Want to be a Friend of BAFS?

[cvcalhoun]

Friends of BAFS are people who would like to participate in events, etc., but not compete as part of a team. In many instances, they are also permitted to participate in Pointless Prizes (although the rules for that are up to each sponsor of a Pointless Prize).

If you want to be a Friend of BAFS, you do not need to fill in the registration form. To be able to participate in the Freezing Saddles discussions here, you’ll need to:

1. Join this forum.
2. We recommend making at least one post in this forum, as that will ensure you have successfully registered. If you don’t have anything in particular to say, you can just introduce yourself in this thread.

If you want to appear on the list (which will appear only after team assignments) of Friends of BAFS (which will enable you to see your total points, even though you won’t appear on leaderboards, and to participate in Pointless Prizes to the extent the sponsor permits it), you’ll need to:

1. Join the BAFS 2025 Strava club.
2. Authorize Freezing Saddles to read your Strava miles.

If you do this before teams are assigned, you can check whether you did it correctly by seeing whether your name appears on this list. If you do it after teams are assigned, you can check whether you did it correctly by seeing whether your name appear on this list.

If you want to get e-mails regarding things like happy hours, you’ll need to:

1. Sign up for our mailing list.

Topic

[Steve O]

I don’t think there’s supposed to be. The whole point of being a “friend” is that you are not competing. And you can easily enough track your own miles in Strava. The idea of a “leaderboard” for friends is exactly contrary to the point. Friends are not part of the days/miles competition and are not on a team, so what’s the purpose of a leaderboard?

[LhasaCM]

Friends can participate in the Pointless Prizes, so it makes sense for their stats to be captured somewhere on the website (since that’s easier than trying to parse the incoming to treat their data separately – still care about rides with hashtags but ignore all others?  ugh).  The separate “leaderboard” also just helps provide a list of who’s a friend, I think.

[jrenaut]

The Friends leaderboard is anyone in the current year Strava group but NOT on one of the competitive teams. Since there are not competitive teams yet, EVERYONE is in the Strava group and NO ONE is on a competitive team so there is no one on the Friends leaderboard.

The purpose of the leaderboard is to make the Friends feel included – as if they are part of the fun if not the competition. Perhaps the following year, they will be so inspired by BAFS that they will join! Or they will heal from their injury or finish school or whatever kept them from competing this year will no longer be a barrier

[cvcalhoun]

@steve-o I think this is a software issue. The software is picking people up from those who have joined the overall Freezing Saddles 2024 Strava club and authorized Freezing Saddles to read their miles, then removing all those who have joined individual team Strava clubs. If we eliminated their miles, we’d have nothing for it to pick up, so no way to identify those who are Friends, so no way to allow them to compete in Pointless Prizes (or to record tagged rides so they can record their entries in Pointless Prizes). That would be particularly harsh this year, because we’ve got people who tried to be on teams but may not be able to due to the cap on participants.

[Chuck Pisula]

Hi cvcalhoun.  I signed up as a member, but checking this out for a friend in NYC.  Just wanted to alert you that the link in “Sign up for our mailing list” takes me to a 404 page.  Can you check / repost the link?

[cvcalhoun]

@chuck-pisula, that’s bizarre.  When I click on that link, I get to the correct page.  Can you let me know what URL it is sending you to?

[Chuck Pisula]

Ah, whoops, I think I referenced the wrong link. It’s the “1. Join this forum” link that didn’t work. The link for that is http://bikearlingtonforum.com/register.php – and it results in a 404 displayed

[cvcalhoun]

@chuck-pisula, thanks for the catch. That was the old link from before the forum change.  It’s fixed now.

[ALClayville]

Hello! I would like to be a friend of FS this year. 2025

[cvcalhoun]

@alclayville, to do that, you’ll need to follow the instructions in the top post of this thread.

[Joan]

I want to be a Friend of BAFS this year, too. I think I’m all set.

[consularrider]

While I’ve been an active participant in the full reindeer games every year so far, I’m willing to upgrade my participation in 2025 to be a “Friend” if there are riders who missed the 250 cut-off and really want to do this crazy sh*t.

[cvcalhoun]

@consularrider, I’d suggest using the contact form to let the people in charge of teams know.

[Boomer Cycles]

Late to the party as life got overwhelming this holiday season, so would like to participate as a #FOFS2025. I might sponsor a pointless prize and/or group rides. I might even accept an invitation as a sub for a competitive FA2025 team if called upon to fill the frozen boots of a “no show” In the interim, I’ll just tag along;-)

[Boomer Cycles]

Late to the party as life got overwhelming this holiday season, so would like to participate as a #FOFS2025. I duly followed all of the registration steps and appear on the 2025 leaderboard. I might sponsor a pointless prize and/or group rides. I might even accept an invitation as a sub for a competitive FA2025 team if called upon to fill the frozen boots of a “no show” In the interim, I’ll just tag along;-)

[Author]

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