NoCom_rider

This time a recumbent gets smoked at the races.

https://slappy-recumbent.blogspot.com...your-left.html

Youngin

yee just got PWNED. (I'm 14)

ChunkyB

I love this thread already. I'm excited. I don't actually have any popcorn, but you get the idea.

rollin

Do you have to be Amisch to own a recumbent or can any Mennonite buy one?

NoCom_rider

All you need is a straw hat and a recumbent to be an elite time trial racer.

https://slappy-recumbent.blogspot.com...rial-team.html

Trsnrtr

Keep it up, Slappy.

Steveredsun

Rofl

carlfreddy

Wow.

You must really have no life seeing as you took the time to put that blog together.

I guess victory is yours?

Youngin

Maybe he just does what he likes to do and enjoys life.

San Rensho 

What is the problem with many roadies on the forum that they have to ridicule bent riders?

Bents are much more aerodynamic than upright bikes and therefore they are faster, much faster, period. Put the same rider on a bent and his max speed goes way up compared to his road bike.

Get over it.

badfishgood

I was on a ride yesterday... On a descent I hit 51 miles per hour and a thought came into my head...

"I wonder how fast I could have done that on a 'bent".

Before I answered the question I realized what I had just created... An image of me descending a hill in a bent.... It was disgusting. I felt disgusting. At this moment I am disgusted.

End of story.

ElJamoquio

Wow, I think Grandma's on tubies.

lowracer1

well, assuming no wind, head or tail, you would reach a terminal velocity of 75mph on a standard lowracer with no tailfairing. 82.2mph with a streamlined tailfairing. According the the calculator, for you to reach 51mph, you had to have a negative slope of 11.2% grade to reach that speed, or a greater negative slope if you had any kind of headwind at all. A mountain bike would only hit around 39.6mph.


With having calculated this, it could be a wash between the road bike and a lowracer. I know for a fact that 67mph on mine was pretty scary, having never been that fast on a bike. 55 mph though and I am comfortable with the speed on the bike. So, to hit 75mph, you can't touch the brakes.

Rutnick

that's just way too much thinking.....

+1 on bent riders and being math professors. Are you inside right now wearing your SPD sandals?

Rutnick

*sigh*

and your point is? Don't you bent guys have your own forum?

StanSeven

I'm often annoyed by bents. I occassionally ride on roads where many are. They go fast on the flats but really slow on hills. They seem to be upset when I pass them on climbs and they go all out on the downhills and flats to get by me and then slow down afterwards to recover. As soon as we hit another hill, the process starts all over.

It tends to be a race from their perspective, like a roadie isn't supposed to be faster than them.

San Rensho 

I don't even ride a bent. I'm just a realist, I don't argue with physics and aerodynamics, as others on the road forum seem to do.

ChunkyB

I've never seen anyone claim that a given rider won't go faster on a bent. I just think a lot of people don't consider bents to be real bikes (I disagree, btw). If you feel that way, then it doesn't really matter if you can go faster. You can go faster on a motorcycle too, but who cares. Anyways, I think that's how a lot of people feel.

halfspeed

We know and we are "over it". The better question is why the 'bent riders feel a compulsion to restate the obvious here over and over. By doing so, they are begging for ridicule.

Rutnick

I'd say only a VERY small amount of bent riders are truely faster than the most hardcore rider here and that is on the flats. Most of the bent riders (like many upright riders) are casual riders at best and aren't cruising at 25-29mph+ and the ones I see riding aren't even hitting 20.

With that said, I'd like to see some powertap data on a 'hardcore' bent rider.

It has already been said that it seems many "bent" riders think or turn a ride into some unsaid race only to have their ass handed to them on the climbs.

Speaking of flat vs hills....unless you live in Kansas or Florida....

I've climb my share of mountains this year and I've seen ZERO bents on them. I know bents have ridden up brasstown bald but to date...I've only read about ONE...ONE bent getting up the wall at Brasstown without getting off and the times I've been there seen ZERO making the attempt.

interceptor

67 MPH?

remixity

The bent needs some Zipps, natch

lowracer1

got one already

lowracer1

I'm by no means the fastest bent rider I know....... I can pick 5 or 6 guys I know off hand that live in other states that put out a bit more wattage. I've done regular 351 watt average 10k time trials with peak being 379 watt average for the same time trial. My hour average is 289 watt to 297 watt being the best I've done. I don't get my ass handed to me on climbs. I've been passed a few times here and there by small packs...... not many single riders and yes on the downhill I retake them and never see them again till the end of the ride. I'm still shooting for the 4 hour century mark solo nonstop. 4:13 has been my best on a semi hilly course........not mountains. The largest climbs I've done in Tennessee were 8 to 10% grades for 6 miles. yeah, speed between 7 to 9 mph where the stronger lighter climbers will go 9 to 11mph. Its sad though that all cycling isn't uphill now isn't it.

lowracer1

I don't wear sandals. The old guys do though that like to feel the air between their toes. Makes them feel like they're going faster maybe.

You don't have to be a math professor to plug numbers into a simple online program either.