Commuting Alternative?

On 2007-01-24 13:34:52 +0000, "stratrider" said:



On Jan 23, 4:54 pm, " wrote:

Can I get a 30-40mph aerodynamic 'bent that will be reliable for daily
riding without spending 10K?

No such bike or hpv exists at any price when you are talking about a
real world commute by a real world pilot. There are 50+ mile in hour
records held by exceptional pilots on a closed track (no hills, no
traffic lights ect.) but not in a real wolrd setting.

Jim Reilly

I do not think 30mph average is an unreasonable figure for a fully faired
velomobile ridden by a reasonably fit pilot.
--
Three wheels good, two wheels ok

www.catrike.co.uk

On Jan 24, 9:29 am, " wrote:
It seems I set my expectations too high with my 30-40mph statement. I
would be OK with an average speed (including starts, stops & hills) of
20-25mph over my 37.92 mile ride home. My average last ride home was
15.58mph, giving me a 2:25hr ride on my steel singlespeed upright
bicycle. I'd need a 19mph average to get me under 2 hours.

I think 20-25mph is an aggresive but reasonable goal. Check out:

http://www.recumbents.com/mars/pages...ojtetzOFS.html

I first saw several of these at the Seagull Century in Maryland, USA
back in 1999-2000. One gentlemen (perhaps the guy pictured in the
link) was said to average over 25 mph for the entire 100 miles in in
his homebuilt slipstream lowracer. I think he was about 65 years old
at the time!


Jim Reilly

On 24 Jan 2007 16:24:00 -0800, "JimM" wrote:

Based on my albeit limited experience, unless you commute in an
especially hilly area, you should average a higher speed on a
recumbent, all things being equal (fitness, quality of bike, etc). I
was able to sustain average speeds of well over 25 mph on an Easy Racer
Gold Rush along the Erie Canal trail. In average physical shape at the
time. I could have hit upwards of 30 mph w/ additional effort.
YMMV

I knew a person (via an older email group) that commuted on a fully
faired recumbent and his biggest problem was not hills, but the
combination of too many trucks 40 mph or better combined with too much
side wind. Controlling his recumbent brought his effective speed way
down.

And riding along the Erie Canal is not the same as commuting in
traffic. In the small town where I live, there are two intersections
with double left turn lanes that are more difficult to maneuver in
rush hour traffic on a regular, non-faired recumbent compared to my
diamond frame (in both cases you have to take the left between moving
lanes of autos, with at least a few trying to jump into the right-most
left turn lane). I simply feel nimbler and quicker (if not faster) on
other than a recumbent.

If I have a structured, low traffic commute, I might use one of my
recumbents, but in heavy traffic I go to either the Bike Friday or a
diamond frame for reasons other than speed. I don't see a fully faired
recumbent a viable commuter in most city traffic.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Jan 25, 2:33 am, Buck
wrote:
I do not think 30mph average is an unreasonable figure for a fully faired
velomobile ridden by a reasonably fit pilot.

Not too many years ago I jumped into a pace line during a century ride
on my 1999 Stratus. We covered 24 miles in the first hour of this FLAT
ride. We were flying! I was a strong rider with no baggage on a
course with no hills or significant wind plus I had the draft advantage
of the pace line. I cannot imagine how much additional power it would
have taken to add 6 miles to that first hour of riding without adding
real world conditions.

Jim

On 2007-01-25 17:47:19 +0000, "stratrider" said:



On Jan 25, 2:33 am, Buck
wrote:
I do not think 30mph average is an unreasonable figure for a fully faired
velomobile ridden by a reasonably fit pilot.

Not too many years ago I jumped into a pace line during a century ride
on my 1999 Stratus. We covered 24 miles in the first hour of this FLAT
ride. We were flying! I was a strong rider with no baggage on a
course with no hills or significant wind plus I had the draft advantage
of the pace line. I cannot imagine how much additional power it would
have taken to add 6 miles to that first hour of riding without adding
real world conditions.

Jim

I can maintain 23.4 mph average for three hours on a Catrike Expedition
unfaired while riding alone and I am 40 years old.

I'm goosed after three hours but I am working on it. On a velomobile
with much less wind resitance I expect 30mph over a similar time would
not be an issue.
--
Three wheels good, two wheels ok

www.catrike.co.uk

On Jan 25, 12:58 pm, Buck
wrote:
I can maintain 23.4 mph average for three hours on a Catrike Expedition
unfaired while riding alone and I am 40 years old.


Buck, now I am really feeling bad! That is remarkable! And on a trike
no less? Do you think you could ride flat out for 30 miles (not
kilometers right?) in one hour on your tirke?

Jim

"Buck" wrote in message
news:2007012517590116807-SPAMTRAPian@trikesandstuffDOTcoDOTuk...
On 2007-01-25 17:47:19 +0000, "stratrider" said:



On Jan 25, 2:33 am, Buck
wrote:
I do not think 30mph average is an unreasonable figure for a fully
faired
velomobile ridden by a reasonably fit pilot.

