Carl Fogel said:After the first five rides, it seems as if the Fury Roadmaster ($53.71
at LawTram, plus tax) deserves its own thread. (If nothing else, this
will keep this bicycle-shaped object from soiling other threads in
rec.bicycles.tech.)
Previous and overly detailed posts regarding this triumph of the bicycle-
industry's art may be seen at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-
8&selm=c255ll%241k10%241%40f04n12.cac.psu.edu
or
http://tinyurl.com/3cucphttp://tinyurl.com/3cucp
(which is where Dave Van Tol started it all)
and at:
s.google.com/groups?q=g:thl2912196017d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-
8&selm=ZXv1c.8302%24Xb5.2972%40fe01.usenetserver.com
http://tinyurl.com/yqv8ghttp://tinyurl.com/yqv8g
(which is where Tom Sherman should have let sleeping dogs
lie). Both posts are part of long and foolish exchanges.)
As gloomily predicted, my expensive new bicycle suffered a potentially
serious mechanical problem that can only be blamed upon inadequate setup
by the overpaid slackers who took my money!
Pedalling furiously around my four-mile route through the city park like
Benny Hill, I noticed that my left thumb shifter did not seem as fixed
and reliable as Julius Caesar, who likened himself to the North Star.
Several times, either vibration or my clumsy paw moved the lever
from "H" toward "L," whereupon the front derailleur began to make a
faint noise, as if thinking about putting its hand on the chain's
knee--curses!
I considered posting a plea for advice, but feared that Sheldon Brown,
famed for his short tempered unwillingness to suffer fools gladly, might
lecture me severely.
(Besides, Sheldon is a fixed-gear fanatic and may know nothing about
sophisticated thumb-shifters. Why do so many dealers become fixed-gear
freaks? Is it a reaction to the endless shifting problems that they see,
somewhat like bouncers in a topless bar losing interest in--well you get
the idea.)
Luckily, I have a pre-publication copy of Jobst Brandt's "The Left-Hand
Thumb Shifter" (Huffy Press, 12th edition, 2005, $49.95). It counseled
pre-tensioning the triple-ring shifter by rotating its honkin' big cross-
head screw clockwise "until the handlebar begins to yield locally."
The shifter now seems much improved, but woe to those who forgo the
services of the local bike shop!
Carl Fogel
A dead calm this evening promised a fast ride from the Fury RoadMaster.
With no traffic, I began my second lap around the City Park and there
ahead of me was an unsuspecting rider wearing a luminous green shirt and
cruising along on a touring bike.
Roger Bannister had someone to pace him when he broke the four-minute
barrier, so here was my opportunity!
Straining after him like a basset hound pursuing a trotting greyhound, I
drew closer and began to wonder what to do next. I hear that tactics are
terribly important in racing.
There's a current thread debating the etiquette of uninvited wheel-
suckers. Normally my position is that they're jerks. But what, I
wondered, if drafting this fellow would improve my time? My goal is to
break twelve minutes, and I'd hate to miss it out of mere courtesy and
common sense.
Screw it, I decided, and chose the other side of the road, slowly
drawing ahead of the fellow in the green shirt as we pedalled past the
zoo. He looked a bit surprised--most people do, for some odd reason--but
he obviously had no idea that he'd been in a race.
So this is what Lance feels like! Inspired, I pedalled like a demon for
the next mile and ended up wheezing like a bellows with a new Fury
RoadMaster record,
11:52 for 4.06 miles.
Now that I've got my breath back, I'm wondering about the merits of
pacelines, drafting, and wheel-sucking for typical
rec.bicycles.tech posters.
Do pacelines at this level produce faster times or merely less
tired riders?
As I understand it, a paceline offers little advantage climbing because
the riders aren't going fast enough to benefit from drafting.
Nor should a paceline improve speeds on a descent steep enough that
riders are coasting. Everyone behind the lead rider has to brake, yet
they can go no faster than he's going if they pull out into the wind
and pass him.
On the flats, the paceline goes no faster than whoever is pedalling in
front. The idea may be that the leader can strain and go faster than
normal for a few minutes, with everyone following keeping up with him at
a lazier pace, but I'm curious how this works out in real life.
What strikes me as a potential drawback is that the leader has no
competition to spur him on. No matter what he does, the paceline behind
him should be able to keep up in his draft, putting out far less
effort. It seems more like a strategy for conserving energy than for
inspiring effort.
(I have in mind the 2001 Tour de France, when most of the field on the
8th day slowed down so much in a cold rain that some disgruntled no-
nameriders broke away and finished half an hour and ten miles ahead of
Lance and the rest, who were busy watching each other and maintaining
their pacelines.)
So here's one way to frame the question. Given four average riders from
rec.bicycles.tech, as opposed to death-or-glory pros, what results would
you predict and why for a flat century ride with the four riders going
individually with no drafting, the same four riders going in a paceline,
and the same four riders on one of those long-vanished four-man tandems?
Apart from the physics, what kind of psychological benefits and
drawbacks would you expect? Who's faster, who's more tired?
Carl Fogel
--