DeathRide

2016 Death Ride Summary

But my results pale in comparison to others:

Our friend Jean-Marc, who did the same ride on a mountain bike. A great athlete, but his farthest prior bike ride was a mere 36 miles. We camped with he and his family, and his only complaint the next day was "my butt is a little sore".
All of Eric's housemates. Most had never done any ride close to this level of difficulty. One rode a custom bike she built herself -- including welding the entire frame. Not only did they support each other the whole way, but they encouraged many others like me who were close to quitting at lots of different points.
The Epic Challenge: Man v Machine (ok, more accurately: One man with an old machine vs. Two men with a new machine and a battery) -- see details below.
Finally, in the "You've Got To Be Kidding" category, another of Eric's friends from Google did the ride... after biking all the way there from San Francisco. Then he biked back after the race. Over 700 miles on a bike in less than 3 days. He didn't sleep the entire time, but was at work Monday morning.

Man vs Machine

Eric loves bikes & biking, and appears to be pretty immune to the pain of continuous exertion. He did the Death Ride for the first time last year, did great, and loved it. He encouraged lots of friends to join him this year, and obviously many did.

Eric and Michael and Nathan have been friends since grade school. The three are also housemates, athletes, very smart, and don't give up easily.

Nathan's a mathematician working at Google to optimize their software -- making your searches really fast -- and on the side is a world-class Ultimate Frisbee player. He helped Team USA win the World Championship in London a few weeks ago.

Michael has been building revolutionary vehicles since he was a kid. Currently he's building a flying car for one of Google's founders.

Even though they are not really bikers, Michael and Nathan decided to challenge Eric: The two of them would do the Death Ride on a new tandem, Eric would ride his old bike. Eric accepted.

But not a normal tandem -- it would be highly modified. Michael added an electric rear wheel, a motor controller, and a 1 kWh lithium battery pack. Nathan helped write a simulation in python using Eric's GPS track from 2015 to determine the best strategy during the ride in order to optimize the battery: boosting them just enough up the hills while recharging on the descents.

Lest you think this might be easy, some background: While new electric bikes (like this one, for $10,000) improve every year, few would survive this demandingride, let alone beat a top rider like Eric: there are just too many hills to climb. And if the battery dies before the top, the added weight would be a huge problem for any rider, no matter how fit.

So while Eric trained his muscles, Team Tandem developed their technology.

Early tandem tests in the Spring were not promising: lots of breakdowns resulted in a forced major redesign. The original design of a motorized trailer was unstable going up hill and was abandoned after much work. With only a few weeks left, a new version was looking good: Michael, his girlfriend, and the new electric tandem beat a local hill climbing record (14 minutes, set by olympic speed skater Eric Heiden) by two full minutes. However... mechanical brakes turned out to be a problem going down steep hills: the added weight made the tires get so hot they exploded. After several rides and repairs, the mean time between failures was only about 40 minutes. Not looking good, a week before an 8 hour race.

Ok, so here's what happened on race day --

Everyone started about 5:15am. There are 5 passes to climb, followed by 5 descents. Eric took the lead on an initial small descent, but the tandem passed him during the first big climb, only to have Eric regain the lead on the next descent. The same thing happened on the next climb & descent. And the next. And the next. (They passed each other 9 times.)

After the 4th descent Eric stopped at a rest stop and the tandem passed him, gaining a strong lead before the final climb. Could this be the last strike for Mighty Casey, I mean Eric?

But there was a strong headwind (gusts over 40mph), and the tandem battery died before they reached the final summit!! Nathan and Michael tried to finish the climb by pedaling, but the added weight and motor resistance was too much. Eric passed Nathan and Michael one last time, right at the top of the last summit, after they'd pushed the heavy bike up the final stretch on foot. Eric (like Old John Henry, who trounced another machine) hit 54 mph on the downhill to the finish. The tandem finished just 20 minutes later after an eight hour contest. Amazingly close, given that most of us took 12 or more hours to do the same course.

Since the mechanical brakes made the tires explode, Nathan (in the front seat) never used them: they were forced instead to rely on regenerative braking. But with the battery fully drained at the top of the last summit, the regen braking wouldn't work, so they were effectively trapped at the top of a very steep descent. Michael was ingenious: he pulled two small batteries out of his multi-meter, wired them in series with the bike battery so the controller was happy, then they turned the bike upside down and recharged the big battery by spinning the pedals, just enough so they could get back on and ride down the hill safely.
Another of Eric's amazing housemates (Kyle) explained to me why a 1 kWh battery was sufficient. Potential energy is calculated as m*g*h (mass times gravity times height). One kWh of energy turns out to be enough to lift the tandem and both riders (about 440 lbs) over 6000 feet! But they were peddling too, and also got to recharge the battery on the way down the hills.
Most of the ten housemates rode up to the race in the bus leaving Friday about 1pm, but a few had to stay behind to leave work later. About half way up the bus brakes failed. Happily, no injuries or accidents resulted. They found a bus mechanic in Stockton working late, explained the problem, and left it with him to be fixed. A few blocks away they located and rented the last U-Haul truck for all the bikes and gear, and convinced the 2nd wave of housemates to bring two cars instead of one. So instead of arriving at the race location before the registration desk closed at 7pm Friday as planned, they arrived at the campsite nearby after 11pm. They then had to get to the registration desk before the race began Saturday morning, so were up again at 4am. After all this, EVERY ONE OF THEM completed the entire course -- some finishing after 8pm.

Lisa and I are so lucky. What amazing family & friends we have, doing incredible things. Inspirational.

-Steve (sitting on a sore butt)