Raceday is sneaking up, how are you getting ready?

Posted on | by Sam Swift

After two weeks off for spring break, we find ourselves right in the heat of things with just 4 weeks to go.  Push practice started this week and has enjoyed absurdly comfortable March temperatures.  Rolls are scheduled for all 8 remaining days before raceday, so lets hope the good weather continues unabated.  So that’s how our 10 (hopefully 11, SAE?) orgs are preparing, what are you doing to get in shape?  Nothing yet?  Don’t worry, we’ve got some ideas for you:

Pre-Order the second-ever BAA T-shirt

We’re making T-shirts for the first time since 2008, and I think you’re going to want one. They will be available at carnival and we got a great deal which we’re passing on to you:

  • $10 for members
  • $15 for non-members
Pre-ordering will ensure that we have your size saved for you when you show up to carnival.  Payment will be collected when the shirt is picked up.  We have both Men’s and Women’s shirt types.  Pre-order now by filling out this super quick form

Pre-season updates and build status guesses

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 49 Comments on Pre-season updates and build status guesses

Assuming there’s no blizzard (none on the horizon), enough teams get capes done (they are scheduling now), and the weather stays mild (current forecast: partly cloudy and low 30’s), we could be 5 days from starting another season of spring freerolls!

To set the mood, I’ve included a slightly obfuscated picture from exactly 8 years ago today, during my last build, Blackjack.

Here’s what’s going on the last days of the off-season …

Apex absorbs Pioneers

The newest of the new upstart teams has been working the buggy social network as much as any group of freshmen with no buggy experience could hope to do and it’s recently paid off to some degree.  Apex [a group which started as some enthusiastic residents of The Residence on 5th (hence the original team name, “Rez Buggy”)] is taking over Pioneers’ assets and becoming a legit independent.  I can’t imagine that taking over where Pioneers left off was a huge head start, but it’s certainly better than working out of your dorm room.  They’ve got the ancient and decrepit Camo to start off with which is a tough start compared to DeltaForce’s experience with PiRho Perun, but what doesn’t kill them (and it won’t) will make them stronger.  Follow along @apexbuggy and offer some support and tips.

PiKA is officially allowed to participate

I don’t think I knew this was up in the air, but apparently it was just recently officially determined that PiKA would be allowed to roll this spring.  That’s great to hear.  I am very curious to see what size operation they attempt to operate from their dispersed, off-campus setup.  I see a Carson Palmer parallel.  Performing well the last couple of years, but not quite to their glory-day standards, forced to sit out the first half of the season and kind of pissed about it, but not without the fire to get back into it.  Then getting the chance to be back in and forcing some critics to admit they’ve still got it, but in the end, it takes time to adapt to the new scene and you finish .500.  Except, I bet they’ll even do better than finish .500.

Build Forecasts

I attempted this medium-difficulty prediction task back in 2009 and it was a fun exercise to get my head back in the game, so let’s try it again. Continue reading →

BAA Member Perk: Carnival Hotel Deal

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 1 Comment on BAA Member Perk: Carnival Hotel Deal

UPDATE:  All reservations must be made by Friday March 23rd.

Now you can’t say we never did anything nice for ya.

After weeks of late-night, never-back-down, tooth-and-nail negotiation sessions, the Buggy Alumni Association is proud to announce the first ever members-only hotel discount.  That’s right, we’ve secured a limited number of rooms at the luxurious Hampton Inn during the peak-demand days around carnival at a below-market rate.

The details:

  • Hampton Inn – University Center @ 3315 Hamlet St. (just off of Blvd of the Allies, 1 mile from the Chute)
  • Stay any or all of the nights between 4/18 (Wed) and  including 4/21 (Sat)
  • Pay just $129 + taxes per night while those suckers who don’t love buggy enough to support the BAA will be paying $179 + taxes
  • Reservations must be made by 3/19 or before the limited supply is exhausted
  • Amenities include, but may not be limited to: Free hot breakfast buffet, free shuttle service within 3 miles, free wireless internet, and free company of other enthusiastic buggy alumni in “carnival mode”

How do you get in on this? Continue reading →

Remember buggy? It’s coming …

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 3 Comments on Remember buggy? It’s coming …


Classes are back in session, the (so far, mild) winter is moving right along, teams are presumably hard at work in their garages getting into the meat of their 2012 builds.  For alumni who aren’t taking classes, mostly stay inside, and don’t get to build buggies anymore this can be a bit of a slow time.  Once it gets going though, it all happens real fast, so we’re doing a bit of thinking ahead now.

