How do you justify a Cape Epic entry?

[Hairy]

12 minutes ago, Jehosefat said:

What about all the "flying objects" that never made it out of prototype stage?

 

XB-70 Valkyrie comes to mind. Only 2 built, both had serious in flight incidents with 1 crashing and killing all aboard. 50% f**ked rate.

Edit: I see the crash only killed 2 of 3 crew members.

What about this Valkyrie

[Hairy]

1 minute ago, Jewbacca said:

I'm one of those people who is gobsmacked that car companies build Family cars and People carriers that can exceed the speed limit. I hate driving, I hate loud noises, I think all cars that don't just get you from A to B are absolutely stupid and I am not impressed by how quickly things go.

I think motor sport is absolutely stupid, I think space travel is even more futile and seeing Bezos and That other idiot have a space race was probably one of the most pointless, wasteful things I have ever had to listen to people get excited about.

Nothing you say about it will change my mind. I raced cars, I rode motorbikes, I drove a diesel oil dispenser.... It's 100% unnecessary.

I am big enough to say 'I was wrong, these things shouldn't exist in todays environment and like slavery and gender assumption should be put out to pasture with all the other popular past times and triviality of a bygone era'..... 

R.I.P 26'ers

[DieselnDust]

7 minutes ago, Jehosefat said:

What about all the "flying objects" that never made it out of prototype stage?

 

XB-70 Valkyrie comes to mind. Only 2 built, both had serious in flight incidents with 1 crashing and killing all aboard. 50% f**ked rate.

Edit: I see the crash only killed 2 of 3 crew members.

XB-70 crashed because a F104 Starfighter got caught in its wake during a General Electric Photoshoot. The turbulent wake generated by the down turned wingtips was so severe the F104 pilot lost control of the aircraft and crashed into the Valkyrie effectively killing the program and the pilots.

Most prototypes have issues and crashes though. The point of prototypes is to find the limits of the design and that often results in the loss of one prototype. STS (Space Transportation System or Space Shuttle) had one prototype (Enterprise) that was used for atmospheric flight / drop testing. These were nowhere near representative of the stresses flying into space would put on the airframe. The first functioning STS was Columbia, the least incident prone vehicle of the fleet but it also ended tragically. 

It was riddled with design flaws and got lucky many many times. NASA engineers wanted it grounded indefinitely after the first flight in 1980 because it landed with so many tiles missing. It suffered airframe damage on nearly every flight, hence the turn around period of 90 days was never achieved. It had to undergo major refit after every flight.  In the Russian Soyuz was far more successful and cheaper and reliable but its flights were never as public till murica needed to get its astronauts up to the ISS

[MORNE]

17 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I'm one of those people who is gobsmacked that car companies build Family cars and People carriers that can exceed the speed limit. I hate driving, I hate loud noises, I think all cars that don't just get you from A to B are absolutely stupid and I am not impressed by how quickly things go.

I think motor sport is absolutely stupid, I think space travel is even more futile and seeing Bezos and That other idiot have a space race was probably one of the most pointless, wasteful things I have ever had to listen to people get excited about.

Nothing you say about it will change my mind. I raced cars, I rode motorbikes, I drove a diesel oil dispenser.... It's 100% unnecessary.

I am big enough to say 'I was wrong, these things shouldn't exist in todays environment and like slavery and gender assumption should be put out to pasture with all the other popular past times and triviality of a bygone era'..... 

but you still live in a brick and mortar house? or own how many again? ☺️ (assumption from some of your posts)

You are usually one of the first to point out to us all that it is cool that 300k bicycles exist...yet it cant be applied to other things like cars?    

the construction industry accounts for 40% of the worlds co2 emmisions. My point is, that kind of blanket statement is a slippeery slope. We cant have our cake and eat it. 

PS: CYCLING IS 100% unnecessary. But we like building pointless things that make getting from point A to point B more more efficient and eventually more fun lol

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by MORNE

[Duane_Bosch]

14 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I'm one of those people who is gobsmacked that car companies build Family cars and People carriers that can exceed the speed limit. I hate driving, I hate loud noises, I think all cars that don't just get you from A to B are absolutely stupid and I am not impressed by how quickly things go.

I think motor sport is absolutely stupid, I think space travel is even more futile and seeing Bezos and That other idiot have a space race was probably one of the most pointless, wasteful things I have ever had to listen to people get excited about.

Nothing you say about it will change my mind. I raced cars, I rode motorbikes, I drove a diesel oil dispenser.... It's 100% unnecessary.

I am big enough to say 'I was wrong, these things shouldn't exist in todays environment and like slavery and gender assumption should be put out to pasture with all the other popular past times and triviality of a bygone era'..... 

How do I turn that blocking thing on again?

[DieselnDust]

I for one love how fast we can make things go. But there is a place for it.

Space race…bring it on. Apollo inspired me. May spacex inspire a new generation.

build me a better bike (shjoe that MoBu hey...)

s better car even if it is electric

i want my own personal flying car. I hate traffic 

And a holiday house on the moon so I watch the earth rise while sipping espresso 

Edited September 8, 2021 by DieselnDust

[DonatelloOnPinarello]

Holy smokes this took off. 

you guys obviously have way too much time on your hands.

Back on topic, I'm just going to say two things: 

1. Yes, spend your money however you see fit. I made that clear in my first post. But that still doesn't answer the question. The question is why the epic? When there is a lot of other seriously awesome Biking you could do for the money. 

