Boonen uses great big fat tubular tire in Paris-Roubaix

On 4/17/2012 1:01 PM, Çhâlõ Çólîñã wrote:
dustoyevsky wrote:

Frank Krygowski wrote:

James wrote:

There are way too many variables in a 150 km road race to isolate this
small change. Frank would say that it would be lost in the noise, even
if there was some net benefit.

Precisely!

"Isolate"? There's a small change. Just how big it is? Maybe that got
measured in the wind tunnel, away from "noise".

ISTM that's what the wind tunnel is for. Like tuning, and fine-tuning,
"rider position". We've seen reports where slight changes do make
large drag differences, which changes are not only non-intuitive, but
counter-intuitive.

Then the change is always there, no matter "the noise". The change
doesn't "go away", and wishing it would will never make it go away,
either.

But if the factors that always vary ("the noise"), always have more
effect than "the change", then the change can never dictate a
difference in the outcome.

It's like having paint on a frame versus not. The unpainted frame
will always be lighter, all else equal, and therefore faster according
to your calculus. It's an effect that by you assertion can never go
away, no matter what other variables come into play. An unpainted
frame will also have a slightly smaller frontal area, which should
diminish drag proportionally. So why in the world would almost all
racers in any category use painted or clearcoated frames, when they'd
be some unidentifiable but inevitable amount faster without paint?

This is what Frank is talking about when he says some things vanish in
the noise. Everybody understands it at some level, which is why even
the most elite and competitive racers use painted frames, have
handlebar tape, and refrain from shaving off their eyebrows.

For those who are not elite and competitive racers, the noise is
louder (so to speak) and can erase the effects of things like frame
material, foot attachment, and clothing in due course.

In the real world, the more comfortable rider will go faster for longer.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!

On 4/18/2012 10:41 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
Radey Shouman wrote:
John writes:



Nice one.... except that Mercedes ran unpainted cars for years. In
fact they originally scrapped the paint off the cars (the night before
a race) for exactly the reason that Cholo mentions - to save weight.

There is currently a trend toward (mostly) unpainted airliners, to save
weight, and hence, money.

Yep. And like racing bikes, they're using lots of composites.

How soon before the "nothing is negligible" crowd follows their example
on paint?

I can think of several unpainted CFRP bicycles intended for racing.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!

On 4/17/2012 11:06 AM, thirty-six wrote:
On Apr 17, 4:13 pm, Frank
wrote:
thirty-six wrote:
bikes.

I think that some drilling of aluminium brake levers would be
beneficial to grip when the rider is pouring with sweat. I never
really liked braking from the hoods because of my fingers slipping on
the brake levers. One could also argue that the dimpling would help
in cutting through the wind in the same manner as a golf ball. It's
too much effort for the weight savings involved and a thinning with a
file would be more appropriate if one could suitably retain the
thicker end to save abdominal perforations in the event of a crash.
I'm not even going to experiment with lever thinning but I might try
drilling to improve grip.

You could, I suppose, apply a layer of some sort of high-friction tape
to the lever to improve grip, something like the tape on baseball (or
cricket?) bats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction_tape

Yes, I remember copying another's bike in putting 'electrical tape' on
my handlebar and levers. It did't help, wrong type of tape. I'd
heard of friction tape being used with sticks and raquets but didn't
take notice of what it actually was. I need to get myself a roll and
save mutilating my classic Campag' aero levers.

Except there would be that unacceptable weight penalty. ;-)

I believe that drilling would be better than simply applying latex (I
tried on a knife handle without a continued success) but the cotton
friction tape sounds a good compromise and it is likely that is what I
saw on my neighbour's bike in 1970s.

I put black duct tape on the seat of my CBR600F4i to keep from sliding
around on the seat so much when accelerating and braking.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!

On 4/13/2012 6:59 AM, wrote:
On Apr 12, 11:06 pm, Peter wrote:

All of my (5) road bikes are either modern touring frames or vintage
sports tourers. They all can take 35's.

"Ride what you like", no problems here as I've said a time or two,
mean it.

Slight nit-pick: aren't you about 6'6", Peter? That kind of changes
"things" when talking about long chain stays and geometry in general,
compared to (at least) the 53.x-55 c-c bikes I ride.[...]

Add another 4 inches.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!

On 4/13/2012 10:26 AM, David Scheidt wrote:

I commute on a $2k bike. It's pretty sweat.[...]
^^^^^
Yuck.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!

On 4/12/2012 3:49 PM, wrote:
[...]
Then you get into the world of using a tool designed for the job at
hand. That's a big difference from saying that someone's Eastwing 12
oz rip hammer makes a lousy axe and therefore it is a "bad design".
If you've ever used an Eastwing 12 oz rip I'm sure you can
understand-- it is lacking, severely, as an axe, no doubt about that,
but it's a pretty darn good tool when it's used for the purposes it
was meant to be used for. Same with the axe; those are usually not
very good nail-pounders and not much good at all for pulling nails--
short of massive destruction, of course.[...]

Never heard of "Eastwing" hammers.

Maybe Estwing?

http://www.estwing.com/

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!