20 A "Rejection" Letter To Leadville 100

Whether it was the organizers who regretted it or whether it was you is really moot.

The fact is, if you were not lucky enough to register via lottery for the tinselly Leadville 100 this year (registration fee on selection was a whopping $275 and change), chances are you'd have obtained a very similar rejection letter in your email.

Some major surprises were seen in terms of the suggested expenditures elsewhere so as to get a "preferential" entry. In other words, you could buy yourself into the sky to race. More precisely, you could have paid $1250 bucks for the 2-day Leadville Training camp from CARmichael Training Systems and sealed the deal.

Some folks were asking themselves hard whether they really wanted to sell their homes to do this. What is your perspective on spending huge sums of money on races, much less on over-glorified ones? I surely don't grow notes on trees.

Note : The following comes courtesy of poster "Euphrades" on CN Forums to the topic "Leadville 100 is a scam".


Dear Leadville Trail 100 Family,

We deeply regret that we were unable to accept your application into the 2010 Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race. We really wish we could accommodate every interested rider, but we simply can’t. Our goal and primary obligation is to offer every racer the nation’s highest quality athletic experience with the utmost degree of safety, medical care and racer support. The ever increasing numbers of returning racers and new applicants are testimony we are meeting our goal. We do not keep a waiting list and cannot yet accept entries for 2011.

There is still ONE way you can gain entry into the race. For the third year, the Leadville Trail100 has partnered with Carmichael Training Systems to host three 2-day mountain bike camps in Leadville in July 2010 in preparation for the LT100 MTB Race. Camp participants will earn guaranteed entry into the race and the race entry fee is included in the camp fee. Athletes who are unsuccessful in the lottery will have first priority to get into a CTS LT100 Camp. Call CTS today at 866-355-0645 or visit www.trainright.com to reserve a camp spot and we’ll see you at the start line on August14.

We would also encourage you to consider entering the awesome 50 mile “Silver Rush” on July 17. It’s a tough, demanding and incredibly beautiful ride in Leadville’s historic east side mining district. Also new this year is 24 Hours of Leadville on Sept. 4 & 5 – for when 100 miles isn’t enough! Try it solo or grab some of your friends and sign up as a team. In addition, we are offering a special $50 discount on the 24 Hours of Leadville race by including this Code: 24Pb on the race application. Simply download it from the web site, fill it our and mail it in!

Last, but certainly not least, we always need and welcome volunteers to assist the mountain bike and running events. Not only is it very rewarding to help other riders and runners achieve their goals, but preference in the 2011 entry process is also given to those who volunteer for any of our 2010 races.

We are sincerely grateful for your enthusiasm and dedication to the “Race Across the Sky”.

In appreciation,

Ken Chlouber
President, Leadville Trail 100

* * *

78 Shimano Ultegra Chain Failure

New "Equipment Misbehavior". A reader from the Netherlands (who wishes not to be named) alerted me to his concern that lately, a large batch of Shimano Ultegra chains (CN 6700) have been breaking with use. These chains are narrow and lightweight, meant for performance riders. I'm not aware of what its roller diameter, plate width etc are. Can anyone help us here?

Anyway, so he was personally riding a steep cobbled climb last Thursday when his chain, 700 kms old, broke on one side of a link. Interestingly, he was able to get home and install a spare new 6700 chain as replacement. Well, guess what. A little after 7 hours and 220kms of riding over Saturday and Sunday, that chain also happened to fail. That's not a good thing to happen to someone who's stranded in the middle of nowhere.

He decided to call Shimano Europe and found their response to his problem as quite rude. In his own words :

"Shimano is still denying the problems, but many people have problems with the 6700 chains. I spoke to someone from Shimano Europe on the phone this morning, which wasn't pleasing since he was quite rude. For me it is not about the money, but all about the risk. The question is if someone is going to crash because of these breaking chains, when and how many crashes are there are going to be? Often there is quite a lot of difference in customer support between Europe and North America. For example Zipp seems to have a great service in the States, but in the Benelux it simply sucks. But the attitude of Shimano seems to be bad everywhere. "

He examined the first chain he broke and found 15 different cracks all over the place. The second chain he broke had 11. He's having the chains sent to another company, who will then X-ray examine them for deficiencies. As and when I get any more news on that, I will post it here.

