Thursday Poll: for love or buggy

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 4 Comments on Thursday Poll: for love or buggy

We probably should have run this one about a month ago to be timely, but this topic came up in the forums, and I’m in no position to turn down a decent poll idea at this point.

The topic this week is “buggy vs. relationships” or “relationships via buggy” depending on your perspective.  Out in the real world, if you say you’re regularly hanging out with someone before the sun rises, it would be fair to assume you’ve got something cooking.   At CMU, it’s probably safer to assume that your extracurricular activity of choice is buggy.  Whether it’s the hours you spent with people at buggy, or the hours you gave up when other people were making their moves, it seems that buggy and romance do not operate independently.  How did it work out for you? (or how is it working out currently?)

Click through to vote in the poll and see results … Continue reading →

Timing system in hand and working

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 7 Comments on Timing system in hand and working

About a month ago, we announced that Sweepstakes and the Buggy Alumni Association had teamed up to select and fund a new and improved timing system for buggy.  We are renting the system for an extended period this year so that we have time to thoroughly test it in the buggy context and make sure that it is better than the old system.

The system arrived over spring break, and yesterday evening, we learned how to assemble the hardware and operate the software.  The results were an excellent start. Both the hardware and software have a definite learning curve, but in a couple of hours we had the whole system unpacked, set up, and recording timed photo-finishes. The picture at right shows my dog Ruby edging BAA president Carsen Kline at the finish by 0.28 seconds after a 43 second race around the back yard. The quality of the images will improve in our real implementation as we learn which lens is most appropriate, and do things when it’s not getting dark out.

We are planning on doing our next test (this time with real buggy finishes) at freerolls on the weekend of March 27th and 28th. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed financially to the Buggy Alumni Association in our first 18 months. Being able to materially improve the buggy experience for both current students and alumni is really exciting.

Rolls Report – First rolls of 2010

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 10 Comments on Rolls Report – First rolls of 2010

I was starting to think it would never happen, and even Sunday morning I don’t think the teams were sure it was really going to happen, but rolls have started for the semester.  It only took 6 weeks from Sweepstakes’ ambitious first shot at rolls, but buggy has overcome one of Pittsburgh’s snowiest winters ever.  Only four orgs made it out due to it being the second weekend of spring break, but it was all of the expected hardcore teams, SDC, PiKA, Fringe, and AEPi.  Wait, AEPi?  Yep, they’re one of the hardcore teams as of now.
In Attendance
Org Buggies
AEPi Zephyrus Kamikaze
Fringe Bedlam, Banyan, Blizzard
PiKA Chimera, Knightfall
SDC Avarice, Envy

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Thursday Poll: Buggy names good enough to use twice

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 20 Comments on Thursday Poll: Buggy names good enough to use twice

DTD and PiKA's Clyclone

The kids are on spring break this week, and it’s been breaking 60 degrees here in Pittsburgh all of a sudden. With warm weather finally on the scene, we’re close to rolls, and with rolls, we’re close to new buggies. Back in my day as a head mechanic, building buggies was challenging, but finding a good name for them was next to impossible. It’s tough to sum up all those efforts and all those ambitions. It’s easy to end up with something that is so random that it doesn’t mean anything to anyone. Maybe even worse though are names that are so obvious that they’ve already been used. Are there some names that are good enough to use more than once?
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“Thursday” Poll: Which hill holds the glory?

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 8 Comments on “Thursday” Poll: Which hill holds the glory?


First, let me apologize for letting the regulars down on the Thursday poll this week, and thank you for letting me know that you noticed.  You’d be surprised how quickly Thursdays come around when it comes to dreaming up poll questions.  In exchange for your patience, I have generated a neat graph.

This one goes out to the pushers.  There’s no doubt you need all 5 to get this race done, but depending on who you ask, not all hills are created equal.  Which hill do you think really captures the spirit of our crazy sport?  Which hill is the key to victory?  Which hill can you screw up on enough to sink your whole team?  For which hill is it the hardest to find the perfect athlete?  Wrap all of those together and pick the hill that you think best represents the glory of a buggy race.

Click through to vote and see the results 
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Matt Wagner talk @ 7pm today

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 3 Comments on Matt Wagner talk @ 7pm today

Quantum Leap
“Everything I Know About Innovation I Learned from Buggy”

by Matt Wagner
CIT & Spirit ’87
a founder of Spirit Buggy, builder of Quantum Leap – the 20 year record holder

7:00pm March 1st (Today!)
Adamson Wing, 136A Baker Hall

official lecture series announcement here for more info

Matt has given earlier versions of this talk before raceday the last couple of years, but it is a busy time for most buggy folks, so now is a great chance to see it.  The talk is really interesting from a buggy history perspective, but he also has a lot to say about buggy from a real world perspective.  Next time your parents ask you how all of this buggy nonsense is going to help you get a job, you’ll have answers!  No buggy has held a longer reign over the sport, and no team has risen as quickly as Spirit did.  Hear how it happened from the man that was at the center of both accomplishments.

Thursday Poll: Photo finish?

