Section Markers

[ishy]

I have been trying to come up with a simple cost effective, reusable way of marking section and course.

The material is corrugated plastic sign sheet and two foot ceiling hanging wire, price per sheet of plastic

Is $16 for an 8ft x 4ft sheet and the wires are $9 per 100 bundle, cost in material per marker is app 20 cents each.

Sheets and colors can be changed, I used what I had around.

Which would you choose of the samples posted ?.

Sample one delta with stick on class labels.

Edited April 16, 2009 by ishy

[ishy]

Sample two, color code each class.

We have five classes in our club, the sheets can be bought in the colors shown so it would be very easy make them this way.

[ishy]

Sample three, 4" x 4" square with stick on arrow and class labels.

sample four course marker

start and end cards would have a stick on label like the course marker.

[ishy]

The wires slide down the holes in the center of the sheet material, and can be stuck in the ground like flags, or on tight rock splits I drill a 3/16 hole with a cordless drill and masonry bit and stick the wire in the hole, then snip a peice of the same type wire a inch long and tap it down the side of the hole, the wires will not move or come out, you have to snip them off at the base to get them out.

[ishy]

The NATC color code starting with hardest class, is! Black, Red, Blue, White, it would make sense to keep that order then yellow and green for Intermediate and novice.

The markers do staple to trees well if you just staple the leg of the wire you can slide them out after without any dammage to the marker or wire.

[pete_scorpa3]

Sample two, color code each class.

We have five classes in our club, the sheets can be bought in the colors shown so it would be very easy make them this way.

Ingenious, I like it!

I've been campaigning for a standard marking system, I think the idea of pairs of coloured arrows for each route is marvelous.

[jimmyl]

Standard systems have to be good but can you really mark a trial with 5 classes and make everybody happy.

Well impressed if that can be done without making easy course almost main road and harder route very tight and trick.

Does a traditional venue and trial cope with this a mount of variation in skill levels

[ishy]

Just got done making the in and out cards so I'll post them too.

For club events we do have a wide range of rider ability and can get them all with their own line in one section,

For the event's like I'm making the cards for, we run two lines seperate sections in the morning and three lines per section in the afternoon, sound's complicated but it does work and we can draw observers from am riders to observe the pm and same the other way round.

I think I rode more stream sections with natural boundries and a few marker flags up each side over there.

Over here we mark the boundries with ribbon, and have more open sections with more options for lines, I think it shows a bit when you see the top US riders riding big steps easy, then struggle on the nadgery stuff.

The markers we use in the past have always been printed on card, makes marking the sections a week or two before hand a pain if the weather turns bad, the best card we use costs 20 cents per card, and if it lasts the event in one peice, it then goes in the **** can, I think we can use waterproof material and reuse them, makes marking out an event a week or two before hand easier and the should end up being cheaper in the long run.

If I can get some interest, I could make some boxes up, to mark 10 section club event, 10 start end cards, 100 course arrows, 100 class splits, and 250 wires for a reasonable price

Once folk got the idea they would make their own.

It's not fun getting five when a marker has fallen off because it's knackered, or you bump one end of a log and the marker falls off the other, or you can't read the bloody thing.

It should be easy in the UK, hard course, easy course and fifty fifty, what you can do with the splits though, is just give riders part of the section that is better suited to their ability.

Ay wen I wer a lad, every bugger rode same section same way, it wer no problem tha nos, now buggers is soo soft they af'T have their own line.

Edited April 16, 2009 by ishy

[copemech]

I rather like the small arrows you have, the only problem would be for the colorblind riders possibly, which would require a number to go with the color, easily done. They could be just a bit thicker, not longer. Single (special )lines may be hard to spot.

The wire can be difficult when drilling holes in rocks and such, very labor intensive, add possible damage to the rocks from water/ ice entry.

We have even more classes here, yet the easiest way we have found for classes such as SR Exp.(who would ride the harder of the Int. lines and the easier of the Exp. lines, about 50/50) these are marked on the entry signs as SR=E or SR=I.

That signboard does seem pretty durable, as a matter of fact is seems Ray Peters had made a bit of a single bike enclosed trailer out of it which resembled the front of the Stealth fighter, to pull behind his Mitsu at high speeds! Should have taken a piccie!

[gizza5]

ishy - you have ben watching too much ''Blue Peter''!! Bet you have got a Thunderbirds ''Tracey Island'' tucked away in the ishy manor??

[pete_scorpa3]

Ay wen I wer a lad, every bugger rode same section same way, it wer no problem tha nos, now buggers is soo soft they af'T have their own line.

Thas raat tha nos. Them mad TT road racers av it eeesy too, they don't even af't open t gate these days! Soft ahh calls it

[ishy]

I rather like the small arrows you have, the only problem would be for the colorblind riders possibly, which would require a number to go with the color,

If they are color coded with the hardest class at the top, then next and so on, even if you can't tell the color the arrow will always be in the same location on the sign.

The idea of every class and the direction they should take on every split marker, came about because some would argue, because the class they were riding was not stated on the sign, they read it as they could go ether way at that marker because there was no reference to their class.

To me if it says champ expert to the left, then they go that way, and all others go to the right, I think this all comes down to riders going the wrong side of a marker, and then pizzing and moaning to try and con their way out of a five.

There are more choices of classes now than there has ever been in the sport, our club has five and an average turnout / event of about 30 riders, all you have to do in most classes is tour round and you get a plastic pig.

At club level I think a hard line an easy line and a fifty fifty is more than enough, if I tried make it law, you would sure see the toys flying., but the fact is!! Even with all the choices, the numbers are less than when there was no choice.

[dfwilson]

I have been trying to come up with a simple cost effective, reusable way of marking section and course.

The material is corrugated plastic sign sheet and two foot ceiling hanging wire, price per sheet of plastic

Is $16 for an 8ft x 4ft sheet and the wires are $9 per 100 bundle, cost in material per marker is app 20 cents each.

Sheets and colors can be changed, I used what I had around.

Which would you choose of the samples posted ?.

Sample one delta with stick on class labels.

Ishy,

That looks like a great idea, but what is that granular brown stuff the wires are sticking in? Seems to me most of our sections are on solid rock. We use Tough as Nails adhesive to bond the markers to the rock. We do try to match the colour of the rock so it is not too obvious when the marker is removed.

Cheers

DFW

[ishy]

Reet it's 8:35 am my time I'll go stick one in a rock and take a picture, tough bunch of critics you lot, I did thousands in rock for the world round, even all the ribbon boundries were done this way.

[ishy]

It took a lot longer to upload the picture than put the marker in the rock, about 2 minutes at most to put the marker in.

The point is!! it's simple, easy to understand and if enough clubs got on the boat, these could be made in a lot better plastic near on indistructable and therefore have a long life for pennies each.

I held the rock up, once they are in, they are stronger than any other marker I have seen, to remove snip the wire flush with the rock.

Edited April 17, 2009 by ishy