Okay, hold on to your hat...
Scheduling is one of our biggest constraints. The feeling of being "Rushed" over certain segments of the Inaugural relay is the effect of having only 26 weeks (schedule based on 6 month time frame) to cover 48 states and Canada. We could start sooner, but I don't know what the riding weather is like in other areas (except I'm pretty sure Southern California rides year-round like we do here in FL). If we started today from Florida or California would we have somewhere to go from there? There are still long, desolate stretches to cover in the West and across the plains states that are a real challenge for the regional coordinators as well as the riders. The attached routing map might has been loosely "flagged" based on the location given by the riders on the current sign-up list.
As much as I enjoyed kicking off the Inaugural relay, after seeing some of the conditions our members faced through West Virginia, and especially the Central Rockies (my guys still draw up just thinking about it), I really believe a West Coast kick-off would work better. The attached map shows a loose route and loose dates as a preliminary suggestion. You'll see that Central Rockies would occur a full month later than last year, but Northern Rockies/Western Canada kicks in much sooner than last year. Hey, Team PNW, are the loose dates shown even possible (late June)?
The red circles are 350 miles across, something I figured was a reasonable, one-way, one-day ride. I know many have ridden further, and the actual distance would be greater since we are rarely able to travel "as the crow flies". Allowing one week for each 350 mile circle wraps us up in Daytona mid to late September (Biketoberfest?). There are only 24, one-week "Zones" shown here, with
three FIVE floating weeks sprinkled in (look closely at the map, some circles include two weeks) puts us at
late September EARLY OCTOBER with a
27 29 week time frame. I'll work on trying to put together a loose schedule based on the dates shown on the map. The attached (loose) routing is preliminary, and it is NOT my intent here to skip anybody. I would hope we could touch all 48 and Canada, leaving it to the regional coordinators/local riders to hammer out the final routing to make it happen. The red circles are merely for reference and the routing could vary greatly to accomodate each region/rider locations as necessary.
Any constructive input is welcome, I offer this up for discussion mainly due to a lack of any other detailed suggestions. We can use one of our 2011 backup batons for the 2012 ride, and I
can WILL SOON have it delivered
anywhere we decide to kick this off from TO GEMINIMOTORS IN SAN FRANSISCO. I've got a pair of backup log books ready to go too. The attached pdf map was whipped up using MS Streets, so if anyone can use that format to try their hand at alternate proposals please feel free to contact me for the ".est" file since that file format is not listed as one of the permitted file type attachments.
I merely offer this as a very rough draft. Sure would be great to do this again, I have decided to give it my best shot to serve as overall coordinator. Jerry had so much fun last year that he didn't think he would survive even more fun
. I am willing to accept as much help and constructive criticism as much as I get.
I'll bet we can do this...
I would propose using the already established Team threads for regional coordinating between riders, although this alternate routing (with the West Coast kickoff) kind of splinters some of them (my own Team Southeast Coastal being one).
I will also start, and maintain, a rider list since the one Jerry did for last year worked so well. Riders can continue to sign up in the thread that was started for just that purpose, but I would encourage willing participants to PM me to help insure their inclusion on the master list. I am working with Jerry and Glenn to get our topics a little better organized for the 2012 Relay. I have locked this thread and will get it pinned so it can be found for quick reference. Feel free to continue to comment and kick ideas around in the sister thread:
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=96790.0 Feel free to contact me, especially those that would be willing to serve as regional coordinators so I can get you listed as such.
Ride on.
Click on the picture for a larger image...