Notice the interesting manner of crack formation at the two ends of the chain

Now roller chains are reliable over a wide range of temperature conditions. So if the Netherlands has had a really bad weather this year in terms of winter and salt on the roads, should it matter if the chain is well maintained? The individual who contacted me reported that he regularly washes his chain in plain hot water to get rid of salt.

As to the question of whether he applies any other chemicals to the chain for cleaning, I do not know. Shimano does protect their bottom to some extent by calling out the following in their technical instructions.


For chains to avoid breaking in fatigue, the operator has to restrict stresses to those below the corrected endurance limit for the material. The total load in a chain is a sum of the tangential driving force, centrifugal tension in chain and the tension in the chain due to sagging.

But even still, a chain should NEVER break. The only evidence of deterioration in a chain should be elongation due to steady wear. But that usually happens only after 1000-2000 hours of usage in well lubricated chains. They should be pretty reliable otherwise. For a new Shimano chain to break in 7 hours may point to something unassured in its design/manufacturing.

Have any of you experienced similar problems with these chains as well as Shimano's deteriorating customer service?



RELATED READING :

Campagnolo 11 Speed Chain Failure

* * *

25 Spokeless Bicycle Wheel Design From Yale

Whether this inspires you or irritates you is your choosing. A group of nine mechanical engineering students from Yale University leaked pictures of a spokeless wheel design onto the internet for all of us to see. Thank you, Gentlemen. And thank you Bicycle Design for the tip-off on Twitter.


The bicycle as you see here is a single speed setup. Because of the lack of the traditional spokes and hub, the boys had to find a way to transmit pedal power to the rear wheel. Which they did by dividing the gearing into two stages - a 53-13 combo, output to right side crank, from where another 53-13 sprocket combination yields final output to wheel. It also looks like the output hub mates with a toothed profile on the inside curve of the wheel similar to what you would see in a timing belt.


What they also found out was that the cost to produce a single wheel was huge, so they decided to just make one spokeless rear wheel to see if it'll work. The wheel is made out of 6061 Al alloy, which is cheaper compared to the aerospace version 7075.


6061 has a density of 2.70 g/cc, an ultimate strength of 310 MPa and a yield of 276 Mpa, showing about 12% strain at rupture. If I draw a stress-strain diagram of this stuff, the area under the curve is somewhere around 30-35 Joule/cu.m. Multiply that with the thickness of material used and you get it's energy absorption at rupture per unit width, in Joules/sq.m. By the way, this basic calculation is really handy if you want to make bicycle fenders and chain guards!

Having been through an engineering school already (phew), I think I may be qualified to speak on what exactly the driver might be behind this work. This bicycle design is very likely for an engineering design class, either the initial MENG 185 - Mechanical Design, or the MENG 471/472 Senior Level Engineering Design Course.

There, students form groups of 3-4 (or more) and under the guidance of an advisor will seek to realize a design idea. That may either be for an innovative new product or something which may offer genuine improvements to an existing product. Some great ideas that can be made may even be granted patent towards the engineering department. Other ideas don't make the cut for patents but nevertheless, all these students will receive 4-5 credits for the class so they pass and get a mechanical engineering degree.

That said, what would still be interesting is to learn the rationale behind choosing a spokeless wheel to work on for a project. Just for being cool or something else?

The bicycle is near a state of perfection and like we always yell again and again, the more you try and fiddle with what exists, the more you sacrifice what's already there in terms of design trade-offs. I suppose that's the thing with design. It's tricky. Gain some, lose some. Gain-gain is rare. What's better in terms of taking loads, transmitting motion, and reducing friction - spokes, ball bearings and an axle or a two extra cranks, chains, and a timing-belt kind of setup?

