Antarctic challenge... White Ice Cycle

[[XAP]Bob]

http://www.whiteicecycle.com/

Given that temperatures of -96 C have just been recorded in East Antartica... At what point to spokes become brittle and fail?

[hercule]

I was struck by the fact that the trike was reported to cost £20,000. I had to ask… how? Given that most of the parts seem to be made from standard fat bike components, the main custom element seems to be the frame. Allowing for top spec components, can that really be in the order of £15,000 given that it's most likely made from conventional materials?

[[XAP]Bob]

I was struck by the fact that the trike was reported to cost £20,000. I had to ask… how? Given that most of the parts seem to be made from standard fat bike components, the main custom element seems to be the frame. Allowing for top spec components, can that really be in the order of £15,000 given that it's most likely made from conventional materials?

It'll be ~£2k for the main components - then design and testing work.

In the same way that the first ever tablet of a new medication could be said to be to have cost billions, and the rest a few pence each.

Except in this case it is actually a one off, so all the R&D and fabrication work must be accounted for.

[Redvee]

From the boys in Tregoniggie Industrial Estate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8KiXxgEMQ&

What's the price of a kidney/liver/lung on the open market?

[Geriatrix]

Cool!
ICE living up to their acronym.

[[XAP]Bob]

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=82287

[notme2]

She's underway and doing well!

[Geriatrix]

I was struck by the fact that the trike was reported to cost £20,000. I had to ask… how? Given that most of the parts seem to be made from standard fat bike components, the main custom element seems to be the frame. Allowing for top spec components, can that really be in the order of £15,000 given that it's most likely made from conventional materials?

I suspect that most of the cost is in R&D. I'm surprised that it only cost £20 000. Materials behave differently when you get to the temperatures she will experience and that all needs to be tested.

Something else to consider. How do you do mundane maintenance tasks like change a tyre or do something fiddly like repair a chain when you can't remove gloves for risk of frostbite. There are components that I bet aren't standard.

[irc]

Going to be busy. Two others are trying to be first to cycle from the edge of the continent to the South Pole.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24728869

She is 3 days from the coast.

http://www.whiteicecycle.com/blog/

Anyone understand Spanish?

https://twitter.com/Juan_M_Granados

[Geriatrix]

Going to be busy. Two others are trying to be first to cycle from the edge of the continent to the South Pole.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24728869

Last I heard was that she was leading and going well, despite starting last.

[Neilo]

Is this going to be the ultimate recumbent versus upright comparison?

Neil

[[XAP]Bob]

She's had to dump some kit to make a cut off...

Tough decisions

[Geriatrix]

No recent tweets. I hope she's still on track.

[[XAP]Bob]

No recent tweets. I hope she's still on track.

Yellow brick suggests she'd below 87 degrees at the moment - travelling at <1mph
http://yb.tl/Simple/whiteice

(this morning she was at 85 degrees something, so making progress)

Google simply doesn't bother with mapping down there

Be nice if they offered polar projections for the poles...

[[XAP]Bob]

Going to be busy. Two others are trying to be first to cycle from the edge of the continent to the South Pole.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24728869

She is 3 days from the coast.

http://www.whiteicecycle.com/blog/

Anyone understand Spanish?

https://twitter.com/Juan_M_Granados

http://road.cc/content/news/103614-brit ... south-pole

3 days after setting off she was already ahead of them both - despite them both having started days earlier. Hmm - Other than the kit drop I'm pretty optimistic for her. Looking forward to the documentary on the 20th Jan