruised. It’s been a week and I feel like I was in a car accident. My shoulder is incredibly weak and sore. The long and the short of it: typical chest protection does very little to protect your sides or shoulders.

That was all I needed to explore other options. I’ve settled on a more comprehensive solution by Thor called an Impact SE Rig. It has chest protection and an articulated spine, along with shoulder caps, elbow guards and forearm guards. It even has a built in kidney belt which is a must when riding whoops.

There are a number of these systems out there by great manufacturers like Fox, Axo, EVS and Six Six One.

I decided to start with a K&N 77 Series High-Flow Air Intake System. It’s a cheap way to add 10hp to the truck and the design is resistant to dirt and sand. Let’s all take a deep breath together.

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…

Well the “new” season began airing in the USA last night, which means we are watching slightly stale episodes (about 4 months behind), but I highly recommend you set your DVR’s for Monday nights to record Top Gear.

One of the best parts of Top Gear is the host Jeremy Clarkson, whose one liners are abusive, racist, mean and hysterical. To celebrate the new season and to give you an idea of what Clarkson is like I found a list of Top 10 Jeremy Clarkson quotes, I think you will enjoy

1. About the Porsche Cayman S: “There are many things I’d rather be doing than driving it, including waiting for Bernard Manning to come off stage in a sweaty nightclub, and then licking his back clean.”

2. “The Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite.”

3. “I’m sorry, but having a DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch.”

4. “The Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was little, was like kind of like Jordan and Cameron Diaz in a bath together playing with lots of jelly.”

5. “Much more of a hoot to drive than you might imagine. Think of it if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under her tweed pants. I do, and it helps.”

6. “Tonight, the new Viper, which is the American equivalent of a sports car… in the same way, I guess, that George Bush is the equivalent of a President.”

7. On the Lotus Elise: “This car is more fun than the entire French air force crashing into a firework factory.”

8. On the Porsche Cayenne: “Honestly, I have seen more attractive gangrenous wounds than this. It has the sex appeal of a camel with gingivitis.”

9. “Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable. More comfortable than what… BEING STABBED?”

10. On the Vauxhall Vectra VXR: “there is a word to describe this car: it begins with ‘s’ and ends with ‘t’ and it isn’t soot.
And a few more…

Illustrating the lack of power of a Boxster: “It couldn’t pull a greased stick out of a pig’s bottom.”

“This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that’s much to shout about. That’s like saying ‘Ooh good I’ve got syphilis, the BEST of the sexually transmitted diseases.’”

On the Mercedes CLs55: “Braking in this car is so brutal, it would be less painful to actually hit the tree you were trying to miss.”

“Now as you can see, I lost the battle to have two engines on the back because of three very important reasons. One – weight. This is 600 Lbs and that’s the same as having a whole American sitting on the tailgate…”

“In the olden days, I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.”

“Sure it’s quiet, for a diesel. But that’s like being well-behaved… for a murderer.”

60 Second Charcoal Starter

I would normally try and be witty and write a description of the product, but I think it is almost impossible to beat Skymall when it comes to product descriptions so here you go:

The barbecue starter that ignites charcoal in 60 seconds without requiring the use of lighter fluid, allowing you to start grilling in five minutes. Similar to the heat-focusing technology used in paint-stripping hot-air guns, the charcoal starter emits hot air at 1,290° F, providing a constant, precise flow of heat from the tip of the unit. Simply plug the device into a standard wall outlet, place the metal tip into the charcoal and hold down the button. When the charcoal sparks, remove the tip from the coals, but continue to point the unit at the charcoal for sixty seconds. Also ideal for lighting a wood-burning fireplace, the device has a cool-touch handle and an integrated stand.

Retail Price is $79.95 and does include an integrated stand.

There don’t appear to be too many options in this realm – you are either looking at standard knee protection or a pretty advanced system. I’ve read up on custom-made CTI braces that costs around $1,400. Zoinks! Luckily, CTI started a sister company named Asterisk to produce a more affordable line specifically geared for athletes. By affordable, we’re talking about $600 (available online for $550), but it seems like a small price to pay if it helps me finish the race and in the case of an accident, prevents hyper-extension and soft tissue damage. I’m going to test these out in a few weeks and will give everyone a full report. If you have any first hand knowledge, please leave a comment. I’d certainly be interested to hear…

“I am attaching some photos from my ride tonight. Lots of mud and lots of fun. I am also sending some pictures of two pieces of equipment that saved my ass. I took a digger right into a lava rock with my head. My helmet took the brunt of the force, but the Leatt neck brace is what saved my neck. I hit hard enough to have sore spots on my shoulders from the Leatt neck brace which tells me that it did its job. It prevented my neck and spine from being compressed and spread the energy to my shoulders.

I am recommending that you guys all get one before you come out. It will be the best money you will spend. If you can’t tell, I am totally behind the product. It KICKS ASS! I hope you enjoy the photos. You will notice that I ripped my CRF decal in the crash…oh well all part of the fun. I will try to get more photos on the trail next time.”

For anyone who’s isn’t paying attention and hasn’t reviewed his bona fides …..Jesse Kimball loves to ride. God-damn are we stoked to have his crazy ass on the team!

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:

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?

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.

This shoe is designed for some serious racing weighing in at a lightweight 7.9oz and with a name like Gel Bandito these shoes have to be awesome. Report to follow after purchase and a few races.

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.

• heavy-duty ballistic nylon
• compression pack expands to fit gear
• padded pocket for spare goggles and electronics (SPOT, radio)
• tool pocket
• shoulder harness, waistbelt
• 100 oz (3 liter) capacity

In all, it seems like the ticket. I’ll be testing all of this gear in a motorcycle trip across Baja in March so I’ll let everyone know how it holds up.

Camelbak Havoc Hydration System

WARN Off-Road Winch Bumper

The unit has three primary functions: Check-in, Help and 911. Each command automatically sends your contacts an SMS text message including GPS coordinates, or an email with a link to Google Maps showing your exact location. Check-in lets everyone know that things are OK, help indicates a mechanical issue and 911 a medical emergency.The 911 command leverages a GEOS International Emergency Response Center that notifies the appropriate emergency responders based on your location and personal information – which may include police, our country’s embassy or consulate, or other emergency response or search and rescue teams – as well as notifying your emergency contact person(s) about the receipt of a distress signal.

SPOT also acquires and sends 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 our progress. Ideally, we’d be able to port this information to the GPS units in our chase cars. Our good friends at Special AI have expertise in the specialized area of communications so we’ll see what we can sort out. We’ll give updates as we experiment over the coming months.

SPOT: Satellite Messenger

SPOT: How It Works