RE: F1 Engineers Build Super (Push) Bike

[Nick_F]

Rim brakes on carbon wheels work, but you need special pads and the wheels won't last as long as aluminium ones.

Can be exciting in the wet, though.

[Dibby]

wong said:

Disc brakes - probably better ( esp. in wet) than dual pivots, however do not allow quick wheel changes. Think puncture in a road race.
And people want what the TDF riders have despite the regulations.

Discs are better for quick wheel changes, do rim brakes have to be slackened off to allow the tyre through? Discs you just slip and and out of the calipers and don't do anything to the brakes to change the rim.

Suppose it's the carbon rim issue and rim brakes take a lot longer to dry out. Also you can shape the side wall of the rim and not have a deep vertical braking surface to make it stronger and lighter right on the outer end of rotation where rotational weight 'appears' more. Mountain bike wheel strength came on leaps and bounds doing away with the rim braking surfaces, allowing shallower, stronger profiled rims, you can beat them about all day on a downhill machine and they stay straight and true, in the 80s and 90s if you hit a rock wrong you pringled a wheel.

[soad]

Race bike or not, that seat looks mad uncomfortable. Sure to give one a sore bum. Need more padding...

[ZesPak]

Mr JP said:

WorAl said:

rhinochopig said:

Not constrained by regs and yet shares the same basic frame layout and rider position with every other road bike - disappointed!

Was thinking the same thing.

UCI Technical regs are pretty tight. Many pro's bike run with weights added for example to get them up to the min 6.8kg and many measurements on the biked are also tightly controlled.

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/BUILTIN/getObject.asp?Me...

If you throw away the regs you'll probably arrive at a recumbent, something like this.

True that, I've been driving recumbent bikes for about 5 years now and even the "local" champions on saturday piss all over world records set in optimal conditions. And I'm talking non-closed-shell (non-aerodynamic shell) bikes, just the open race types, like this one:


To put this into perspective, the hour record on regular bikes stands on: 56kmh
The hour record for recumbent stands on 56mph. To put that into perspective: the 200m sprint (running start) on a UCI is 45mph.

UCI regulations fked up the sport for me, we would all be driving far superior bikes by now if it wasn't for them, and bikes would become a better means of transport for many people.

Source (amongst others): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record#UCI_hour_...

[M400 NBL]

Now that's a comfortable seat!

I know padded shorts take some of the sting out of it, but boy do motorists take the piss out of us for wearing them..... unless it's a tight female wearing them.

[Supervet]

neilski said:

Article said:

And the price? Well, if you have to ask...

A snip at £22,000 according to this article.

And at 7.4kg isn't even that light. Personally, I'd rather buy a Storck Fascenario 0.7 and spunk the rest on an RS2 to ferry it about in.

Agreed absolutely. Too heavy, not aero, out of date frame design. No clue whatsoever. There are just less than 1000 pros riding affected by the UCI weight limit so the Storck is THE machine at 5.55kg.

[AcidReflux]

M400 NBL said:

I know padded shorts take some of the sting out of it, but boy do motorists take the piss out of us for wearing them..... unless it's a tight female wearing them.

I've been biking for 22 years and never had the piss taken by motorists. Are your shorts pink?

[M400 NBL]

AcidReflux said:

M400 NBL said:

I know padded shorts take some of the sting out of it, but boy do motorists take the piss out of us for wearing them..... unless it's a tight female wearing them.

I've been biking for 22 years and never had the piss taken by motorists. Are your shorts pink?

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant PH non-cycling motorists.... hiding behind their monitors.

[AcidReflux]

[FOURRONE]

M400 NBL said:

Now that's a comfortable seat!

I know padded shorts take some of the sting out of it, but boy do motorists take the piss out of us for wearing them..... unless it's a tight female wearing them.

Now im trying my hand at road riding after years of mountain bikes i wears the padded lycra but under a tracksuit bottom saves the abuse lol

Edited by FOURRONE on Thursday 18th February 14:58

[anonymous-user]

Dibby said:

wong said:

Disc brakes - probably better ( esp. in wet) than dual pivots, however do not allow quick wheel changes. Think puncture in a road race.
And people want what the TDF riders have despite the regulations.

