Fat Tyre Flyers Downhill MTB

MT BEAUTY :

On a personal note, I want to thank Bec for her fantastic performance in timing. All I do is set up the system, she does the data entry and watches the screen as you all come flying past! Its a simple task in theory, but there are so many things that can go wrong and she handles all of them with grace and a cool head.

For FTF DH members information, the system we use is a combination of ALGE and TAG HEUER hardware and software. We have invested a reasonable amount of money in this system to be independant of the need to find cash to pay other timing companies - the investment has already paid for itself. If anyone out there wants to learn how to run timing for downhill events - please come and see us. We need someone else who can do this when the usual people are unavailable.

We are now looking at purchasing a TAG wireless pulse transmission system that will eliminate the need for cable "Spooling" (Arnie accent required when you say that, please). This hardware (like everything we use) has been developed for downhill ski racing in Europe, and has the ability to transmit start times as radio signals - if it works we will never have to worry about broken cables again. However, radio does bring a few other issues that we will have to cope with, so we will probably run a cable anyway until we are 100% happy.

We will be testing the wireless pulse/data transmission system at Baw Baw. We will still be running cable JUST IN CASE! Hopefully the test runs smoothly, but bear with us while our timing crew get adjusted to the new system. We will test it all day saturday and try and get all the issues squared away. If there are ANY DOUBTS at all, we will not use the new system. Baw Baw is a stern test, and if it works there, it should work anywhere. Fingers crossed.

As for approaching the timing tent - PLEASE DONT DO IT. It takes 100% concentration to do timing (one missed rider can screw up a whole category) and if your time got fouled up because we were talking to someone about what time they got, you wouldnt be happy. Talk to the race director, or the commentator instead.

MC JUZZIE We have bought some software and a laptop to enable MC Juzzie to view ALL results remotely from the timing tent. Please always ask him (nicely) and he will let you know how you went. Great work again by Juzzie - without doubt the best DH caller in Australia - I asked him to do an imitation DJ voice (think Adelaide for those who were there), and he cant do it. Its not in him, and he is who he is. Knowleagable, accurate and funny. Oh, and his lovely wife is expecting their first baby around the end of the month, so dont expect him to be at Baw Baw!

ELECTRONIC TAG TIMING SYSTEMS Many, many people ask me why we dont use the electronic RFID tags, instead of "old fashioned" cable, gate and beam. I shall try and answer that as simply as I can: For all its drawbacks, once set up and running cable is VERY reliable • Cable is reasonably cost effective • RFID tags that are both capable of being read at a reasonable distance (mounted on the fork tube normally) and of providing times to one hundredth of a second (UCI requirements) tend to be of the powered type. These have internal batteries that are charged inductively. • Powered tags are quite expensive - around $80-$90 each. The start gate would need a tag reader, and of course the finish line also would need a reader. • If you want to have instanataneous results (on the large dot matrix display) - these two devices must be connected by a cable...ah, another cable. (Wireless systems are being developed, but as yet do not have the high level of reliability required by mountainous locations).
Existing software solutions do not work flawlessly with RFID tag systems, new Web 2.0 based solutions are being provided at a per rider basis - but to get the best out of them you need GOOD internet connectivity. Not the thing we associate with the venues we typically frequent. The total cost of a tag based system (including around 300 tags) is about $50,000.

The bad news is that as successful as the FTF DH club is, we dont have that kind of cash, and we are reluctant to force riders to spend more money on tags. Yes, we could rent them out, but that would put enormous strain on already stretched volunteers in regards to accounting for them. Unless we forced every rider to buy one. Sigh... The final argument for me is that most professional timing is still done by the old methods - all the companies who provide such services swear by cable and gates. It works. And for events like downhill, with our limited number of (generally) well spaced out riders the system we use now is the same one used by professionals all over the world. National, World Cups, Olympics - they all do it the same way as us.

Only when you get to events with mass starts, multiple laps, splits and mass finishes do RFID tags begin to make sense. Formula 1 and V8 use tags...so do other motor sports, but they generally have bigger budgets that MTB and they have multiple laps that need to be counted as well as timed. Add in the splits and the case for RFID becomes overwhelming in motor sport. The only advantage that tags offer right now for DH is instantaneous intermediate (split) times. (How we would love to have that - especially if we can get another display running in parallel with the new one!) Running and normal cycling tend to be fine with the cheaper remote charging tags (about $5 each), but these have a response time far too slow for downhill MTB - 0,1 second is the best they will do... 0.3 is more typical. Most races in those categories are decided in seconds, not hundredths of seconds. And we get lots of placings decided by less than one tenth of a second...

If anyone out there has a better idea, or a cheaper solution, we are OF COURSE happy to hear from you. But ALGE and TAG HEUER have spent many years building timing systems and software to match - anything we use will have to provide all the sexy features of that software (competitor management, run lists, reports, exports etc) before we would have a good case for change. The great thing about standard (supported) software is that it is repeatable for new volunteers, whereas custom solutions can become quickly orphaned. So please dont suggest anything that your mate can knock up in his garage unless :

a) Your mate will guarantee the device for at least 12 months

b) Your mate will provide training free of charge

c) Your mate promises to stick around to provide software upgrades and improvements for the next 10 years I think you will agree this is fair!