2. I don't buy the "it's targeting the international market" story. International riders pay more for the "privilege" of riding here. They also need to travel to get here, and it's a lot more expensive than any other international event, including the other epic series events. My question also wasn't, why it is so expensive, but rates why it is so important to do? 

[Danger Dassie]

19 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

XB-70 crashed because a F104 Starfighter got caught in its wake during a General Electric Photoshoot. The turbulent wake generated by the down turned wingtips was so severe the F104 pilot lost control of the aircraft and crashed into the Valkyrie effectively killing the program and the pilots.

Most prototypes have issues and crashes though. The point of prototypes is to find the limits of the design and that often results in the loss of one prototype. STS (Space Transportation System or Space Shuttle) had one prototype (Enterprise) that was used for atmospheric flight / drop testing. These were nowhere near representative of the stresses flying into space would put on the airframe. The first functioning STS was Columbia, the least incident prone vehicle of the fleet but it also ended tragically. 

It was riddled with design flaws and got lucky many many times. NASA engineers wanted it grounded indefinitely after the first flight in 1980 because it landed with so many tiles missing. It suffered airframe damage on nearly every flight, hence the turn around period of 90 days was never achieved. It had to undergo major refit after every flight.  In the Russian Soyuz was far more successful and cheaper and reliable but its flights were never as public till murica needed to get its astronauts up to the ISS

11 years at Denel/Armscor made this clear. Especially in some people specifically. 

[DieselnDust]

42 minutes ago, MORNE said:

not specifically the CF nosecone or substructures. I recall reading an article that they later used a material developed by mclaren in the thermal nose tiles. Mclaren was famous for pushing the boundaries with exotic material in the engine bays in the 90 - early 20s before it got blanket banned to reduce costs.

I'm not sure. The nose tiles were changed in the mid 80's. It might have been an adhesive that they borrowed from Hercules who was McLarens' technology partner on the Carbon Fibre Chassis construction and development - the early designs were built using flat sided panels that were bonded together. The tiles themselves were developed by Dow Corning if I remember

[DieselnDust]

1 minute ago, Danger Dassie said:

11 years at Denel/Armscor made this clear. Especially in some people specifically. 

Also ex Denel/Armscor.

[Hairy]

1 minute ago, DieselnDust said:

Also ex Denel/Armscor.

So now that is two previously interesting places of work you have been at that I would like to hear more about

[MORNE]

4 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Also ex Denel/Armscor.

PS…..your hubname is offensive. Please change it. ????

[J Wakefield]

I dont think you should have to justify it. If you want to go do it, have the option, facilities and so forth and want to, go do it. If you need to try justify it, dont. 

Do what makes you happy and feel good.

My 2c

[DieselnDust]

3 hours ago, DonatelloOnPinarello said:

Holy smokes this took off. 

you guys obviously have way too much time on your hands.

Back on topic, I'm just going to say two things: 

1. Yes, spend your money however you see fit. I made that clear in my first post. But that still doesn't answer the question. The question is why the epic? When there is a lot of other seriously awesome Biking you could do for the money. 

2. I don't buy the "it's targeting the international market" story. International riders pay more for the "privilege" of riding here. They also need to travel to get here, and it's a lot more expensive than any other international event, including the other epic series events. My question also wasn't, why it is so expensive, but rates why it is so important to do? 

I see what you did there...

for every person who rides the Epic there is at least 5 reasons why they chose to ride it. The operative being Chose.

to try to understand every persons reasoning will require a book thicker than War and Peace.

Some of the answers I've heard over the years:

• Wife left me, burning the cash before she takes it'
• I wanted to see the Garden route on a bicycle and meet new people and this was cheaper than renting a car and paying for B&B's
• My husband and I split up...do you want to share my tent?
• I sold my bike but the the guy who wants it doesn't believe me its low mileage so I'm fixing that for him
• I want to raise awareness for my XXXXXX charity
• I work for Woolworths so my boss made me do it
• I work for ABSA so my client made my do it
• Because my wife said we need to spend more time together so now we agree that we probably need more time apart (said on Day6)
• I had the money so I thought WTF
• Why the Epic? Because its the biggest and best event and I can say I finished it (its a fallacy I  know but he was riding a S-Works so I understood why it was hard)
• Because my neighbour rode it last year and there's no way he's putting one over me
• Because I have a really fast internet connection in Singapore and being in the early bird batch was the first achievement. How much does a bike cost?
• I quit my job and need some time out to do things I wouldn't normally do. I'm a triathlete
• I entered because its the most expensive and therefore it must be the best
• I have to enter every year because there's only 4 of us left who have done all the events

 

these were the most interesting ones

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by DieselnDust
i saw what he did there

[MORNE]

12 minutes ago, Danger Dassie said:

11 years at Denel/Armscor made this clear. Especially in some people specifically. 

I had a friend at school who’s dad worked for denel designing weapons back then.  He always had the best holiday stories haha. He would accompany his dad on tests in the desert if they coincided with school holidays. Literally to blow chit up. Needless to say…when grade 11 “bring a kid to work” day came along…we all went to his dad’s office haha. All the ooms would show us the cool things they were up to. 

[Robbie Stewart]

The shuttle pilots trained by flying gulfstream jets and activating reverse thrust which effectively turned a functional aircraft into a semi-gliding brick. Then they would "aim" it at the runway and seek to glide it in for a landing from which they could walk away. Manage that and putting the shuttle on the ground would be a breeze.