1 There's Also The Family Affairs

"My daughter has just had a crap, so I'm off to wipe her backside."

- Bradley Wiggins on Twitter (May 1)

9 60% Of Cycling Hour Records Due To Engineering

I came across an unsurprising insight into the role that engineering plays in the cycling world hour record. Here's a quote from a recent Science News mag piece titled "Breaking The Speed Limit", which explores studies done to extract the role of better engineering in these records, and to quantify that role. The only thing different in the quote here on the blog is that I have directly linked to these studies for your reference.

"The cycling hour record — the distance an athlete can pedal in one hour on a flat track — steadily rose in the 1980s and 1990s as riders began to use new high-tech gear and streamlined riding positions to improve their aerodynamics. In 1999, University of Tennessee researchers used a model that accounted for adjustments in bicycle design, riding position and other modifications. Writing in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the team reported that about 60 percent of the world records in the previous two decades of cycling were due to better engineering. In 2000, cycling leaders essentially locked the sport in a time machine, declaring that cycling equipment and position had to be similar to designs used to set the hour cycling record in 1972 — an effort, Neptune wrote this summer, “to prevent the hour record from becoming influenced more by technology than by the athletes.” Records set between 1972 and 2000 are still on the books, but in a category called “best hour performance.”

The above graph was originally shown in the paper "The Influence of Muscle Physiology and Advanced Technology on Sports Performance". It was compiled by Neptune et al and appeared in the 2009 edition of The Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering. Richard Neptune is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Looking at the way Fabian Cancellara has been performing lately, if he mounts a specially made bike and gives this event a try in the Superman position, one wouldn't be too far in guessing that he'd run away with UCI's Best Human Effort record. The question is, will he try?

RELATED RESOURCES :

Recumbent Blog : Cycling Hour Record Time Chart With Recumbents Included
Fabian Cancellara Thinks About Attempting Hour Record

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4 Renewing Research Interest In Bicycles

"The early bicycle manufacturing industry laid the groundwork for interchangeable parts and the assembly line was used to bring down the costs of automobiles. Even Henry Ford's first automobile was driven on four bicycle wheels. The Wright Brothers utilized much from their knowledge of bicycle stability and component design to loft the worlds first airplane into the air. The automobile and airplane have received unbridled attention since their discoveries. We are now flying into space and developing cars with engines that run on water, but the bicycle has sadly lost the interest, both scientifically and financially, of the past century's scientists and engineers. If a renewed emphasis were given to the bicycle we may find we have already developed the truest "green" solution to many of the world's environmental, global warming, obesity, sprawl and gridlock problems. Using other industries as examples, these kinds of solutions most likely did not come from tinkering and backyard experimentation. Rather they required devotion of time and energy from the world's greatest scientists and engineers. At the Sport Biomechanics Lab at UC Davis, we like to think that we are taking a small step in this direction and we hope to aid the bicycle revolution in our own special way."

- Jason Moore, Bicycle Researcher and Graduate Student in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Delft University. More here.

P.S : You can read all about Delft University's exciting exploits into studying Bicycle Motion here. You can also read about Jason's bicyling experiences on his blog. Great stuff, Jason! Teach us all some Bicycle Dynamics when you can. And drop a hi sometime!

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6 Overemphasizing Power To Weight Ratios

I often get sick of those who're so anal about their dieting regimes and training bruhaha. Seriously, its time these guys had some fun without destroying themselves.

I think my perspectives are best echoed by the following quote :


"The problem with all this emphasis on power to weight ratios is that many riders become obsessive about this and go to extremes. The worst case scenario is that they will go as far as being anorexic or bulimic because of the pressure they, or others put on them to be skinny. Sometimes I have heard riders sounding like female Hollywood stars when talking about their weight! I do feel that there is a serious body/self-image problem in the peloton now that I am no longer a part of it. I say that because if a rider who weighs 69kg with 6.2% body fat thinks of himself as "fat", what does he think of normal people on the street?"

