Rasmussen

Guy who did the hour record last week(?) apparently had a 3kilo plus
rear wheel, according to phil and paul. Said it was harder to get up to
speed, but in such a constant effort you only do it once, then momentum
is helped by the extra rotating weight. Maybe road TT bikes are similar
(but not as extreme).

Jay Woo said:

BrettS said:

Jay Woo wrote:

Quoted message said:

Gyroscopic effect?

Yeah I thought about that, but surely these bikes are also as light a
possible, so you are not going to wack a heavy wheel on the back? Or
are you? They should be around the same weight has a standard wheel.
Though I've never had the pleasure of fondling one of these 'steeds of
speed'.

A Hed tubular (lightweight) lenticular disc is 1270 grams. Thats pretty
heavy for rotating mass.

Zoom

Zoom said:

Jay Woo said:

BrettS said:

Jay Woo wrote:

Quoted message said:

Gyroscopic effect?

Yeah I thought about that, but surely these bikes are also as light a
possible, so you are not going to wack a heavy wheel on the back? Or
are you? They should be around the same weight has a standard wheel.
Though I've never had the pleasure of fondling one of these 'steeds of
speed'.

A Hed tubular (lightweight) lenticular disc is 1270 grams. Thats pretty
heavy for rotating mass.

Right!? Now I'm even more confused (not hard to do). That heavy? Even
though they are made from carbon fibre?
Looks like I'm taking a closer look at one of these down at the LBS.

Jay Woo said:

dewatf said:

They also don't steer as well and can have solid wheels to reduce drag which > can effect maneoverability.

I also heard Phil & Paul banging on about the solid wheel being hard to
steer, but I can't see how a rear sold wheel effects it. I can see how
cross wind can effect the bike. The only thing that is touching the
ground is a small oval footprint of the tyre. Even smaller with the
higher tyre pressures that they run on TT setups. What is effecting
tight steering\maneoverability?

Rear disk wheels aren't affected by crosswinds much (unless it's a
*big* wind) but they are heavy. That ITT had a hill in it. Lance
probably figured that the losses from a less aero wheel would be
made up for by the gains in the climbing performance with a
lighter wheel.

Ob trivia, aero spoked wheels (like HED etc) actually
create lift in a crosswind and pull you forwards to a
certain extent. Disk front wheels are almost
unridable in even the slightest crosswind.

quote='Carl Brewer'On 27 Jul 2005 08:36:28 -0700 said:

I also heard Phil & Paul banging on about the solid wheel being hard to
steer, but I can't see how a rear sold wheel effects it.

Rear disk wheels aren't affected by crosswinds much (unless it's a
*big* wind) but they are heavy. That ITT had a hill in it. Lance
probably figured that the losses from a less aero wheel would be
made up for by the gains in the climbing performance with a
lighter wheel.
[/QUOTE]

P&P had also going on about what a weight weenie Rasmussen is, tossing his biddon before every climb so a heavy wheel sounds wrong for him.
He's not be a bad descender. He showed us that when he shot up the GC.
The wrong configuration of bike for such a technical course?

dewatf said:

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 13:45:38 +1000, DaveB

Quoted message said:

I was wondering at the time how much of the bike swapping was for
mechanical problems and how much was just his mind playing tricks. He
just seemed to lose the plot there for a while.

They don't send someone out with 5 bikes for a 55km time trial event.

The first bike had a rear wheel puncture after the his first stack.
Then they failed to replace the wheel correctly and he switched to the
second bike. There was something wrong with that one. After that he
was just switch back trying to figure out which bike and wheels were
the least worst.

By that stage what he probably wanted was something with 2 inch
knobbly tyres, not what seemed to him like a two wheeled version of
ice skates.

A lot of riders didn't look comfortable riding the course on TT bikes.
Basso after he went out too fast and was just making sure he held on
for second place in the GC was shakey too, unable to find the line
through the corners.

dewatf.

If all else fails.....UNICYCLE!!!

Did anyone get the Carmichael write ups for the TDF? Interesting. Made good point. Not a bad idea to stop for 2 seconds after falling off to compose yourself rather than madly trying to jump back aboard and fall off again and allow performance suffer. He did seem stressed out (DUH) and lost it completely...

dewatf said:

The first bike had a rear wheel puncture after the his first stack.
Then they failed to replace the wheel correctly and he switched to the
second bike.

I've just remembered his cool wheel change manoeuvre, the endo one,
though I think this may have hindered the mechanic in getting the wheel
on true and home on the rear drop outs.

Carl Brewer said:

Jay Woo said:

dewatf said:

They also don't steer as well and can have solid wheels to reduce drag which > can effect maneoverability.

I also heard Phil & Paul banging on about the solid wheel being hard to
steer, but I can't see how a rear sold wheel effects it. I can see how
cross wind can effect the bike. The only thing that is touching the
ground is a small oval footprint of the tyre. Even smaller with the
higher tyre pressures that they run on TT setups. What is effecting
tight steering\maneoverability?

Rear disk wheels aren't affected by crosswinds much (unless it's a
*big* wind) but they are heavy. That ITT had a hill in it. Lance
probably figured that the losses from a less aero wheel would be
made up for by the gains in the climbing performance with a
lighter wheel.

Ob trivia, aero spoked wheels (like HED etc) actually
create lift in a crosswind and pull you forwards to a
certain extent. Disk front wheels are almost
unridable in even the slightest crosswind.

This is lance remember. Probably rode it 10 times with an aero wheel
and ten times without in training.. averaged the result and made a
decision.

The guy does prepare.

I dont think he figures anything when for a few trillion times more
effort he han prove it

🙂

aeek said:

Carl Brewer said:

Jay Woo said:

I also heard Phil & Paul banging on about the solid wheel being hard

to

Quoted message said:

steer, but I can't see how a rear sold wheel effects it.

Rear disk wheels aren't affected by crosswinds much (unless it's a
*big* wind) but they are heavy. That ITT had a hill in it. Lance
probably figured that the losses from a less aero wheel would be
made up for by the gains in the climbing performance with a
lighter wheel.

P&P had also going on about what a weight weenie Rasmussen is, tossing
his biddon before every climb so a heavy wheel sounds wrong for him.
He's not be a bad descender. He showed us that when he shot up the GC.
The wrong configuration of bike for such a technical course?

You'd have to ask him. Remember though, that descending in a ITT on
a roady isn't the same as in a bunch, even if it is on the same
bike (and it isn't!).

But, Lance, Jan etc were on ITT bikes and didn't have any big
problems. I reckon Rasmussen was just trying too hard to
hang onto something that he wasn't up to. He got the
3rd at the time by chance (Discovery let his break go, figuring
he wasn't a threat to Lance, and he wasn't).