Alright, so the local rock station had a promotion with the local scooter place. People on the station’s email list could enter to become a finalist to compete in a race (on a manual scooter) on a 500-inch (that’s 41.67 feet) course. The fastest time of the ten finalists gets a West Coast Mini-chopper.
And I’m a finalist.
So forgive me if I’m not my general post-happy self–I’m going to be training hardcore for this one. (Mainly because the scooter has to be better on gas than my car, which to me is drop-dead secksay. The mileage, not necessarily the chopper.) The race is Thursday. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
By manual scooter do you mean like a Razor scooter? If it is one of those, those things are small. The riding platform is smaller than my foot. If it is that kind of scooter you race on t would probably be quicker to just pick it up and run but I bet that’s again’t the rules. Anyway, I wish you gook luck and hope you win!
WARNING The following is excessively lawyerish, and probably is not graciously professional. Alas, this is a civilian contest, where it’s eat or be eaten.
Yes, it’s a Razor-y scooter afaik. I am yet to see any rule that prohibits that. However, I’m not really sure about that. See, if I’m running with the scooter, then I lose free work. When I’m going with the scooter in a straight (or semi-straight) line, I have one foot causing friction with the track momentarily, then I coast on something with a far lower coefficient of friction with the asphalt (here, free-rotating scooter wheel on asphalt) than my left shoe. So I think that by actually scooting, I could probably save energy in movement, letting me exert less of a force for the same time…letting me use any remaining oomph in my leg to go faster.
Lemme ask if anyone knows this–if I train for my 41.67 feet uphill, would I be training my leg to exert more force over a flat 41.67 feet, or to exert that same level of force over a longer distance?
Bill, good luck with this adventure. I’m not sure of the answer to this one (Physics was never my strong point) but I do know that when I practiced for my bicycle road racing days, I had great luck practicing on hills and I also practiced on a mountain bike which had more resistance, from the tires and also the weight.
When I had the course down on a mountain bike, I hopped on a road bike and it was awesome. I had less resistance to work against, so it seemed easier to navigate the course with, hence I went faster with less effort. (Always a good thing)
My advice to you: If you are indeed using razor scooters for the race, then practice with a heavier scooter with pneumatic tires and also practice on an uphill course. Don’t forget to practice on a razor type scooter as well though, just so you can get the feel of that. 
GoOd LuCk!
Alright, I did a hot lap of the block on my scooter…it couldn’t have been more than four or five minutes, with the block being a massive downhill section followed by a massive uphill section.
I then promptly took a sip from my FIRST water bottle (hey, volunteering has its benefits), then crashed on the couch for a catnap.
Good thing it’s only 41.67 feet, eh?
More force, if I remember correctly. using the equation F=mg(sin(angle)), and since your weight (mg) is constant, the sin(angle) changes force.
sin(0) = 0
sin(30) = 0.5
sin(45) = 0.707
sin(60) = 0.866
sin(90) = 1 (don’t think you’ll be going vertical)
Therefore, the greater the angle, the more force you exert.
This should be right, gotta love Physics!
Well, I’m back.
My time was 9.9X seconds, good for fourth place. Unfortunately, it was the top three that got to go again for the chopper.
But I did get a Rock 93.5 shirt, some pizza, and a drink. And I found out that they don’t have an official robot. This could be interesting.