Spokeless wheels for bicycles aren't anything new. Most folks who think of this idea have always maintained the inconvenience of the occasional tensioning of spokes in prior art as a reason for going spokeless. What that entails is a new system from them with more complexity, more moving parts, more weight and more friction. That's not much improvement.

What I would have done if I were them would be to visit the nearest patent office to see what was done by individuals in the years past in spokeless wheel design. Were they successful? Did the idea SELL? Did it actually make someone's life better? Perhaps spokeless wheels would be better for wheelchairs because that way an operator's hand wouldn't be at risk of going in between spokes? Just my two cents.

Good work anyway guys! "A" grade for now.

* * *

17 How Cycling Pros Defeat Anti-Doping Part II

Has someone been watching too many movies?

Hey, do some of you still want to know the astonishing success secrets of Floyd Landis' Tour de France victory? I guess not, not now.

I had that funny feeling that the list of methods athletes and their cohorts use to fight anti-doping authorities was incomplete. Shortly after Joe Papp helped write the popular Part I of this post, we learnt of a guerrilla attack on a van carrying a pro cyclist's sample somewhere in Guatemala. In that ambush, the athlete's test samples were destroyed. What irony, eh?

Did you also wonder what else could be in the bag of dirty tricks?

Here's the headlines and a little snippet from today's NYTimes.

"Arrest Warrant Issued for Cyclist Floyd Landis

PARIS (Reuters) - A French judge has issued an international arrest warrant against American rider Floyd Landis for suspected hacking into an anti-doping laboratory computer, French anti-doping agency head Pierre Bordry told Reuters on Monday."

So is Floyd the real ringleader of this operation? Or is it the person shown in the photo on the top, one Mr. Arnie Baker - ex bicycle racer, ex-doctor, writer and Landis' coach.

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge to a lot of people, but a poster chimed the following on the CyclingNews Forum :

"Dr. Arnie Baker hired a hacker to break into LNDD and steal documents. Baker then modified the documents and distributed them in an attempt to discredit the lab.

The French wanted Floyd Landis to answer questions months ago. At that time the possibility of an arrest warrant was threatened. Floyd Landis should have taken the opportunity to deal with the problem last year."

What next? Will these guys storm into a doping laboratory with RDX explosives and AK 47's? Should labs now convert to Apple Macs instead of Windows? Should anti-doping control now have anti-hackers on their staff payroll? Should vans carrying samples be bulletproofed, led by a motorcade?

Sadly, I respected Mr. Baker a lot and have read some of his books. They're still sitting on my shelf. Gosh its time to lose some of it. The French judge in question, Thomas Cassuto of the Tribunal de Grande, has issued an international arrest warrant for him as well.




CONNECTED READINGS :

Arrest Warrant Issued For Landis In France
How Cycling Pro's Defeat Anti-Doping Control Part I
8 Things On Lance Armstrong From The Other Side Of The Grass
NYTIMES : Cyclist Floyd Landis Says Anti-Doping Agency Offered Deal to Implicate Lance Armstrong

* * *

27 Who Really Buys Velomobiles?

A few hours ago, a friend and I were discussing the market viability of expensive velomobiles that are currently out there for purchase. A prime example is the Go-One.

Its basically a high performance trike that is streamlined with a monocoque chassis composed of carbon fiber, kevlar and fiberglass. It has a hard top with an opening window which can basically be removed if you want to ride with the top off, like a convertible. The rear wheel is mounted on on a swing-arm suspension assembly with tuneable shocks. The whole system is steered using a "T-Tiller" joystick.

I recall that a couple of years ago when it first came to market, it cost a whopping $10,000. Even now, their cheapest chassis kit is about $7800, excluding other vital components and accessories. If you want a fully assembled Go-One from the company, keep the $10,000 aside for it.

You must wonder whether they're running themselves into a corner. Don't get me wrong. The basic idea is just wonderful - having your own bicycle car with a rear luggage compartment is probably a dream come true for meeting the disadvantages conventional bikes suffer from. Its enclosed. Its fast. What's more, you even have headlights and taillights. But is the price tag way too high for one to be comfortable?

Question is, how many people really own a Go-One? Probably not a lot, especially in the U.S.

