Audax: Free controls

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Nuncio

Über Member
Shame.
- I have an alibi for my wife's murder. That brevet card shows that at the time of her murder in Carmarthen, I was recording the distance on the signpost to Llanarthne at Porthyrhyd as 3 miles.
- It's true sarge, I'll take the cuffs off
 

Banjo

Fuelled with Jelly Babies
Location
South Wales
Shame.
- I have an alibi for my wife's murder. That brevet card shows that at the time of her murder in Carmarthen, I was recording the distance on the signpost to Llanarthne at Porthyrhyd as 3 miles.
- It's true sarge, I'll take the cuffs off
Bit suspicious that you didn't go in the pub for a pint though.....
 

Siclo

Veteran
Another thing I did in the GRSS is go to a village sign and wrap 2 bands of coloured insulation tape around a village sign post - the question 'what colour tape is wrapped around the Scadabay village sign' - not going to get that from Google Street View and I can put a different colour tape on each year.

I've been looking at this ride since you started @wicker man but please have a care for those of us who don't see colours properly
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I've been looking at this ride since you started @wicker man but please have a care for those of us who don't see colours properly
Phone apps (which is my current method, not that it stops some people on here insisting pink is purple or whatever it was), camera, ask someone, or simply note what it could be? There's not really a perfect solution to that.
 

Siclo

Veteran
Phone apps (which is my current method, not that it stops some people on here insisting pink is purple or whatever it was), camera, ask someone, or simply note what it could be? There's not really a perfect solution to that.

The perfect solution is don't use info's that rely on colour, particularly 'What colour is the barn at the far end end of the field on the left of the T junction?' when its a foggy day and vis is down to 20 metres and the barn is 200 metres away, but yes generally I take photo's of info's to avoid messing about with brevet cards and pencils at the roadside.
 

smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
My 200 that I'm organising in September has three info controls. They all have exactly the same question - I'm rather proud of that.
(Each has a different answer, of course. And the answer will be immediately apparent as you ride past - no stopping and hunting for tiny signs etc.)

I've subsequently tweaked the route slightly which has meant changing the location of one of the info controls. But guess what... the new info control has exactly the same question! Again, the answer will be obvious as you ride past without stopping. I'm going to have to be more inventive if I run the event again next year.

I aspire to getting rid of info controls altogether but it's difficult to do that in Kent. I find when devising routes that the 'shortest' distance would often entail using roads that no sane person would want to ride, so you have to add infos to ensure riders take the more scenic option as intended. By contrast, if you go to Scotland, the shortest route is often the only route, so it's easier to keep the number of controls down.
 

smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
The perfect solution is don't use info's that rely on colour

One of the info control questions on a 600 I did was the colour of the front door on a house near a particular junction. Unfortunately, what the organiser had failed to consider was that it was an unlit country lane and most riders would be passing through that spot in the middle of the night...
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
The perfect solution is don't use info's that rely on colour, particularly 'What colour is the barn at the far end end of the field on the left of the T junction?' when its a foggy day and vis is down to 20 metres and the barn is 200 metres away, but yes generally I take photo's of info's to avoid messing about with brevet cards and pencils at the roadside.
Yeah, that's a perfect solution for those of who have problems with colour, but all info controls cause problems for someone, don't they? The common ones where you have to read things off signs can make things hard for dyslexics (as well as usually being trivial to discover at the start), while ones inside a gate can frustrate the less agile rider.
 

Big T

Guru
Location
Nottingham
I like free controls. The problem with a designated control at a cafe, is that it's usually packed by the time you get there and it takes ages to get served with your food. I know it's not a race, but I don't want to spend 45 mins waiting for and eating food in a cafe. I've ridden audaxes where there was a free control in a small town and you could spread yourselves between the 3 or 4 cafes in the town, or, if you wanted to, just get a balance enquiriy from a cash machine and carry on. Not everyone wants 2 cafes in a 100k audax, or 3 or 4 in a 200k.

Info controls involving mileages on signposts are pretty unambiguous, as are name the pub in a village (provided there's only one). Ambiguous ones I've come across include naming the burglar alarm on a house (there were several houses and several alarms), name the supermarket on the left as you pass through the town (there was a Lidl, a Tesco and a Morrisons with half a mile).
 
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One of the info control questions on a 600 I did was the colour of the front door on a house near a particular junction. Unfortunately, what the organiser had failed to consider was that it was an unlit country lane and most riders would be passing through that spot in the middle of the night...
Was that WCW? Because the problem was slightly worse - you couldn't have shone your light on the door to see the colour, because it had a window in it! I wonder how many riders shone a light thru their front door?
 
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