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 1 Comment on Thursday Poll: Photo finish?

Now that we’ve announced the plans for an entirely upgraded timing system at raceday 2010, it’s time to take bets on how close the race is going to be this year.  Will our high-tech digital photo finish equipment come in handy to measure the fine line between 1st and 2nd, or will it be so much of a blowout that we could time this thing with an hourglass?

For some perspective, the recent margins of victory in the men’s races:

  • 3.95 sec SDC over Fringe
  • 0.15 sec PiKA over SDC
  • 3.21 sec PiKA over Fringe
  • 2.49 sec PiKA over PiKA B
  • 2.30 sec PiKA over Fringe
  • 1.65 sec PiKA B over Spirit
  • 1.28 sec PiKA over Fringe
  • 0.25 sec PiKA over Fringe
  • 0.83 sec Fringe over PiKA
  • 4.24 sec PiKA over Fringe

Continue reading →

Raceday timing system upgrade

Posted on | by Sam Swift

One of the BAA’s biggest goals this year was to use our human and financial resources to improve on the timing system we use in buggy.  After all the work that teams put into buggy, there is nothing more important than accurately and reliably recording their time (ok, safety is always more important … blah blah blah).  We’re running a race against the clock here, we’ve gotta be able to trust the clock.

Last year, the company sweepstakes has paid to do the timing for 20 years showed up to raceday short on staff so the BAA helped out and filled in.  What we got was a close look at the system in use and a big list of things we’d like to see improved.

What we are improving on

Technology weaknesses

  • Starter gun failures : as we’ve all witnessed, the starter gun has a failure rate of 2 -5 times per year.  This results in confusion and inequitable starting conditions for the teams that are affected.
  • Starter gun – timer synchronization : the current system relies on someone pressing “start” on a timer box when the gun goes off.  This introduces unnecessary human error on one end of the timed period.
  • Finish signal failures : the system buggy has relied on for the past 10+ years uses an RF transponder in each buggy and a wire loop (in a mat on the road) that detects those transponders when they pass by.   If a buggy crosses the line and no signal is detected, there is no recourse other than using the manual stopwatch backup times.  Some buggies are more prone to missed signals than others depending on material choice and thickness and transponder location.  Nobody deserves to have their time missed.
  • Transponders are inconvenient : Sweepstakes has to orchestrate the distribution to every team.  Teams have to find a place to secure it that doesn’t interfere with the driver or the steering.  Raceday is no time to add parts to a buggy.
  • Inaccuracy of the crowd-facing clock : the big black and yellow clock is manually matched to the official time as it is running, usually a minute or so into each heat.  This means that the time people see when the buggy crosses the line is highly unofficial, and has been off by large margins in the past.
  • Delay in reporting official times : because it is somewhat time consuming to recall official times from the current system, the times posted on the leader board are usually the backup manual stopwatch times.  In very close races, this could result in a reversal of rankings once the official times are known.

Personnel weaknesses

  • Rotating staff : because the company previously contracted often has other races on the same weekend, the same timers are not always available for prelims and finals.  This discontinuity introduces opportunities for error when it matters most, on finals.
  • False start enforcement : outside timing professionals have not in our experience been sufficiently knowledgeable about the rules and procedures of a buggy race start.  Because none of the sweepstakes committee is in the immediate vicinity of the start line, the starter must be able to manage false start and restart situations in accordance with the rules.

The new solution

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Thursday Poll: How crazy is crazy?

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 8 Comments on Thursday Poll: How crazy is crazy?

With the snow we’ve been getting almost every day here in the ‘burgh it seems like we might be getting further from rolls rather than closer, so maybe I’ll stop talking about it.  Hope everyone is enjoying the polls in the mean time.

This week’s topic is a nod to the furious activity presumably going on in a few of the garages around campus over the last couple of months: new buggy builds.  All builds are great for us observers because it us something new to talk about and adds another buggy name to our already strained memories, but some take it to the next level.  I’m not talking fastest-buggy-on-the-course though, I’m talking, “What the #$(*% did they do there?!”  Those buggy designs that turn heads when they hit the course, and then gather a crowd at design comp are the ones we’re honoring here.  I’m sure I’m missing some stellar contenders, but to make this list, the criteria were:

  • Built in the last 10 yearsish
  • Featuring one specific visible design element worth talking about
  • the key feature wasn’t just a badly done implementation of something normal, but a really wacky concept.

And the contenders are: Continue reading →

Thursday Poll: What to focus on?

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Thursday Poll: What to focus on?

When I committed to a weekly poll last week, I thought there would be some other news in the course of a week, but with all this snow, CMU can’t even get classes to happen, let alone freerolls.  So, given that Phil saw his shadow and the course is 2 feet deep in the white stuff, we can abandon the short lived dream of early Feb rolls, and focus on the topic of prep work.

Just because there aren’t rolls doesn’t mean that teams are sitting around idly waiting for raceday to get here.  If you knew your favorite team would listen to you (don’t kid yourself alumni), what would you tell them to focus on in the 64 days they’ve got left?

Click through to vote in the poll or see the results

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