In a very small paragraph, the Go-One's FAQ section fills us in on this information :

"Q. How many Go-One³ owners are there in the North America?

A. The Go-One³ has been officially introduced to the North American market in 2006. Therefore, our records are very limited. Our records currently show thirteen (13) owners in North America. The list is growing!"

Velomobiling as a culture is still in its infancy around these parts of the world. The challenge companies like Go-One will face will be the one of building that culture up along with trying to sell some units.

Would you buy a Velomobile like the Go-One, in-spite of its price point? Do you like the design and what it could offer? Come discuss its merits and demerits.

RELATED READING :

Ventilation Design In Velomobiles

* * *

1 Saturday Stupidity X

An inanimate Italian female who goes by the name of CERA Pillone, has been linked to another breakup in VeloWood. Ricco's girlfriend Rossi confessed her secret love for the smoking hot nutritional supplement leading to the couple's breakup last week. This is the same Pillone that Ricco had been supplementing on last year, slurping her up with unabashed lust. This year, he has a problem with his others supplementing on her. What the fish? CERA was not available immediately for comment but she did release a statement a couple of years ago hinting that she loves to be dirty and caught in other's... urine samples.

In other news, prominent cycling commentator Paul Sherwin was caught red handed checking Phil Liggett's profile on Facebook and chatting with him, when the man was sitting right beside! Both may have to dig deep into the suitcase of spatial awareness.


And finally, the Radiostack, err I mean, Radioshack kit confirms why black still has most dignity. Failblog might be interested in this material.

FOR PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS OF STUPIDITY, SEE :

Saturday Stupidity I
Saturday Stupidity II
Saturday Stupidity III
Saturday Stupidity IV
Saturday Stupidity V
Saturday Stupidity VI
Saturday Stupidity VII
Saturday Stupidity IX

* * *

1 Pedaling Across The Graveyard Of The Pacific

Endurance athlete and adventurer Greg Kolodziejzyk hopes to become the first man to cross solo, a notorious section of ocean from Victoria Canada to Hawaii in a record 40-80 days. Being a veteran in realizing human powered vehicles for extraordinary tasks, he plans to meet this new challenge with a pedal powered expedition boat called Within.

I happened to stumble upon this stuff late last night, and its an understatement to say this stuff is amazing. The boat is 10 meters long and 1 meter wide and its got some great design features, especially a neat drive system and a massive keel bulb. The exterior leverages solar and wind power to run the electrical stuff inside the boat. The interior is going to be decked out with food and other amenities to feed and entertain while Greg pedals. You should definitely take a look at the detailed set of build pictures on Flickr, from concept to finished design.

So what's the human power requirements for something like this? Lots of mental and physical endurance, without doubt. Greg also puts this on his website :

"WiTHiN features 5 watertight compartments: A bow compartment (small storage), Forward compartment (main storage to hold over a 100 days worth of food and supplies), cockpit (floodable with a bilge pump), Sleeping cabin, stern compartment (small equipment storage). Solar panels and a wind generator will provide electrical energy to power the 2-way radio, satellite phone, computer, GPS, AIS monitor, EPIRB, bilge pump, water desalination equipment, navigation light, iPod, and autopilot.

WiTHiN is powered by a drive leg – custom designed and built by Pedal The Ocean sponsor MitrPak, turning a two-bladed propeller. The drive leg is a single unit, inserted through a well in the forward area of the cockpit. The drive leg can be replaced at sea with a spare unit, or serviced, if repairs are required. The propeller and other aluminum and stainless steel parts are custom CNC milled by PTO team member and sponsor Rohmec Industries. At 80 rpm, generating 150 watts of input power, the drive unit propels WiTHiN to speeds of about 8 to 9 kph."

Some relevant pictures of the design are shown below. Note : These come from the Flickr set.

The Cockpit

Drive leg sourced from MirtPak

Greg's definitely the kind of guy who can sit in tiny spaces and pedal away for hours on end. And all it takes for a dream to come true is to have a decent amount of cash, lots of contacts, and a nice personal facility where you can actually build stuff!

