Course Setting Equipment & Canned Courses

[Pat Chewning]

How to set the 2nd of two parallel courses:

Set up the Right-hand (Red) course.

Duplicating this course on the Left (White) will take at least 4 people. (2 measuring teams of 2 people each)

Decide how far apart the courses will be. 4m works usually. Depends on the width of the road. Use a tape measure or a string to set a 4m measuring tool. You will be using this over and over again to set cones at 4m apart. Two people will operate this 4m measuring tool.

Now, starting at Cone1 of the Red course, mark the position of Cone1 on the White course. Use the 4m measuring tool, and use whatever best method you have to make sure that the 1st White cone is squarely across the road from the 1st Red cone. You might, for example, triagulate this from a centerline reflector, or some other road landmark.

Prepare another team of 2 people to operate the "downhill" measuring tool (tape measure or string).

For each White cone N, from 2 to Final-Cone, repeat this process:
Measure the distance from Red Cone N-1 to Red Cone N. Set your "downhill" measuring tape to this distance.
Swing an arc from White Cone N-1 using the "downhill" measuring tape.
Swing an arc from Red Cone N using the 4m measuring tape.
At the intersection of the two arcs, place White cone "N"
Repeat until done.

For example, to set the 5th White cone: Measure from the 4th Red cone to the 5th Red cone. Say this is 2.2m Swing a 2.2m arc from the 4th White cone. Swing a 4m arc from the 5th Red cone. The intersection of the arcs is the location of the 5th White cone.

[John Gilmour]

Anyone have a photo of that?

[Rick Stanziale]

Gary Fluitt had a course setting tool that looked indispensable.

4 small diameter pvc pipes connected so that a sliding rectangle could be maintained, allowing each lane to be marked simultaneously and accurately (unlike my spelling).

[Leonardo Ojeda]

Gareth, whats the ideal surface (hill or flat) for the canned course u have on the excel sheet?

leo

_________________
love to ride, ride to live, live to love

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: leonardo ojeda on 2002-10-18 16:26 ]</font>

[Adam Trahan]

course measuring devices

I have investigated many devices for measuring (steel tape, etc) and this is what I think will work best given the inexpensive price.

Take a look at the web site...

There are others in the product line that may fit your application better.

[Leonardo Ojeda]

I didnt understand the sheet, why there are several cones that repeat the way it get passed i.e cones 2 & 3, 7&8, 42, 43 &44 are passed by L, shouldnt this be, L,R,L,R,L and so on

can someone explain this to me pls??

leo

_________________
love to ride, ride to live, live to love

[Gareth Roe]

Adam-
We have several "Canned Courses" that we regularly run here in Seattle. We built a simple spreadsheet that places the cones on a grid (x/y axis) and then graphs it out for reference.

It is nice because we can replicate the course on any hill we choose - the only variables being the new surface and pitch.

Here is a link to one of our regular courses that has been set-up on an Excel Spreadsheet. Nice format that is easily manipulated to record any course that you can dream up.

http://www.roeslalom.com/SampleTight.xls

Have fun with it!
Gareth

[Adam Trahan]

I have recently purchased a "measuring wheel" device. It is a rubber wheel with a distance indicator on a extendable handle. With the measuring wheel, a chalk line, a piece of chalk and a large protractor, I should be able to set my own courses and canned courses AND record them for further use.

In the next few days I will post a couple of images here of the equipment that I use to set my courses. It's all part of my slalom quiver, just as important as the board.

I would like to see any "course plans" or "canned courses" to try to replicate them myself. It would be nice to have a standard other than a simple straight course ala "cyber slalom" as I have seen elsewhere to reference times.

Anyway, do you have any further thoughts on this subject?

Thanks in advance.