road bike questions
 

1) When you ride a road bike, should your upper
back/neck section be "concave", i.e.
just hang on the shoulders, or should it be
"convex", like an arc from one shoulder
to another?

2) Is there a technique to braking? When do you
use the left hand (the front brake), when
the right, and when both (save for an
emergency situation, I get that).
By instinct, it seems I use the front
much more. (Am I normal? :))

3) What happens if you pedal slow, while the
bike moves fast? Do you contribute to the
speed just a tiny bit, but you don't notice
it, or perhaps it is a waste of effort
because of the construction, however
that works.

PS. Apologize for unclear language, typos etc.
No sleep or food 48+h. But who needs sleep
and food when there are bikes?

--
underground experts united

road bike questions
 

On 2018-10-09 11:21, Emanuel Berg wrote:
1) When you ride a road bike, should your upper
back/neck section be "concave", i.e.
just hang on the shoulders, or should it be
"convex", like an arc from one shoulder
to another?


Head must be up. Else ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OrKLGEOVRA


2) Is there a technique to braking? When do you
use the left hand (the front brake), when
the right, and when both (save for an
emergency situation, I get that).
By instinct, it seems I use the front
much more. (Am I normal? :))


I always use both but, of course, the front take the higher braking force.


3) What happens if you pedal slow, while the
bike moves fast? Do you contribute to the
speed just a tiny bit, but you don't notice
it, or perhaps it is a waste of effort
because of the construction, however
that works.


I doubt that would make you even 0.1% faster.


PS. Apologize for unclear language, typos etc.
No sleep or food 48+h. But who needs sleep
and food when there are bikes?


Don't do that, it's not good for you :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

road bike questions
 

Joerg wrote:

Head must be up. Else ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OrKLGEOVRA

Head must be up but should it hang down like
into your body, or should it be "supported" up
by muscles? It is more a neck and shoulder
issue than the head itself.

I doubt that would make you even 0.1% faster.

I know it wont make me go faster, but what
I meant was, does it increase the speed *at
all*, even microscopically? This question is
a mechanical-physical question, I don't plan to
ride like this to gain speed :)

PS. Apologize for unclear language, typos
etc. No sleep or food 48+h. But who needs
sleep and food when there are bikes?

Don't do that, it's not good for you :-)

....what? Apologizing or not eating/sleeping?

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

road bike questions
 

On 2018-10-09 12:02, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Joerg wrote:

Head must be up. Else ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OrKLGEOVRA

Head must be up but should it hang down like
into your body, or should it be "supported" up
by muscles? It is more a neck and shoulder
issue than the head itself.


It must be supported by muscles. Otherwise you run a real risk of neck
pain. That is something I've heard road bike riders complain about.


I doubt that would make you even 0.1% faster.

I know it wont make me go faster, but what
I meant was, does it increase the speed *at
all*, even microscopically? This question is
a mechanical-physical question, I don't plan to
ride like this to gain speed :)


How could pedaling "empty" decrease the speed? The ticking freehub
causes a very small amount of braking force. If you pedal, the ticking
will drop in rate, so less drag. However, the difference is probably so
miniscule that it really doesn't matter.


PS. Apologize for unclear language, typos
etc. No sleep or food 48+h. But who needs
sleep and food when there are bikes?

Don't do that, it's not good for you :-)

...what? Apologizing or not eating/sleeping?


No, I meant it's not good to go 48h without sleep. Without food is ok,
we all have to do that before a colonoscopy. Just don't do a 100 miler
on your road bike during that time.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

road bike questions
 

On 10/9/2018 2:21 PM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
1) When you ride a road bike, should your upper
back/neck section be "concave", i.e.
just hang on the shoulders, or should it be
"convex", like an arc from one shoulder
to another?

2) Is there a technique to braking? When do you
use the left hand (the front brake), when
the right, and when both (save for an
emergency situation, I get that).
By instinct, it seems I use the front
much more. (Am I normal? :))

3) What happens if you pedal slow, while the
bike moves fast? Do you contribute to the
speed just a tiny bit, but you don't notice
it, or perhaps it is a waste of effort
because of the construction, however
that works.

PS. Apologize for unclear language, typos etc.
No sleep or food 48+h. But who needs sleep
and food when there are bikes?

I'm curious: Have you ever read a book on the fundamentals of bicycling?
There are several we could recommend. They might answer many of the
questions you keep raising.


--
- Frank Krygowski

road bike questions
 

Joerg wrote:

It must be supported by muscles.
Otherwise you run a real risk of neck pain.
That is something I've heard road bike riders
complain about.