Here's wishing Greg the very best and I'm definitely looking forward to June to hear more about his pedal powered journey. And good on you for choosing pedal power!


RELATED READING :

Ted Ciamillo Is The Sub-Human
Design Case Study : Pedal Powered Hotdog Launcher Design
Design Case Study : Pedal Powered Canyon Transporter

* * *

7 A Shimano Solution To Toyota's Accelerator Problem

Dear Cyclists (& Pedestrians),

This is a notice.

Cozy Beehive is calling out a Worldwide Cyclist Death Or Possible Injury Alert For Immediate Make Officialling, also called WCDOPIAFIMO for short.

In the upcoming days, months and possibly even years, you will surely die or get severely injured out on the road if you don't stay away from something called a TOYOTA. Even worse, really old women with Toyota's. Now that can be even worse.


Steve Woz, the co-founder of Apple, has taken down many many individuals already with his Prius. Steve and his Toyota have both been arrested.

Meanwhile, we from the cycling community present Toyota's President Akio Toyoda with a temporary but bold suggestion to counter the car's recent misconduct on the road.

Mr. Toyoda :

All malfunctioning Toyota's should hereby be outfitted with Shimano Dura-Ace cycling pedals. Motorists have to wear Shimano's cycling shoes to clip into them.

The car is to be fitted with the same sensor technology that is installed in airplanes for stall warning. The Toyota's computer system, by way of an obnoxious Japanese voice, screams "Pull Up ... Pull Up!!!". Since the motorist's cycling shoes interface with the pedals, they can at once pull pedal with their feet to get the stuck accelerator back to neutral.

Shimano's carbon soles reduce excess weight needed to pull up with feet. Moreover, the carbon footprint in this forceful pulling up action is also small. All in all, an easy, green solution to a dangerous problem.

Thank you dear cyclists for reading this Worldwide Cyclist Death Or Possible Injury Alert For Immediate Make Officialling. And thank you Mr. Toyoda for considering this solution.

* * *

5 cancellara

A reader sent me an interesting page on the energy requirements involved in unicycling. Quite simply put, two riders, one skilled and one less skilled, show different efficiencies operating the cycle.

Skilled unicyclists devote more energy to going straight than they do trying to stay in balance through precise timing of corrective energy provision, while less skilled riders show the opposite scenario, which is why most of us lose out quickly and fall.

To keep a unicycle in balance, a correcting energy has to be supplied at some frequency for proper dynamics of the system. As far as steering is concerned, the main aim of balancing comes from steering in the direction to counteract a lean.

It will be interesting to study at what frequency skilled riders supply corrective energy to stay in balance. This is apparently done so that the small angular displacements lead to small energy expenditures. The estimation by the author is that 100 calories of energy is supplied by the rider per hour to aid in the balancing act.

Energy output per hour of various means of movement - bicycling, unicycling, walking etc.

The trick seems to be in finding the right balance between ranges for the angle of tilt the rider and his bike makes with the vertical. Too much an angle means you may go faster because of the squared relationship with gravity but it'll take more energy to raise your center of gravity up to the balance point. Too less an angle might mean you're perfectly in balance but you're moving slow.

I haven't ridden a unicycle but I'm wondering what you guys think. How do you balance yourself?

RELATED RESOURCES :

Four Part Series : Dynamic Stability Of Bicycle Design
Efficiency In Inefficiency : Walk Or Pedal Up A Steep Hill?

* * *

18 Science Of Cadel Evans From Dr. David Martin

I happened to read an article in the Ride Cycling Review publication titled "A Study Of Champions : Cadel & Lance". This is an Australian magazine and I wouldn't have had the chance to read it were it not for partner in blogging crime, Wade over at Cycling Tips, sending me a fine copy from beautiful Down Under. Thank you!

Written by David T. Martin, a senior physiologist at Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra, the article is a good reminder to all of us that some of the less talked about riders in the peloton also show remarkable physiological characteristics. Yet, few fancy documentaries are made on them.

