Five-O Memorial Bike Ride

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Yes, this post is a day behind schedule, but I have an excuse.  The only thing that happened Friday was that I was able to pick up my Taurus G3 from the gunsmith.  But my last post was about firearms, so I had to talk about something else.  

Today, I headed out early to drive across town to a local high school, which was the start/finish point for the Five-O Memorial bike ride.  This yearly event includes 50 km and 100 km routes.  There were something over 200 riders particpating.

No, I was not a rider.  My job was driving as a Support and Gear truck (SAG).   The local amature radio community organizes volunteer HAM operators to provide communications support for these races.  For this particular event, there were 6 HAM SAGs.  There were also other radio operators taking position as Rest Stop contacts (3), and one operator at start/finish as Net Control.

The 100 km race started promptly at 7:30.  I chose to wait for a bit for the mob to spread out before I took off.  Since there were three other SAGs covering the 100 km route, there was a little bit of crowding of SAG trucks for the first few miles.  I hung back at the tail end of the race since there was plenty of coverage.

Let me describe the way I have my truck set up.  First, I have a VHF/UHF radio (AnyTone AT-778UV) mounted on the passenger side of the cab under the glove box.  There is an external speaker under the driver's seat, and the antenna mounted on the front left fender.  The truck is equipped with a class III hitch, and for events like this I have a bike carrier able to carry up to 4 bicycles.  In all the races I've particpated in over the years, I have never had to carry more than one bicycle.  For this race, I didn't use it at all.

A SAG drives a designated section of the race course, watching for any riders that are having problems.  This might be equipment failures (flat tires, etc.), accidents, or exhaustion.  Yes, sometimes the riders over estimate what they can accomplish, especially if the day is hot (as it tends to be in the summer).  If a SAG comes up to a rider stopped on the road, they would check if they were having problems.  If they were, our job would be to load them and their bike on the truck, and drive them forward to the next rest stop or start/finish.  If they needed to continue on to start/finish from a rest stop, there were non-ham SAGs that could transport them.  

As we traveled the route, we would check in with Net Control, reporting our location, any help provided, and how many riders were on different sections of the course.  In my case, since I was traveling at the tail end of the riding group, I was able to report the arrival and departure of the last rider at each rest stop.

I have another ride a week from Sunday.  Its a fun diversion, and fairly comfortable since I am able to stay in my air-conditioned truck most of the time.

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