OzHpv Challenge 2013

There were some (hurtful!) comments about my trike in the the road race, saying that I (Hmmf of indignation) resembled Dick Dastardly of Wacky Races fame.  Nothing like me at all!  Where is my moustache and sidekick dog, huh? No, if my bike were a comic book car, it would of course be.......

(Ta da!) Fab1, the 6-wheel pink Rolls Royce of Thunderbirds fame.  By an overwhelming majority it has been voted "Best vehicle in the universe with gratuitous extra wheels"** although I'm sure my trike would have come close second had people known of its existance.

Jamie Friday, Heather Withers and Damian Harkin, officiating and using my trike as a desk at the end of the 2k time trial.

Jamie Friday tries my trike.

At the start of some race or other, my trike in the foreground, right to left Mark, Heather, Malcolm, Kate, Damian, Graham, Jamie, Rolf, George

Mark and Heather in the Shopping Race.  Colin Scrutineering

Shopping Race

Heather, Shopping Race

Kate, Shopping Race

2nd place vehicle, Malcolm Butler's 15-or-so years old Flying Furniture cycle made by Ian Humphries.  Malcolm's featured strongly at the challenge for many years.

Winning vehicle, Jamie Friday's "Preston" home made bike.  With this bike and various different front fairings, Jamie has won the Challenge a few times.

In between races it is all stress and strain.  Breakfast on Sunday morning, Mick, the go-kart track caretaker reads the paper and chats with Jamie, Damian and Graham

Some sort of cycling utopia

Rolf revs up for the 2k time trial, Colin officiating

Mark, Colin, George

And the Winners are! (drum roll) Kate, Heather and Jamie

The ozhpv challenge was held recently in Wodonga.  The challenge is a fairly unique set of races held over a weekend.  The aim is to determine the most practical Human Powered Vehicle by running a wide variety of races over a weekend.  Most cycle races don't admit that anything but a standard diamond frame cycle exist and don't test for things like manoeverability, accelleration or ability to carry luggage.

Wodonga is located within reasonable driving distance from Melbourne and  Canberra which are where where many Ozhpv members live.  A bit further afield are Sydney and Adelaide.  So people can reach the event for a weekend.

Anyway, back to the start!  When repairing my trike I didn't have a chance to test ride it before packing it into the car along with the ozhpv gazebo, timing gear and all my food and clothes.  Up till midnight as it was and off at 7:00am the next morning.

Arrived in Wodonga with plenty of time but couldn't clip my pedal into one of the cleats.  It turned out that I had the right pedal on the left had side and the right left had side and the trike stayed this way throughout the  weekend.   As well the screws keeping my bottom bracket attached to the frame weren't up to the job, with the chain pulling down on the bracket every time I pedalled, the bottom bracket got wobbly and the screws threatened to fall out. On top of all this, I'm not sure that the pedals weren't too short at 114mm.


So despite the trike being not quite right, it still went quite well, with my best result a second in the shopping race.  The full set of scores is here.

At night there was a small amount of entertainment, after the pizza and beer, Rolf Muller and I did a talk about our bikes and later there was a trivia quiz with questions supplied by my wife Christine. 

Congrats to the winners, Jamie Friday 1st, Malcolm Butler 2nd, Heather Withers Women's winner, Kate Junior winner.

Best wishes

Steve Nurse


** No it hasn't, I just made that bit up.