For starters, the rolls schedule for this semester has been updated and can now be perused on the front page.  The first weekend of rolls is tentatively Feb. 4th and 5th which is just under 3 weeks away.  This of course is always at the mercy of the Pittsburgh weather; recent actual first days of rolls have been later:

Here at the BAA headquarters, we’re shaking off the off-season rust and setting up for what we want to do this spring.  We’ll be posting more details on each of these, but to just to set the stage …
  • Sponsorships for Jumbotrons — Those 15′ screens don’t come cheap, and our lead-truck auction raises just a piece of the funds needed.  Surely our network of alumni know companies that might want to have an ad next to the screen, right?
  • Timing system — For the past two years we’ve supported Sweepstakes’ upgrade to digital photofinish timing on raceday, first with cash then with manpower and know-how.  We need to consider whether we can help improve the system further and make sure we’re spreading and documenting the knowledge of how to operate it.
  • Succession plan — The BAA committee is likely to see some turnover soon so we need to be looking to recruit new talent and get a workable policy in place for leadership changes and division of labor.
  • Website improvements — This is always on my list.  I’ve got some things in the works.  Anyone else is free to help or point out bugs.
  • Now is the time to suggest things that the BAA could or should be doing to make buggy bigger and better, do it!
As if all of that wasn’t enough for the first post of 2o12, AEPi alum and BAA member Bryan Arsham just posted a couple of buggy-themed covers that ought to keep  you in the buggy spirit through the long dark nights until rolls start.  Without further ado … Continue reading →

Apex Buggy gets some funding, looking for advice

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 31 Comments on Apex Buggy gets some funding, looking for advice

We’ve mentioned the guys from Apex Buggy a couple of times in the rolls reports.  They are a group of mostly freshmen, mostly living in a new dorm called “The Residence on 5th” or “The Rez” for short.  Despite being on campus for only a few months, they’ve done an impressive amount of work towards starting a team including soliciting design and build advice from anyone that will talk, and doggedly seeking funding from private donations, and the various official channels.  They are also the organization that recently inspired us to once again consider making seed grants to new orgs (see the New Org Grants thread in our project zone), a discussion we haven’t yet concluded.

Anyhow, they’ve secured enough funding to get going and they’re currently planning their first build for the winter months.  Now’s our chance to help out.  Apex front-man Connor e-mailed me asking some specific questions, but I’d like to use the opportunity to generally improve our informational resources for new teams. If you’re reading this, you know a thing or two that could help a new team.  Take a moment and either:

  • Edit one of the Reference pages below to share generally-useful buggy info with the community
  • Email info@cmubuggy.org with tips or suggestions and we’ll do the ground work of sharing them with Apex and adding them to the Reference section
  • Email Apex’s front-man Connor directly (cmhayes@andrew.cmu.edu) if you want to get your advice straight to the customer
  • Post a comment on this post with your favorite tip or trick for building a buggy or getting to raceday with limited funds.
Specific Questions from Apex
  • “At the moment we need carbon fiber, a vacuum pump, and a vacuum bag. Those are the big 3
    things to get started.  Do you know any alumni specifically who could help us get those materials for good prices?”
  • “If there is anyone out there who wants to talk to us about carbon fiber, lay-up schedules, directional weaknesses, twill vs straight weave and all of that stuff it would be greatly appreciated.”

Reference Section pages to work on

These pages are just beginning.  Anything you can add in terms of which tools and materials are most important, good suppliers for critical materials, or cheap and clever substitutes for expensive specialty tools and materials would be super helpful!

Good luck Apex, hope to see you out in February.

Live Streaming for the last rolls of the year

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 2 Comments on Live Streaming for the last rolls of the year

Rolls on Saturday have been canceled on account of wintery temperatures, but Sunday is still on, and it’ll be the last day of rolls.

Last Sunday’s experiment with live-broadcasting rolls didn’t turn any heads at ESPN, but I’d call it reasonably successful, so we’re going to try it again.  If you don’t want to brave the TSA or the November winds to catch the last day of rolls, just tune in between 7-9am on Sunday at:

cmubuggy.org/live

I’m planning on trying a different perspective or maybe even moving around a couple of times, so comment if you have any fun ideas.  Suggestions are also welcome for conversation topics to serve as the commentary on the broadcast.

Live streaming rolls coverage Sunday 7-9am

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 7 Comments on Live streaming rolls coverage Sunday 7-9am

Earlier this week, Barsham posted an idea in the project zone suggesting that live streaming coverage of rolls would be a good project for the BAA.  Well, you say it, we do it!  We’re trying it out for the first time tomorrow (Sunday 11/13) from 7-9am.  If you’re by a computer, check it out and let us know what you think.  Please forgive any technical difficulties on our first run.

http://cmubuggy.org/live

Live streaming is currently broadcast through USTREAM.tv. Join the cmubuggy Buzz chat room if you’re watching and share your comments. Are the ads super annoying? It would cost about $500 to remove them (and broadcast in HD) for the year. Let us know if you think that would be worthwhile (or any other ideas/improvements) in the Project Zone discussion on live broadcasts.

Congratulations Jake Mohin, Fantasy Buggy Champion!

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Congratulations Jake Mohin, Fantasy Buggy Champion!

After a rainout on Céilidh weekend, this past Sunday was designated as our official fantasy buggy showdown.  41 people entered our first ever fantasy buggy game to take  their shot at the $250 “ticket to carnival” grand prize sponsored by NumberFire.com.  Fringe and CIA timers helped out to collect times that could be shared publicly so we also got some of our best data so far of the season.

