Showing posts with label 2008 Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 Olympics. Show all posts

Thursday, August 14, 2008

4 Beijing Picture Dump

Who caught their heads....

....In descending order of joy, in ascending order of disgust...


Emma Pooley - 2nd in TT

Hanka Kupfernagel - not too pleased

Stephan Schumacher - no hope


Spanish IOC officials after Moreno's doping - absolutely no hope


...what a shame that cycling had to open the Olympic doping account...



What the Olympic track course looks like


Hmm... not seen this before. Riders pass a water spray cooling station in the Men's Road Race


Michael Friedman of the U.S. rides a China-made Flying Pigeon bicycle before track cycling practice during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 12, 2008


Check out Robert Fostermann's arms and legs... (think about the sharply contrasting emaciated road cyclists on the other end)


Pedal power, or..... air power? Watch out Coach!!


Hold on to your faith...

....skulls and crossbones....hell yyyyeah!!!


Rene Enders - Clipless pedals + Toe straps.. seems like feet overkill to me


Now don't you say Russia didn't ask for it...


Levi's new position - wind tunnel tests confirm aerodynamics

Friday, July 18, 2008

4 Low Power Wireless Powermeter Technology



The engineering magazine Design News had a 3 page article on the usage of the latest wireless power meters by Olympic cyclists and coaches. This appeared in its 7/14 issue.

However, the meat of the writeup is around the latest buzzword - ANT wireless technology - and the background work of Dynastream Innovations INC which made this protocol. ANT, designed for communication between sensors and sports equipment, is an attractive low power alternative to Bluetooth and Zigbee wireless networks [See Bluetooth and Zigbee].




Saturday, June 07, 2008

5 A TT Concept, The Million Dollar Bike and Something Else


1.
The recent edition of the RBA Mag featured a section on a future time trial bike concept. As the RBA staff looked back at time trial bikes from the last 20 years or so, they were left wondering what the future might hold.

So here's their take on the future, among which are hydraulic disc brakes, integrated everything, electronic shifting and an imaginative internal drinking system for the rider. Take a look...





2. Big thing on the news right now is that Dutch bike maker Koga Miyata has built the ultimate bike for track champion, Theo Bos for his Olympic run. Watch a Reuters based video of the bike here. It costs a little over 580,000 Euros. Since the dollar is sucking bad, if you do the math, that number comes around to 1 million dollars.

Bike with the lowest air resistance in the world??

From what I read, this bike was in the making for 3.5 years or so, during which they ran multiple wind tunnel tests and hired folks who had previously worked on the Ariane 5 Space rocket program. Nothing has been said about the materials in the bike, but my guess is that surely the composite structure might have traces of an exotic additive like Boron (remember Lance's SSlx back in 2006?)

The rubbish piece of news is that "the bike is so stiff it cannot be ridden by anyone but Theo". I don't know where that perpetrated from. Okay, agreed its custom made but leave the other marketing junk out. Let me tell you, even if Theo rode the Olympics on a machine at 1/4th of that cost, he will still win those glorious medals. The man is something else.


Million dollars couldn't afford a new crank...


So of course its a huge waste of money and here's what I think. This bike has the twin objectives of not only satisfying national pride but also injecting a type of psychological warfare on Theo's rivals. The Dutch want the world to know they can back up their star and in style, by putting down everyone else's machine. They lose, he wins, and the company gets a big boost.



3.
A weight comparison between the new Shimano Dura Ace 7900 and the older 7800 group.


Courtesy : Khabar Bike



4.
Finally, if one were to scientifically argue why riding outdoors is so much more comfortable that doing the same in closed space indoors, what would he say?

Multiple modes of heat transfer of course! Here, this image gives the complete picture of whats happening between the rider and the environment.




Happy weekend!