Great, this has been my intuition as well!

How could pedaling "empty" decrease the
speed? The ticking freehub causes a very
small amount of braking force. If you pedal,
the ticking will drop in rate, so less drag.
However, the difference is probably so
miniscule that it really doesn't matter.

OK, let's rephrase:

If one pedals normally, the bike goes forward
because the energy from your body and legs is
transferred to carry the bike forward.

But if you pedal "empty", i.e. too low gear for
the current speed, where do the energy go? a)
same as above, only you won't notice because
the effect is so small; or, b) somewhere else?

And if b), what aspect of the construction (or
physics perhaps) is the explanation for this?

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

road bike questions
 

Frank Krygowski wrote:

I'm curious: Have you ever read a book on the
fundamentals of bicycling? There are several we
could recommend. They might answer many of the
questions you keep raising.

I have read the following books. Except for
"Effective Cycling" (too boring) and
"Praktisch Fietsboek" (I don't speak Dutch, but
it has tons of illos so in a way have "read"
it).

%%%% bikes

@book{long-distance-cyclists-handbook,
author = {Simon Doughty},
ISBN = {0 7136 5819 3},
publisher = {A \& C Black},
title = {The Long Distance Cyclists' handbook},
year = 2001
}

@book{complete-road-bike-maintenance,
author = {Guy Andrews},
ISBN = {978 1 4081 7093 9},
publisher = {Bloomsbury},
title = {Complete Road Bike Maintenance},
year = 2013
}

@book{en-cyklo-pedi,
author = {Johan Tell},
ISBN = {978-91-1-307337-8},
publisher = {Nordstedt},
title = {En cyklo pedi},
year = 2016
}

@book{effective-cycling,
author = {John Forester},
ISBN = {978-0-262-51694-5},
publisher = {Cambridge},
title = {Effective Cycling},
year = 2012
}

@book{bike,
author = {Daniel Benson and Richard Moore},
ISBN = 9781781312346,
publisher = {Aurum},
title = {Bike! A Tribute to the World's Greatest Cycling Designers},
year = 2014
}

@book{cykelbok,
author = {Staffan Skott},
ISBN = {91-550-3942-1},
publisher = {Tiden},
title = {Cykelbok},
year = 1994
}

@book{praktisch-fietsboek,
author = {Rob van der Plas},
ISBN = {90 274 9848 2},
publisher = {Spectrum},
title = {Praktisch Fietsboek},
year = 1984
}

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

road bike questions
 

On 2018-10-09 12:19, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Joerg wrote:


[...]

How could pedaling "empty" decrease the
speed? The ticking freehub causes a very
small amount of braking force. If you pedal,
the ticking will drop in rate, so less drag.
However, the difference is probably so
miniscule that it really doesn't matter.

OK, let's rephrase:

If one pedals normally, the bike goes forward
because the energy from your body and legs is
transferred to carry the bike forward.

But if you pedal "empty", i.e. too low gear for
the current speed, where do the energy go? a)
same as above, only you won't notice because
the effect is so small; or, b) somewhere else?

And if b), what aspect of the construction (or
physics perhaps) is the explanation for this?



It's a) and b). a) is as I explained above, you'd be conteracting the
ratcheting of the freehub a ltlle bit but likely too small to even measure.

b) is the lion's share. Like a car's idling enigine uses easily 5-10% of
it's normal fuel per hour, your legs will not be cranking free of any
losses. IOW, it makes absolutely no sense to do this.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

road bike questions
 

On 10/9/2018 1:21 PM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
1) When you ride a road bike, should your upper
back/neck section be "concave", i.e.
just hang on the shoulders, or should it be
"convex", like an arc from one shoulder
to another?
-snip-

Or that sideways twisty thing like Patrick Sercu:

http://i0.wp.com/ciclismopassion.com...?fit=960%2C691

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

road bike questions
 

Joerg wrote:

It's a) and b). a) is as I explained above,
you'd be conteracting the ratcheting of the
freehub a ltlle bit but likely too small to
even measure.

b) is the lion's share. Like a car's idling
enigine uses easily 5-10% of it's normal fuel
per hour, your legs will not be cranking free
of any losses. IOW, it makes absolutely no
sense to do this.

Again, I know it doesn't make sense to do in
terms of cycling. Everyone understands that,
even a 5 year old.

I understand about the "conteracting the
ratcheting of the freehub" but the question
remains, does it increase the speed, albeit
-infinitely small, the *normal* way?

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573