Jake Mohin (SigEp mechanic, ’10) outfoxed everyone else, taking home the grand prize with a total time of 550.2.  He made the best of his inside info, picking SigEp as a backhill team while the rest of the top 5 picks had them for the freeroll.  Jake adds,

“I knew our chairman was pushing pretty hard for our guys to make a strong showing in terms of pushing so I made a gamble and left us off the free rolls list to give us the #1 Back hills.  In terms of roll number, I banked on 3rd free roll always being fastest. Pushers are usually slow on third first run from being sleepy, fast on their second push, and exhausted on their third.”

There were a number of surprises on the weekend that may have affected the results.  KapSig and SN haven’t made it back out, so we only had 7 teams.  Because it ended up happening after daylight savings time, most teams got 5 rolls, but we had restricted it to the first 3.  For what it’s worth 14 of the top 20 overall times were in rolls 1-3.  Picking the right Spirit roll was probably critical as Fuko wasn’t out, Haraka never finished a roll, and Seraph.   I was surprised to see that the winning strategy was to pick most of the fastest teams for the downhill as I thought the spread on the backhills would be larger.  I guess pushers were giving it their all across the board.

Top Fantasy Buggy Picks

Continue reading →

Fantasy Buggy ON for this weekend

Posted on | by Sam Swift

An unexpected dose of rain/snow hit Pittsburgh Saturday morning and put the kibosh on most of our fun Céilidh plans, but not all was lost.  We were still in the mix of events in the UC with our table full of info and popular “Future Buggy Pusher” shirts for the kids.  Tom Wood’s fall 2011 edition of the History of Buggy was well attended and featured the 2011 winning buggy, Bonsai next to PiKA’s T-2 from 1968.  Thanks to everyone who came out for the talk or to chat with us at the table.

We were very sorry to miss out on rolls because we had donuts and coffee ordered and quite a few folks were planning on coming out, but also because we were excited to find out who took home the $250 prize for Fantasy Buggy.  Don’t worry, we’ll get a winner no matter how many times the weather screws with us.  Here are some new details:

  • Times for Fantasy Buggy will now be taken this Sunday, Nov 6th.
  • Sunday was picked instead of Saturday because daylight savings ends Sunday morning, meaning rolls on Sunday will be 1 hour longer, starting around 7am.
  • New entries will continue to be accepted until 11:59pm this Friday, Nov 4th.
  • If you entered previously and something about the change of date/start time/weather/moon phase affects your meticulously calculated predictions (or if you’ve just changed your mind), you may submit a new entry.  Make sure you use the same name and e-mail as your original entry.  Submitting a second entry completely replaces your first entry.  No take-backs.

http://cmubuggy.org/fantasy 

Also, FYI aspiring journalists on the buggy beat, I’ll be missing rolls one last time this semester, so leave a comment or send an e-mail if you would like to help put together the rolls report and I’ll hook you up with the google doc on which you can collaborate.

Introducing Fantasy Buggy

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 7 Comments on Introducing Fantasy Buggy



numberFire is a CMU-style, stats-driven fantasy football oracle founded by buggy alum and cmubuggy.org regular Nik Bonaddio. nF is sponsoring the prize in our first ever fantasy buggy game. Check them out, the numbers are good.

Buggy is the best.  Fantasy sports are fun.  Why did we not think of this earlier?  The Buggy Alumni Association brings you for the first time ever, Fantasy Buggy.  Even better, this is for the big time.  Make better picks than anyone else, and you’ll walk away with $250, enough for a ticket to carnival (or almost enough, depending on where you live and how good you are at shopping for tickets).

You can get the full details here  http://cmubuggy.org/fantasy

The basic idea is that you are trying to pick the fastest team you can from the rolls that happen next weekend during the Céilidh festivities, Oct 29th.  To do so, you must pick 4 freerolls and 4 backhills.  The sum of those times is your score (see the detailed rules).  The tough part?  You can only make one pick from each organization.  Every entry will need to pick one element from each org on the course.  You’re rooting for everyone this homecoming!

Here are some more details on the rules, but hit up the fantasy buggy page for the full details and to make your picks.  One entry per person, so choose wisely.  All picks must be in by Friday Oct 28, 11:59pm.

Basics

  • Pick 4 freerolls and 4 back hills
  • Each pick specifies Org-Roll-Buggy-Segment (e.g. SigEp-Roll2-Barracuda-Freeroll)
  • Must make 1 and only 1 pick from each org
  • 1 entry per person

Scoring

  • Score = total of 4 freeroll times + 4 back hill times
  • Segments that don’t happen (the buggy isn’t out or doesn’t roll the specified roll) are given that org’s worst time +1 second
  • Spins or stops are given the overall worst time + 2 seconds
  • Women’s freerolls are given their time – 3 seconds
  • Women’s backhills are given their time – 6 seconds
  • Tie-breaker: closest guess on winning men’s hill 2->finish time

Get it?  If not, leave a comment and we’ll sort things out.  Tell your friends!