Drakenboot festival 2008

For the 4th tiem the drakenboot festival is held in apeldoorn. For me photo finish at dragon boat races was completely new. But with my experience in shorrtack skating i managed to do it right. after some rain and starting up problems everything worked perfectly. I always thought that dragon boat racing was not close but some boats only crossed the line 0.01 second from each other. On Sunday we tested our competition software and it worked good enough for the first time. Our software expert is going to improve it for next time so we can use it even better next time.

here a photo a small photo collection i made of this event.

Lowrider is on the road again

After a complete overhauling of my lowrider i made a test lap of 40 Km. The night before i managed to adjust the bearings in the rear wheel together with my uncle. He has more then 15 experience with bike repair. After placing 2 washers in the rear axle it was running smooth again. During the test ride my shifter was not working well and i was thinking about the solution all the way. I Knew that the two gears small gears in the rear derailleur have a up and a down gear. Usually there is a mark on them that says up and down but this time there wasn’t any. So Monday night i switched the gears and it shifted perfect. This problem had to do with the difference in play that the gears have. On has only axial play and the other can have play in more directions.

here is an old picture of the bike

NK Teams Vught

Early in the season all the best eight clubs from holland came to vught to decided who has the best club team in track and field.

Starting at 6.15 it was going to be a long day. Together with Ron and Piet we prepared all the equipment to have a good audio system around the track. Everything went smooth and we had everything running around 10.00. At 11.00 the competition started with the first event. at 11.45 we had the official opening with the national anthem of the Netherlands. National anthems are always a exciting moment because u don’t want anything to go wrong at that time.

The most exciting moment in the competition is always the final 4 x 400M Relay with a lot of chaos in the area around the finish line.

After a long day of competitions at was time to get all the equipment in the van again and we where ready to go to the BBQ in front of the restaurant of the track.

results and more pictures www.athleticsonline.info 

Open Dutch Championship

This weekend i’m at the open dutch championships in Amsterdam.

I didn’t had to do photo-finish this time so i was jack of all treats again. My only main goal was that all the track markers where in the right place. In shorttrack we call this job a track-steward.

After a few hours i finished that and i had some time to sit down and write a post. I’m sitting in the nice company of 3 (old) ladies who are in charge of the coffee and the food. Those people are the most important during a competition.

Tomorrow i will be here again and then i will go to spa francorchamp for some racing action. A update about that will follow soon.

Freezing @ Easter Cup Gent

After a first day of photo-finish i know what cold weather is.

Inside the ice-rink it is around the freezing point. of course u dress yourself warm but that doesn´t help much when your sitting still behind a laptop. This message took me a long time because my fingers are partly frozen.

Besides the cold it is a really nice international championship. All the kids are having a great time together and the also break there personal records.

At night i had a nice shorttrack family diner. In shorttrack u develop a kind of weekend family true the year. Next week there is a competition in Amsterdam so the family is at my home track. (where it is nice and warm)

For the results of the competition u can visit www.shorttrackonline.info

Easter Cup Gent

Today after a lot of traffic i arrived in Gent, Belgium. Tomorrow the 28th Easter Cup will start here. The Easter Cup is for the 4th time Gent the years before it was in Brugge. More Info about this shorttrack competition u can find on www.shorttrackonline.info

Tomorrow u will get a new update.

Low Racer Rebuild

After the first year of learning how to ride a low racer i took everything apart to check everything.

first of all to clean all the dirty parts and to replace the complete drive train. All the sprockets and the chain are completely worn out.

when i disassembled the rear end i also found out that they raised it a little. This was also the reason why the chain was running against the rear end.

after cleaning most of the parts i started with the aluminium seat. The complete bike is made of stainless steel and is polished till it is like a mirror. the seat is made of normal aluminium and not so shiny. i decided to polish the aluminum as well. i started with rough grinding and sanding and after a lot of polishing with a machine it was really bling.

New Bike

A new bike in my collection.

My workshop seems to look more like a bicycle shop at the moment with 3 bicycles in stock.
my newest bike is a recumbent bike. (ligfiets in het nederlands)

This bike is a low racer your body is positionet between the two small wheels to make it as low as possible.
This is to be more aerodynamic. Read more about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_resistance

CLICK to view the bike