Cycling

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Stereodude

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ddrueding said:
...that I know of. I'd imagine the ride is pretty plush. How much does it weigh?
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I'm not entirely sure. Mid to upper 20's I think. I guess I should weigh it. The new front suspension fork is very plush. The platform damper is very cool.
 
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BingBangBop

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Unless you are actually racing, efficiency or the lack thereof is irrelevant. I vote for plush comfort over efficiency while cycling! The point of cycling is to get from point A to point B and to get some exercise at the same time. The less efficient, the better the exercise value. The more comfort while cycling, the more likely you will cycle. If you want less exercise, use a car.

Just my humble opinion.
 
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jtr1962

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Efficiency also equals more speed for any given level of effort. In my neck of the woods I feel safer the closer I match my speed to prevailing auto traffic. If money were no object I would be riding a Quest velomobile which would let me more or less keep up with local auto traffic, except on upgrades of course. The Quest also has a suspension, so comfort wouldn't be sacrificed for speed. Since a Quest is out of my league, I need to eek as much speed out of my road bike as possible. The rear disk wheel gives me maybe 1.5 to 2 mph for any given effort. A front full disk gave another 3 mph (I was getting past 25 mph on the level without much effort), but made the bike impossible in crosswinds, so off it came.

The speed-power calculator I linked to in post #58 nicely illustrates the difference different bikes make. For example, at 200 watts, which is about my average for an hour, here are the results:

Mountain Bike (unsuspended): 16.9 mph
Mountain Bike (unsuspended-road slicks): 17.8 mph
Racing Bike (hands on top of handlebar): 17.9 mph
Racing Bike (hands on drops): 20.2 mph
Triathlon Bike: 21.3 mph
Superman Position: 23.1 mph
Lowracer recumbent: 23.9 mph
Lowracer recumbent with tailbox: 25.0 mph
Quest velomobile: 27.5 mph
Streamlined Low Racer: 35.6 mph

The numbers it gives seem reasonable. At a sustained effort which I can hold for around an hour, I do about 22 mph on the drops (the extra ~2mph over the results above is from the rear disk wheel). Of course, I never average that on account of needing to slow for potholes, traffic, lights. Also, hills and crosswinds only hurt your speed. On a good day I might approach a 17 mph overall average. Usually it's high 15s to low 16s.

Not sure of the exact numbers for the Varna Diablo (world record unpaced speed of 82.9 mph) at 200 watts, but it's probably in the neighborhood of 45 mph.

Anyway, you're not really sacrificing a huge amount of speed with a suspended mountain bike on road slicks versus a typical racing bike, perhaps 3 mph max. Maybe you lose a few tenths of an mph because of the suspension, and the rest because of the more upright position. A rear disk wheel and partial front disk could more or less make up the difference.

An aerobar actually allows a more comfortable aerodynamic position than riding on the drops. It's also more efficient. I do generally agree though that you're not going to ride a bike you don't find comfortable as much. It's up to each person to decide how much speed they're willing to trade for comfort. I'm actually looking for a new bike now because my Raleigh isn't overly comfortable once I hit about 1.5 hours in the saddle. I'm thinking a better-fitted bike, with a frame more suited to my 5'9" height, would feel better. And I'm definitely getting an aerobar.
 
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jtr1962

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For what it's worth my brother is looking at dual suspension mountain bikes. Yes, I did mention to him he'll be sacrificing a few mph in return for comfort. He didn't really care all that much. Even back when he rode a lot, he used to leave the tires on his road bike at a lower pressure for a better ride. And when we rode together, he would admonish me to "not go like a jumbo jet". ;-) Truth is I wouldn't mind a plusher ride myself, but I'm unwilling to sacrifice any speed at all for it. A suspension where I could dial in the amount of travel on the fly would fit the bill. On smooth roads I could just lock it out.

I don't even own any spandex. I ride in the same clothes I wear the rest of the time.
 
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Stereodude

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jtr1962 said:
Truth is I wouldn't mind a plusher ride myself, but I'm unwilling to sacrifice any speed at all for it. A suspension where I could dial in the amount of travel on the fly would fit the bill. On smooth roads I could just lock it out.
Click to expand...
Platform dampers rock. Turn the adjustment on the top of the shock all the way clockwise and it's nearly locked out (it will still give if the impact is strong enough). It has 6 positions that range from plush to near solid.
 
ddrueding

ddrueding

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Interesting thing happened on the ride tonight. 9PM, on an empty dark road, riding solo fairly quickly. The crank arm separated from the left side of the bike. I'm still clipped in, so the pedal and crank arm are dangling from my foot. Got to ride the two miles home with a single leg...that is tiring.
 
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jtr1962

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Yeah, that happened to me once. At least you can still ride when the crank breaks, albeit not very comfortably. A broken chain is what really sucks. I broke a front fork also one time, thankfully not at speed.

I guess this is as good a place as any to mention it-I snagged this beauty on eBay a few weeks ago. Only took it out once so far (still building a decent headlight for it since nearly 100% of my riding is at nights). It seems both faster and smoother than the Raleigh. It's also over 10 pounds less (18.4 lbs).