Discs are better for quick wheel changes, do rim brakes have to be slackened off to allow the tyre through? Discs you just slip and and out of the calipers and don't do anything to the brakes to change the rim.

Suppose it's the carbon rim issue and rim brakes take a lot longer to dry out. Also you can shape the side wall of the rim and not have a deep vertical braking surface to make it stronger and lighter right on the outer end of rotation where rotational weight 'appears' more. Mountain bike wheel strength came on leaps and bounds doing away with the rim braking surfaces, allowing shallower, stronger profiled rims, you can beat them about all day on a downhill machine and they stay straight and true, in the 80s and 90s if you hit a rock wrong you pringled a wheel.

if a pro rider punctures he is off the bike and should flick the caliper so there is space for the wheel to drop out.

a good mechanic for a pro team will then be out of the car, have a spare wheel in his hands, have the damaged wheel/flat tyre out, replaced and be pushing the rider all within a minute or he wont be on the team for the next race.... google the 2009 giro d'italia, denis menchov, and final stage to get an idea oif what i mean although i appreciate in that instance they just chucked him on a new bike.

i doubt you want strenght on a road bike as much as you do aerodynamics and a whacking great big disc and caliper is going to wreck aero far more than a nice caliper mounted behind the head tube like fabian cancellara's time trial bike in last years tour de france.

seriously, the front disc brake is a gimick, its inclusion is to impress those who are not familiar with modern cycling technology and simply see disc as better because their old crap raleigh 10 speed had rim calipers. also, when you are clocking on on a road bike, or descending at a swift pace, the last thing you want to do is touch the fornt brake.

[Dibby]

Yeah, I know it's a gimmick on a road bike, I was trying to think of reasons why they'd do it and expect to be able to charge so much money for it. There has to be a technical reason for it at that price tag ... .?

So it's heavier, less aerodynamic, no easier to change a wheel, the extra power it generates isn't needed.

6-pots with massive rotors on my downhill rig are a must on big hills like the Alps, I've had the discs glowing red and smoking callipers but they're immune to heat and keep on trucking. I'm struggling to see why that much power would be useful on a road bike without fat tyres to lay the brake power down with though

[Nick_F]

Disc brakes are useful on the road if you're tanking it in commuter traffic, or if you don't want to wear-out your carbon rims on alpine descents.

[rhinochopig]

Dibby said:

Yeah, I know it's a gimmick on a road bike, I was trying to think of reasons why they'd do it and expect to be able to charge so much money for it. There has to be a technical reason for it at that price tag ... .?

So it's heavier, less aerodynamic, no easier to change a wheel, the extra power it generates isn't needed.

6-pots with massive rotors on my downhill rig are a must on big hills like the Alps, I've had the discs glowing red and smoking callipers but they're immune to heat and keep on trucking. I'm struggling to see why that much power would be useful on a road bike without fat tyres to lay the brake power down with though

Possibly, if the rim can be made substantially lighter due to the removal of the strengthening needed for a braking surface you'll improve the acceleration of the bike due to the reduction in rotational mass. I doubt very much the improvement outweighs the negatives pointed out by pablo though.

[anonymous-user]

Dibby said:

There has to be a technical reason for it at that price tag ... .?

exclusivity and to show off to your chums. "do you like my new bike, it was designed by an F1 team......"

[boma]

Nick_F said:

Rim brakes on carbon wheels work, but you need special pads and the wheels won't last as long as aluminium ones.

Can be exciting in the wet, though.

or wet worn concrete roads...

[Rich_W]

pablo said:

Dibby said:

There has to be a technical reason for it at that price tag ... .?

exclusivity and to show off to your chums. "do you like my new bike, it was designed by a company that make Spark plug leads for a Mk2 Golf......"

EFA

[magic_marker]

amare32 said:

I'd rather have one of these

Amen