Van

What a rip - they want $42 to "register a used transponder".

Matt Romanowski

IMHO, mylaps sucks.

J richard

If you are adding a used transponder to an existing account it's free, just hit "add transponder" unfortunately you will get the entire mylaps history of that transponder listed. I don't know if the pay registration wipes the history?

Van

Actually, my 944 had a transponder in it when I bought it... but the PO registered it on mylaps - and they want $42 to re-register it to me. It's associated with his account, so I can't just add it to my list.

Truthfully, I don't care that much.

paradisenb

What are the benefits of registration? I bought a used unit and never registered it. Don't know if the original buyer ever registered either. He only used it for 2 or 3 races. I can still find my times listed under my name. So, what would we miss by not re/registering them?

J richard

So you guys never use Mylaps to compare laps and position with your competitors? The ability to pull up your times and pick another car is pretty interesting, how else do you know what your competitors are doing during a race? Some are very consistent, others come on strong and fade, and some pick up speed and drop times as they settle in. Also the individual lap chart is pretty revealing as far as consistency and how some drivers manage race traffic while others get easily bogged. It's also a nice reference on expected lap times for a particular track. There are several times I've looked at the results of a race and resigned myself to someone being quicker on best laps, come to find out that on comparison they hit one fast one and I had the consistently similar times. Had I pressed could of beat him rather than resigning myself due to his one fast posted lap and not raced him and let him go....

winders

J Richard,

I guess I don't get the "what a rip" comment either. It doesn't seem like an unreasonable fee based on the fact that it takes some time and recording keeping changes on Mylaps end. Mylaps is running a business after all.

Scott

J richard

Scott, agree, it's nice to have all the history in one place, going on 280 events since I registered my first, and it's all there to go back and see how you've progressed. And when it comes to showing quals for licensing just give them a Mylaps link.... Worth it for me...

Congrats on your first race in the car, nicely done!

Jim

ProCoach

Scott...

MyLaps has substantially changed their business model in the last two years. Subscriptions, MUCH higher prices on transponders, registry change fees to disassociate a transponder from one owner to another. It's gone from being too reasonable to a rip-off in one fell swoop.

The other thing is that you don't get that comparative information J Richard talks about when others don't register theirs...

I'm with Van and Matt on this. I've bought a dozen transponders for many race cars and have been using the features J Richard cites for years.

You ought to deal with AMB from the track and organizer side... they really suck!

J richard

Peter,

I still get all the info on competitors, even if they rented a transponder, by sorting by event I get every transponder on the track. Maybe that due to how the race organizers do the work on their end? I ran for several years renting and then running with an unregistered transponder, wish I had simply bought one and registered it and had the history. You get up to three on your account, I have two wired and one rechargeable so it hasn't been an issue yet. Now if I had a race team.....

Van

I have data acquisition that I can use to analyze my own lap times... I have occasionally used MyLaps in the past to look at people's positions throughout the race, but haven't done that in a few years.

I feel that the transponders are expensive; I was offered poor customer support when I had a transponder fail (and had to buy a new one); and I think it's ridiculous that, after buying a whole car (with transponder installed) MyLaps wants to capitalize on that by not allowing me to register the new transponder unless I pay another $42.

My time is better spent putting my last $300 transponder into this car.

winders

My guess is that neither one of us has insights into what it costs Mylaps to run their business. All I know is that I buy a transponder for a price, install it on my car, and register it online. After that, I don't really have to worry about it unless it fails.

Do I like paying what I paid for the transponder? No. Of course I would like it for free. But that is not reasonable. If I amortize the cost of the transponder over the time I own the race car, the cost is basically nothing. If someone buys my race car, I'll probably keep the transponder unless I am quitting racing. $42 to transfer the ownership is nothing. It's crazy to complain about it.

Scott

Racerrob

J, how do you get this info on mylaps? I have looked at the lap charts but they look like Greek to me. Trying to learn something here.

Racerrob

By the way, I think amb sucks! I am on my 3rd transponder in about 5 years and each time they have raised the price. They need a competitor to get them honest.

J richard

Just go to the race you want to look at, it will show all the competitors, position and fastest lap time and total time. Double click on your name (you have to be registered to do this) and it will give you the chart with each lap, time and varience from the leader and a graphic showing you your relative lap times. Across the header there is a dropbox that says "compare to:" and you can pick whoever you would like to see, it will give you a lap by lap comparison and a red or green graphic for fast comparison.

If the group you run with does combined times from the weekend its a nice way to see how your car compares against those in other classes if you want to look at running different tires or make improvements that could bump you a class...

I don't argue the cost of an amb transponder, its a pricey peice that I have to think could be made cheaper, but the lifelong maintenance of a database and the ability to store all that info for $50? priceless....