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#61
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Disc Brakes Are Amazing!!!
"Michael Press" wrote in message ... In article , "Edward Dolan" wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Edward Dolan wrote: [snip] Ride your upright for about 8 hours a day for an entire week and then get back to me on the comfort issue. Dear Ed, The well-known Freddie Hoffman has been riding an upright 8 hours per day for 30 years. He seems fairly comfortable with it. "For what it's worth, the few folks who put in a multiple of that mileage mostly ride bikes that you probably think wouldn't hack it for you. Freddie Hoffman, just to name an extreme example, has /averaged/ something like 100 miles per day over the last 30 years. He rides a 50-pound Schwinn with roadster bars." http://groups.google.com/group/rec.b...38df6e59563c92 The person you describe above is obviously an iron man and not typical at all of the kind of cyclists who each summer embark on week long supported tours on their upright bikes. They suffer enormously as they are not use to putting in 70 or more miles each day for a week. We recumbent cyclists are not used to that either, but we do not suffer like they do. That is because we have comfortable and sensible bikes. Yes, we are slower going uphill and therefore slower over all, but who cares about that. I certainly don't. I ride at my own pace, enjoy every mile and at the end of the day nothing hurts. How does a typical recumbent bike perform on descents? Better than uprights. Technical descents? Worse than uprights. Steep straight descents? Much better than uprights. How nimble are they on quick corners? Much worse than uprights. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
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#62
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Disc Brakes Are Amazing!!!
wrote
[quote myself from another thread] It's common to assume that recumbents have an aerodynamic advantage over the traditional diamond frame, but the advantage is actually limited to fairly extreme recumbents. [...] http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm [...] mph frontal type 17.1 4.3433 recumbent long wheel base 17.3 4.7889 df hands on tops 18.5 3.3781 recumbent short wheel base 19.4 3.2559 df hands on drops 20.5 2.7111 df triathlon bars 21.2 2.1748 recumbent short wheel base racer 22.3 2.0397 df superman position 23.1 1.5504 recumbent lowracer Again, the numbers above are apples to oranges, or at least apples to pears because they use different tire choices. I quote from my previous response: [...] the default tire choices on the kreuzotter website for [non-race configured] recumbents are medium and wide. The df tire choices are all high pressure, by default. Here's the list with the high-pressure tire choices for the LWB and SWB added**. [Also note that the modeled non-racer SWB and LWB are less aero underseat steering style.] mph frontal type 17.1 4.3433 recumbent long wheel base (medium slick tires) 17.3 4.7889 df hands on tops 18.0 3.8777 recumbent long wheel base (high-pressure tires)** 18.5 3.3781 recumbent short wheel base (wide slick tires) 19.4 3.2559 df hands on drops 19.5 2.8408 recumbent short wheel base (high pressure tires)** 20.5 2.7111 df triathlon bars 21.2 2.1748 recumbent short wheel base racer 22.3 2.0397 df superman position 23.1 1.5504 recumbent lowracer I can confirm anecdotally a measurable speed difference in coast down between a non-extreme SWB "highracer" and a df with hands on drops. I agree these numbers do not show the overwhelming aerodynamic advantage that some may expect. Fast df riders who switch to recumbents expecting 20% improvements, will be disappointed almost certainly. But perhaps a 5% to 8% difference is not unreasonable. And you don't have to go extreme to gain some advantage and retain still some comfort. Jon Meinecke |
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