Not too many years ago I jumped into a pace line during a century ride
on my 1999 Stratus. We covered 24 miles in the first hour of this FLAT
ride. We were flying! I was a strong rider with no baggage on a
course with no hills or significant wind plus I had the draft advantage
of the pace line. I cannot imagine how much additional power it would
have taken to add 6 miles to that first hour of riding without adding
real world conditions.

Jim

I can maintain 23.4 mph average for three hours on a Catrike Expedition
unfaired while riding alone and I am 40 years old.

I'm goosed after three hours but I am working on it. On a velomobile with
much less wind resitance I expect 30mph over a similar time would not be
an issue.
--
Three wheels good, two wheels ok

www.catrike.co.uk


I'm calling bull****. I ride a Catrike Road with the small fairing. Granted
I have Big Apples, racks and mudguards but my averages are in the 22 - 25km
range over a 40 km ride. Granted also that this is somewhat hilly and I'm
46. But I ride 7000km plus per year and I am in very good shape. I can't
imagine anyone pushing over 23mph for over three hours, that's about 37kph.
Unless of course it's all downhill and/or with a good wind pushing. Hey,
there's always BionX units... that would work to get the avg up there.

Grolsch

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:29:47 GMT, "Grolch"
wrote:

I'm calling bull****. I ride a Catrike Road with the small fairing. Granted
I have Big Apples, racks and mudguards but my averages are in the 22 - 25km
range over a 40 km ride. Granted also that this is somewhat hilly and I'm
46. But I ride 7000km plus per year and I am in very good shape. I can't
imagine anyone pushing over 23mph for over three hours, that's about 37kph.
Unless of course it's all downhill and/or with a good wind pushing. Hey,
there's always BionX units... that would work to get the avg up there.

There was an older guy on a low-rider recumbent that rode just behind
the serious pace lines at the Seagull for the two years that I rode
sag for a bike race team and he wasn't much off their on-road pace of
25 and change (for the record, they were training more than pushing
it). Seagull though had only two places that you slow down briefly
(the first and third stops back then) and the rest is flat, so with
the wind advantage of the low rider, it was pretty much perfect for
the bike.

The fastest I've seen an unfaired recumbent on a timed course was well
below the hour mark for 40 kilos, but he wasn't staying with the
fastest of the USCF guys, the specialists - he probably set fourth or
fifth on the road behind some good TT guys. The on-the-road was an
important part because he fell both times briefly at the turn arounds
- his front wheel chattered on the rough stuff, it was pumped so high.
He looked like he could have done well under four hours over the 100
mile mark and maybe 52 minutes and change if he had stayed upright for
the 40 kilos.

Of course, none of the above were faired or trikes.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

wrote:

I can
envision myself spending a few thousand dollars & discovering that
it's actually significantly harder to ride to work than my regular
bicycle, perhaps due to the weight on the hills.

This is almost certainly the case. What others are leaving out here is
that you simply can't work very hard to propel a velomobile; you'll
melt down from the lack of cooling air. The more air you divert to
cool yourself, the more aerodynamics suffer. It's a no-win situation.


Where velomobiles work is in absolutely flat places, for riders who
were only going to be putting out 100W or so anyway. Low rider power
makes the heating problem tolerable, and flat terrain makes low rider
power feasible.

I knew of one Leitra in Seattle (a hilly city). The guy who rode it
obviously liked it, but it spent /a lot/ of time in the shop getting
repaired or retrofitted. He also rode it quite a bit without its front
fairing, making it a heavy trike without any potential performance
benefits over an unfaired machine.

I've considered power-assisted vehicles, but don't think that's
the solution for me. A battery system would be too heavy when under my
own power to justify it's assistance, and would not have the juice
for my commute.

The weight of electric assist is not a big issue in very flat terrain,
and if you don't have very flat terrain then a velomobile doesn't make
sense anyway.

A gas system would be add a few issues:
a) Smell. Parked inside & when running.

Yes. That's what keeps me from even trying one.

b) Legality. Suddenly it's a "motorized vehicle" and subject to
many laws & regs.

This varies a lot by location. In some places the "motorized bicycle"
category would cover you and the only catch would be that you couldn't
use bike paths. In other places you'd have to register and insure the
thing like a moped or scooter.

c) Personal satisfaction. At that point, why not take the car or
motorcycle?

200mpg is a nice benefit. The opportunity to work some exercise into
your commute is a good thing too.

Chalo

On 2007-01-25 18:18:23 +0000, "stratrider" said:

On Jan 25, 12:58 pm, Buck
wrote:
I can maintain 23.4 mph average for three hours on a Catrike Expedition
unfaired while riding alone and I am 40 years old.


Buck, now I am really feeling bad! That is remarkable! And on a trike
no less? Do you think you could ride flat out for 30 miles (not
kilometers right?) in one hour on your tirke?

Jim

Not much faster to be honest but I could break the hour I imagine, it
is down to
maintaining a steady cadence, once you get past the initial muscle burn
it is ok,
It has taken me a long time to train my cadence to this point and has
really only
kicked in this winter, although really long hills mess it up a bit,
after three hours
riding my knees are physicaly very hot for about an hour, I have discussed this
with the doctor but she says it is fine.
--
Three wheels good, two wheels ok

www.catrike.co.uk