Doge

Why I get front and cassettes with straight chain alignment for TT rig setups.

wphamilton

Ah, one righteous man so I guess the city can be spared. Allegorically that is.

I hate physics "arguments", I don't know why I pipe up on questions.

Doge

Well this isn't the -33 so I know the racing stuff does not matter but this may be of interest.

In Belgium the 15-16 year olds ride a 52X16 max gear. They do not race adults, but as 100+ kids are in the race there is no need to. They ride this gear to learn to ride in groups vs the early development (stronger) riders just riding away from the less strong riders. This is not a fairness thing as everyone is on the same equipment.
Advantage, of course, to those that can spin.

No physics needed to know that Belgium would not do this if they saw high RPM and lower RPM the same. They don't and they aren't. Now when discussing 80-110 - that is hard. I don't know. But my guess if if you take someone who likes 110RPM and force them (fixed gear for example) to ride 80RPM, they will not be as fast, and visa versa. Hard test as folks normally don't ride setups that don't work for them - on purpose.

wphamilton

I've heard about junior gears, and if I were a junior or my kid was a junior racer I'd hate it as much as you do. If they're doing it to handicap the stronger riders, that's even nuttier.

caloso

They're doing it to save developing knees from the stress of higher gears and to teach them to spin a higher cadence, which, it's been argued, is physiologically more efficient. As the dad of a junior racer, I fully support it.

Doge

I hate it that much and no longer have a junior. What is silly to me is a sports authority deciding on the right way to ride and making a rule about it - just for some.

Anyway the point was in the 45% ratio jump from a 16T to 11T rear cog certainly does matter, and more for some than others.

For this thread 93RPM +/-12% based on what the rider likes seems fine. I'd say for training, it is good to go on the high side. It seems to me it is easier going from high rpm, fast feet than the other way around.

Doge

Can you find anyone at USAC or Belgium cycling to put that in print. I don't think so. I have searched for years and seen nothing on that. Kids jump 1-2 times their height. Adult field players and women (6:1 over males) have knee (ACL) injury. Put the limit on women adults, who don't need the gear (they don't go as fast). Teen power is among the age peak. There is a lot of evidence that tendon fatigue comes from repetitions. So riding longer and more turns. So they may be causing injury. Hard to find data either way as cyclist kids don't have knee issues.


Yes. But that is none of their business. Why aren't they doing bike fitting too? It is argues, but as this thread shows - there is some debate. My kid as a junior did best at a cadence a wee higher than pros ride. In Belgium he had to ride about 20% higher - for what? More he road on those gears slower he got.

Can you find another sport in the world where athletes competing against each other are required to use different equipment based on age?

caloso

You mean like u10 soccer players using a size 4 ball? Or LL players playing on 60-foot diamonds?

Doge

When U10 players play with 13 year olds - they use the full size ball - they all use the same ball and same field.

I posted above when all 15-16 year olds race each other is is not un-fair. It is just the way the sport is.
When they then race adults - they must be handicapped. That is unfair.

Belgium races generally do not feature hills of significance. So kids racing kids, by nature of the course are spinning a bunch. USA kids the RR are putting down power at low cadence on hills, and they are training on hills. If it were a danger, then junior races should not have hills.

I have never heard of a junior bike racer having a knee issue from anything but maybe over-use. My kid got a bit of tendentious (heal). The fix was time and not ride quite as much.