Thursday, November 30, 2006

Gear Test Well after reading that Chris was going to test out his sleeping gear last night. I too decided to brave the cold. I plopped down my Thermarest Prolite 4 sleeping pad and Northface Tundra -20 sleeping bag on the deck and climbed in for a good nights sleep. I just wore minimal clothing. A long sleeve midweight polypro top, a pair of sweatpants (real quality technical wear), a pair of expedition weight Smartwool socks and a Patagonia beanie. The temperature only made it down to 4 degrees F, so I was plenty warm. I slept until 3:30am when I got up to go to the bathroom. After going inside I decided that I had enough for one night and layed down in my cozy bed. Overall a good way to start off the winter gear testing. Now I need to get out and test it in real world conditions. Rick and I are still planning on going up to the Arrowhead Trail the 3rd weekend in December. That should be a better test under "race conditions". If anyone else wants to come along that weekend I think we'll have room. How about it pw? That's all for today. Later.

6 comments:

gjc said...

Dave, you are my hero. It's been a long time since I've heard of anyone sleeping on their deck in below freezing weather--just to test some equipment. Passed out from one too many martinis, sure, I see that all the time, but equipment testing, never.

I Dig It!

gjc said...

unfortunately, sleeping on the deck does not count towards Winter Challenge Ride points.

Chris said...

Glad to see I converted someone else to backyard gear testing :) I did still say good night to my wife via walkie talkie.

Simmons said...

Gary - I wouldn't expect to get points for testing equipment. It sure would help me get out of last place though :) I need to start riding. I'm starting to look like Santa.

Chris - Thanks for the inspiration. I definitely will be doing more. I like the idea of walkie talkies. What kind do you use?

gjc said...

well, if you thrash around a lot in your sleep, maybe we could give you a few points. And of course, you could get social points if you convinced someone to share the sleeping bag, which might induce more thrashing around and even more points.

hmmmm. I'll have to get a judge's ruling on whether outdoor sex should count.

Chris said...

I use some old Motorola FRS radios. Simple cheap and effective. Unfortunately there is no coaxing the wife into the sleeping bag at -4. Must come in the house for any sort of thrashing around :)