More pics
 
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jtr1962

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Howell said:
What are your plans for the raliegh?
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I put in about $500 in parts a few years back (mostly upgrading to a 10-speed drive train plus new wheels/airless tires). These parts still have plenty of life left in them. Because of that, I'm going to strip all the rust off the frame this winter, see if I can get the broken chainstay welded, repaint it, then use it as a errand/beater bike. My brother might get a Mig welder, so he could probably do the repair. I've been riding for the last 10+ years with my half-assed repair (the metal plate attached with a screw on one end, a hose clamp on the other). It's worked remarkably well, but it's ugly. Since I'm going through the bother of giving the frame a nice paint job, I want everything done right. You can see my "repair" below:

Raleigh.jpg
 
ddrueding

ddrueding

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What do you plan on doing for bike lights? I right quite a bit at night as well, particularly in the winter, and what I have isn't cutting it.
 
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jtr1962

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ddrueding said:
What do you plan on doing for bike lights? I right quite a bit at night as well, particularly in the winter, and what I have isn't cutting it.
Click to expand...
6 Cree XPGs running at up to one amp, powered by 4 26650 DeWalt cells, for a headlight. I'll likely use a red Rebel for a tail flasher. I'll probably start a thread over at CPF once I'm done building the headlight. My existing bike light (~150 lumens) really isn't cutting it, either. I sometimes don't see potholes until I'm almost on top of them.

As for cd, my current light is about 350, the new one I measured at 7300. If I had to do it over, I probably could have gotten over 20,000 cd using XP-Es instead of XP-Gs (the smaller XP-E die would focus better with my 10mm optics).
 
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jtr1962

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I'm aiming for not much over a pound. Right now I'm at 5.6 oz for the LEDs/heatsink/optics, and 10.2 oz for the cells. I've yet to make an enclosure for the cells or a mounting system, but hopefully that won't add more than a few ounces. I always have the option of going 4 18650 cells to cut weight and volume. I'm just using the DeWalt cells for now because I happen to have them.
 
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BingBangBop

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It has always been my understanding that bicycle lights have never really been designed to allow the cyclist to actually see the road with enough time to avoid pot holes or other obstacles. They are all way too dim. Rather they are designed so that cars can see them with enough distance to avoid hitting them.

Seems to me, if you can build lights bright enough to see with then they will sell like hot-cakes especially if you can use a wheel generator to power them. However, for those that are unwilling to accept the drag of a generator, a light weight battery would be fine.
 
timwhit

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BingBangBop said:
It has always been my understanding that bicycle lights have never really been designed to allow the cyclist to actually see the road with enough time to avoid pot holes or other obstacles. They are all way too dim. Rather they are designed so that cars can see them with enough distance to avoid hitting them.

Seems to me, if you can build lights bright enough to see with then they will sell like hot-cakes especially if you can use a wheel generator to power them. However, for those that are unwilling to accept the drag of a generator, a light weight battery would be fine.
Click to expand...

There are lights available that are plenty bright enough to see, you just have to be willing to spend a lot of money.
 
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BingBangBop

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LED lights are a recent development but still, they need to be priced reasonable too ($50-) to sell like hot-cakes.
 
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Stereodude

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timwhit said:
There are lights available that are plenty bright enough to see, you just have to be willing to spend a lot of money.
Click to expand...
At those prices you might as well mount a decent handheld flashlight (or two) to the handlebars like this or this. It'll be far more useful since you can use it as a flashlight when it's not mounted to the bike.
 
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jtr1962

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Those prices are why I'm going the DIY route (and just for the joy of making it myself). Also, I have total flexibility programming the number of light levels via a microcontroller. Runtime on full should be around 90 minutes but I plan to have multiple levels spaced 20% apart, down to maybe 10% of full.
 
Howell

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Stereodude said:
At those prices you might as well mount a decent handheld flashlight (or two) to the handlebars like this or this. It'll be far more useful since you can use it as a flashlight when it's not mounted to the bike.
Click to expand...

Of course, when you misplace your flashlight you've lost your bike light then too.
 
ddrueding

ddrueding

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I'll ride on wet roads, and I'll ride in the dark, and I'll finish a ride if it starts raining. But I'm not going out in the dark while it's raining. That would be dumb.
 
ddrueding

ddrueding

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Looks like I'll be getting a Roubaix Apex Compact in a month or so. I'm trying to work a deal where I'll get dealer cost + 20%. If that drops the price enough I might even step up the ladder a bit to the Rival Compact. I'll have a budget of about $3k, but that needs to include everything but a computer:

Bike
Pedals
Shoes
Light
Tools
Pump
Gloves
Tights (I know, I know)
etc.
 
Howell

Howell

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I suggest going with the mid-range for shoes and pedals. Make sure particular manufacturers will work with your body before splurging. There are several brands of shoes I can't wear and several pedals hurt the knees.
 
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