Tired but some thoughts on bikes

I am tired today, I have been slammed at work and kept chained to my desk by trying to support remote people via IM. My Mango is currently down while I deal with repairs and so I have been thinking about secondary bikes and fair weather bikes.

When I hurt my Mango (still a painful thought) I cleaned up and got both my Corsa and Raptobike road worthy again. The Raptobike process was basically filling the tires and adjusting the seat pad. The Corsa had been loaned to Doncl for testing and so I had to adjust the seat, change both tires and tubes. Then I had to get lights, seat bag, and all the accoutrements necessary for riding (water, snacks, keys, tools, pump) all set up.

The raptobike is still my favorite bike ever. It is just an amazing machine and now that I have the mango I am considering modifying my setup to be less commuter/tourer and more light and fast. I was thinking of changing the gearing from Rohloff to 65t big ring, and 9 speed cassette with 11-28. That is 42-108 gear inches, a bit high end but doable for a fast bike. Switch everything back to v-brakes and go as light and strong as I can with the wheels. I would put dacron wheel covers (home made) on the rear wheel too. I would strip off all accessories except the fastback bags. I would leave my tail lights on too (two on rear fork, one on headrest). I could remove the lights for racing. I could use this for sunny organized rides and group rides in the puget sound once I get my fitness back.

I am also considering the raptobike midracer.


Big wheels, fast bike, and it is a travel bike. Wow hard to resist.

Then Arnold at Raptobike also shows us his new prototype, the Raptotrike:




It blows me away that a tiny manufacturer based in the Netherlands has such a variety of amazing products. The raptobike lowracer is awesome and a great price point. I don't even see competition for the raptobike midracer, which is pretty amazing, and then the raptotrike tilting delta, wow. And Arnold wants to do a streamliner kit for the trike too.

Very impressive and I am a very happy customer of Raptobike.

Fastest woman alive.

Barbara Buatois broke the woman's world speed record this past week. She was riding the Varna Diablo 3 at Battle Mountain. With a 5 mile runup she was clocked at 72.534 mph average through the 200m speed traps. This is on level ground with no drafting. She is offically the fastest woman and the 6th fasted human in the world. She is also the first woman to break the 70mph mar. It is also the new national French speed record.

Here is a picture of the Varna Diablo III:


For more Battle Mountain 2009 results see this thread on www.recumbents.com

Malric's Latest - Kouign Amann LD

From Malric's World

Malric has a new design. He has updated his frame geometry on the FWD MBB lowracer, it is now adjustable for rider size and has more aero handlebars.

Ever since Malric introduced his design a year or more ago I have been following the progress of his designs. His company Zockra Bikes is a sponsor of a few HPV athletes including Barbara Buatois who recently set the female hour record at the Ford Michigan Proving Grounds Test Track in August. She actually set it twice, her second go at 84.02 kph/52.2 mph in an hour was faster than her first. This was on the Varna Tempest, a streamliner.

I am very happy to see Zockra sponsoring HPV athletes including both max speed and long distance riders. I certainly give more attention and desire toward their bikes knowing that Zockra both supports my chosen sport and that top performers of this sport are riding Zockra bikes at speed events. Take a look at the various Zockra bikes, they are all drool worthy carbon beauties. My personal favorite is still the Kouign Amann LD, I love the clean chainline and the practicality of being able to turn sharply and go FAST. I also have to admit, I like their paint jobs. They give the bikes a very finished look.

Bike Lust - Thundervolt M1

Thundervolt Manufacturing is a custom shop that makes a beautiful carbon lowracer. The Thundervolt M1 is available as a frame kit that includes fork, carbon/aluminum tiller, front and rear brakes,headset and front wheel. You can see John Morciglio's ad for it here.

This is a beautiful bike and a dangerous thing for me to look at. Here are some pictures:

Thundervolt M1

Thundervolt M1

Thundervolt M1

Thundervolt M1 - from above

One of the things that intrigues me is how it has integrated storage under the seat and in the shoulder fairings. This bike is designed for racing but it is very beautiful and I find it quite alluring.

Team RANS in the lead 4man RAAM

Team RANs is running a 4 man RAAM (Race Across AMerica) team this year. At this point they are 14 minutes ahead of the pack . This is very exciting for me and I am really hoping Team RANS wins this years 4man race.

