January 14, 2004
MnHPVA Meeting 		Meeting Report: Tim Dunsworth
Photos & HTML: Mark Stonich
Meeting Notes Below
Show-N-Tell Pages
 Click thumbnails to read details and see more and larger images.

Cold, snowy weather delayed people's arrival and cut down the crowd a bit, but we gradually accumulated in the big room of the community center and schmoozed until a meeting broke out. Since there was relatively little show-and-tell stuff, it gave people an opportunity to raise a variety of discussion points they might not have raised otherwise and it led to the meeting petering out after a while and becoming a lot of informal smaller group discussions that continued until we had to get out at nine.
Mark Stonich reported that web storage space is getting tight, so we discussed various options to deal with that problem. Our domain host doteasy.com allotted us 20 MB, which can hold about 3 years of meeting notes and miscellaneous club stuff, but not including Ice Race reports which run about 2 to3 megabites each year. Mark occasionally archives older stuff to a CD burner, but he thinks it is important to have as much stuff as possible on-line so other HPV people (from around the world, as it turns out!) can do research on our site.
Mark could increase the existing space attached to our club URL address, but that would cost $8 a month to go from 20 MB to 50 MB. Carl Gulbronson thought that with storage so cheap now we should be able to do better than that. Mark hoped that some members might have unused web space allotted to them, as part of a package deal from their internet service provider. He could put older files on such space and link to them from our main site. Chris Burbank says he could donate some space, but he only has a slow dial-up connection. Carl says he has a Linux-based server with a high speed DSL connection that would be available since he backed off on plans to start his own web store of bike goodies, but he would need some technical help to get it up and running.
Scott Richards (above) also has a server of his own, that he uses to store thousands of digital images. He offered to let us use some space on it. We accepted his kind offer, and he will get together with Mark and Carl to implement it.
The annual World Championship Human Powered Ice Races are scheduled for Saturday, January 24th, but there is still some question about which venue to use and Dave Krafft had asked Mark to get our opinions about the two apparent options. These are our traditional site in recent years at Center Lake by Lindstrom and a new site offered to us by the ice racing group at St Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights.

Lance Oberg went to the Lindstrom site recently, and reports that the ice was just being groomed for the first time then and was NOT in particularly good shape. The STA site on Rogers Lake is closer for most people and they have offered the use of indoor bathrooms and a warming facility, but we don't know much about the condition of the ice or whether they have snow removal equipment in case there is any significant snowfall between now and the 24th.

Carl needs a decision very soon if he is to arrange partial sponsorship of the races, especially since it would take completely different forms depending on the venue (a porta-potty at Lindstrom versus a big pizza or Subway order to eat after the races in the STA cafeteria). After some discussion it seemed we were all in favor of the STA site so long as Dave doesn't discover any deal-breaking flaws.

John Reese passed around a tiny Black Diamond headlamp with two white LED's and an elastic headband. It isn't bright enough for a riding headlight but is surprisingly bright for short range use (eg. fixing a flat at night) and/or for conspicuity.
Dave Siskind brought flyers for his planned new book, which will be a self-published “biker's biography” on his life, major bike trips, and observations about various items of equipment and their quality and longevity. Dave would know about parts longevity, since his lifetime total is now up to almost half a million miles if I remember correctly!! The book will be about 380 pages with lots of pictures. Contact Dave soon if you want a copy, since he will only print a few extra copies (maybe 10-12) in addition to the ones that people pre-order. Price is $40 (or $30 for club friends?), which will just cover his expenses for copying and binding at Kinko's.
Carl Gulbronson has not yet made the leap and ordered a Rotor crankset (the Spanish toy with a linkage to speed up your transit across the dead center part of a pedal stroke), since the price is quite high and opinions among our listserv members so mixed.
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