- Bobby Julich, Retired US Pro Cyclist

Additional Resources :

Power To Weight Ratio
Alberto Contador On The Angliru : Climbing Speed And Power To Weight Ratio

0 On Leather Saddles and Cycling Shorts

Witty wisdom from none other than the late 'Captain Bike' :

Most leather saddles are dyed black. Oiling the saddle will partially dissolve the dye, which will stain on your clothes. This is why cycling shorts are black. Wear light colors at your own risk! If you must wear day-glo pink shorts, put a seatcover on the saddle.

Read more on leather saddles here.

Well ofcourse, there are a handful of other good reasons behind wearing black cycling shorts. I'll be discreet to mention them here. Here's a picture for starters.

15 The Classic Way

"The very worst aspect of the modern cycle trade, is the infestation by the authorised distributor and agent. Business execs chasing profit, having no passion for the sport, or the purity of bikes - most of these people have never even sat on a bike in anger, it is just a commodity to sell... this is reflected in the cynical way that they have forced compact bikes onto us, for their own benefit, very few sizes, only a few colours, very easy to stock, cuts costs and makes more money, but fit hardly anyone. Just take a long look at them, and the puppet journalists sitting on them who rave about how good they are, RUBBISH!!!

There is no compromise in the Maestro shop, a race bike in the classic way, is still the only way, and nothing has really changed."

- MAESTRO, UK

3 Viewers Need Rest Days Too

"The riders in the Tour de France for sure need stamina. But so do Australian viewers of the live coverage on SBS. Tonight's stage will only start at 10:55 PM and it usually finishes around 1:30 AM. I'm looking forward to the rest day. Rest days are important as we all know. I need to catch up on some sleep!"

- Groover, Blogger from Brisbane Australia

22 Drivers Cut Back By Billions

"[U.S.] Drivers Cut Back by 30 Billion Miles: Americans drove 22 billion fewer miles from November through April than during the same period in 2006-07, the biggest such drop since the Iranian revolution led to gasoline supply shortages in 1979-1980."

—USA Today, June 22, 2008 (Original Article)

P.S : Does this mean safer roads for cycling than last year... what do you think? Do you see any changes traffic wise in your area? And what about you? Are you driving that much?

12 On Rolling Resistances of Wide Tires

"Wide tires do not roll slower at lower pressures. In fact, testing indicated that a wide tire at lower pressures rolls faster than a narrow tire at high pressures, if all other factors remain the same. Even narrow tires can be ridden at comfortable pressures with only very small concessions to performance.

Perhaps the most important result of the test is that tire pressure does not significantly affect rolling resistance. Wide tires in particular do not need high pressures to roll fast. But because many current wide tires are designed to handle high pressure, they have strong casings that lack suppleness. This results in higher rolling resistance than necessary."


- Road Bike Rider Newsletter (2006), based on Vol 5 No. 1 issue from Bicycle Quarterly http://www.bicyclequarterly.com. The test included nine 700C tires, seven 650B tires and two tubulars. The protocol and results were reviewed by industry experts.

Courtesy : Velo Chimp

2 Why I ride?

"I ride because life is too easy when all you have to do is push the gas pedal down and turn the heat up to the last notch on the dial."

- Luke Harris, cyclist (courtesy RBA)

5 A Question of Upgrades

Don't buy upgrades; ride up grades.

- Eddy Merckx

0 Bicycle Flex Regions

Much of the bicycle flex in high-force pedaling occurs not in the frame, but in the handlebars and crankset. The most significant potential increases in stiffness involve bracing those components more effectively. The upshot of this discussion is that,compared to current sport bicycles, reduced weight or enhanced stiffness theoretically should offer virtually no performance advantages and may not even be detectable by the rider.

- Bicycling Science Chapter 10, David Gordon Wilson (MIT 2004)