Anyway, here's the basic information you need to know if you're ready to bust some myths among your cycling friends. Here goes :

1. Highlight : Cadel Evans posted brilliant fitness parameters at an age when he was developing as a cyclist. He boasts high VO2max and power to weight ratios, some of the highest ever recorded at AIS. His physiology, based on traditional measurements of aerobic capacity, reigns supreme over most cyclists, even Lance Armstrong. The article notes that while Cadel's aerobic capacity is higher than Armstrong's, no one has considered other top riders like Alberto Contador. Good point, Dr. Martin.

2. Sample Set : From a sports science perspective, a number of "fitness indicators" were established on Cadel Evans. He was tested more than 15 times at AIS between the ages of18 and 24 and the article focused on 7 tests at a time of the year when he was considered fit (between January and June)

3. How He Was Tested : Cadel was put on something called an electromagnetically braked ergometer to carry out the Australia national cycling team protocol. The procedure calls for 5 minutes of constant power output stages with a self selected cadence, where the initial power output was 100W and it was increased by 50W every stage until volitional exhaustion. The peak power output achieved during the test is calculated by adding 10W to the test score for every minute achieved in the final stage. Oxygen uptake, heart rate and blood lactate were measured throughout the test.

4. Results :Between 18 and 24, the best result achieved by Evans were :

Maximum Aerobic Power Output : 455 W (7.3 W/kg)
Threshold Power Estimation : 370W (6.0 W/kg)
VO2 Max Associated With Max Power Output : 5.65 L/min or 87 ml/kg/min

In those crucial years, Evans was characterized by Dr. Martin as :

62-68kg, 172-173cm; 380-455 W and 6.1-7.3 W·kg-1 at VO2pk; 4.59-5.65 L·min-1 and 73-87 ml·kg-1·min-1 VO2pk.
Economy (mean±SD; range) was 80.2±1.9; 77.5-82.5 W·(VO2 L·min-1)-1 or 401±10; 387-413W at 5 L·min-1 VO2.
GE was 22.6 ±0.6; 21.8-23.4% and DE was 23.6±1.1; 21.9-25.4%.

Now for you starters, power to weight ratio is the key variable for uphill cycling speed and threshold power output is an exercise intensity that represents a distinct transition from aerobic to anaerobic energy production.

Bottomline : Both Armstrong and Evans posted their best fitness values in their early 20's. At his best, Evans posted a power to weight ratio almost 8% higher than the 6.8 W/kg produced by Armstrong when he was 22. His highest VO2max was 7.4% higher than Lance's highest recorded value. Compare this, if you'd like, with Indurain's 6 W/kg at threshold and 7 W/kg at VO2 max.

4. A Word On Inaccuracies : Dr. Martin feels there were enough similarities in testing protocols and equipment employed to allow for an interesting comparison between the two athletes. Most interestingly, he has it in a paper on Evans that the data from his testing procedures did not reflect any improvements in cycling efficiency with maturation.

Recall that Armstrong's values stemmed from studies done by Dr.Coyle at the University of Texas, some of which, especially on the improvements in his cycling efficiency, came under fire from his peers for gross inaccuracies. Dr. Martin maintains that cycling efficiency calculations are very sensitive to equipment and are prone to inaccuracies. He did estimate Evans' cycling efficiency at 22 as 21-24%, similar to Armstrong's calculated 21-23 %, although he doesn't seem to put much faith nor emphasis on it.

5. Ending Quote From Dr. Martin :

"The data doesn't support the argument that Lance Armstrong wins because he was born with some god-given gift, some unique physiological capacity that makes his success as a professional road cyclist easy. There's a lot involved in winning..... Based on physiological traits, it is just a bit too simplistic - and a bit naive - to think that all of Lance's achievements can be explained by superior build."


So there you go. Just physical traits alone does not make you a winner. Moreover, years of training doesn't transform you into a freak of nature. Let's put folklore away and discuss just the facts.

Next, the Science of Alberto Contador. Does anyone want to volunteer from the Spanish Institute Of Sport or likewise? I suppose we'll have to keep the record books handy.

* * *