OHPV has posted the HPC results for 2009

The 10th Annual Human Powered Challenge Race results are here.
Snippet:

Time Trial Men's Stock results
Rob English	19:02
Michael Wolfe	20:58
Phillip Plath	20:59
Chris Young	23:36
Alex Kohan	23:37
Keith Kohan	23:38
Dana Lieberman	24:29
Duncan Watson	25:57
Joe Kochanowski	26:20
Josh Townsley	26:28
Robert Holler	27:05
Trevor Mays	27:19
Jamie Emmerson	29:06
James Kubli	35:08

Not too bad. I did poorly in the sprints but I knew that. I didn't eat at all before the sprints and it showed. The road race results had a smaller field and though I placed 7th, I was near the bottom of my class. Though if you add in the entire field I placed 7th out of 22. I do think I want a tailbox for my Raptobike, it would put me in SuperStock which is not as competitive in this particular group.

Too bad Dana is so far from Portland. I would like to race against him again.

My Race Report from PIR

Duncan #303 chasing Joe #315 on the straightaway

I had an absolute blast at PIR for the 10th Annual Human Powered Challenge. I have never raced before and it is a lot of fun racing on a recumbent lowracer. The two events I enjoyed most were the 5 lap (~10mile) Time Trial and the 1 hour mass start Road Race. The picture above is me chasing Joe on the straightaway, I was unable to catch him though a mechanical issue did sideline him later.

The time trial was more about solo effort just hammering away on the course to get your best possible time. The road race was more interesting. It was set up to be a 15 lap course for the leader, estimated at roughly 1 hour of time. Once the leader finished 14 laps we were all given the white flag to indicate our final lap had started.

The start was cool, we all spread out at the starting line, the count down started and we shot off the line. I darted out right away, the small drive wheel on my raptobike accelerates very well. I had the lead momentarily for about 100 ft, Michael Wolfe and Phil came by me on the outside, they were hammering away fighting the headwind. I was unable to latch on to them, they dueled the entire race finishing within 1 second of one another. Rob English screamed by on the outside as I was watching Michael. The Kohan father and son team must have passed me at this point but I didn't see them. The headwind right out of the start point was hurting me so I latched on to Jeff Willis and Todd Harley on their front faired LWBs. Jeff was pulling so I just joined the train. I had my heart rate monitor on but wasn't watching the data during the race, instead I was just keeping an eye on my speed. But looking at the data afterword I can see exactly when I passed Jeff. Jeff bonked at around the 3rd lap, he had been riding with the Velomobiles earlier and hadn't eaten or hydrated well. I pulled hard to catch up to Todd as he had pulled away while I talked to Jeff for a second.

I pushed hard to catch up to Todd and really enjoyed the relief from the wind when I got behind him. We stuck together for one lap and I then pulled away when rounding the corner into the straightaway. The raptobike accelerates on turns so I used it and Todd and I rode side by side passed all the observers waiting at the start of lap 5. From this point onward I was on my own. Startle caught up to me on the backside of lap 5 putting a 6th person ahead of me. I wasn't able to keep up with him on his Fujin. I tried for a bit but he was too strong and pulled away. I kept an eye out for targets and focused on the next target and catching up as I raced. Trikes, Faired LWB (though I never saw Jeff or Todd again), one VK2 with a tailbox, all fell behind. I got passed a few times by Rob English and by Michael Wolfe and Phil. I was very talkative, I said a word or two as I passed people and always shouted something out to Lonnie as I passed him at his corner position on the far side. I screamed, grimaced and performed as I passed the spectators. I wanted their encouragement as it really helped me push myself.

Around lap 10 the Kohans caught up to me a second time, they rocketed by but I managed to push myself to latch on for 1 mile (1/2 a lap). They were organized and were sharing pull duty as we turned into the wind. I lost them as we entered the straightaway just before the start line. I was surprised at the end as I saw a couple of trikes to pass that I hadn't seen before. These guys were hammering away on three wheels. Very impressive riding but I managed to reel in all the trikes before I finished the course. In the end I finished 7th in my class with a time of 1h:05m and 13 laps.

I have caught the racing bug and now need to work on my diet and training more. This is a huge amount of fun that I recommend to anyone.

Human Powered Challenge at PIR - 2009

Todd with Lonnie's Streamliner
I just got back from the HPC event at PIR. It was a huge amount of fun. I got to meet more people than I can remember. Both my wife and I took a ton of pictures most of which are up on Flickr right now.

I participated in the Stock/Super Stock time trial, the 200m sprints, the autocross relay and the 1 hour mass start stock/super stock road race. I place 8th in the time trial in the stock class, 7th in the road race. I am not sure where in the list I show up for the 200m sprints.

My speed was approximately 21.9 mph for the TT I completed 10 laps in 25m.57s. I averaged over 20.8 mph for the Road Race as well. Since this was my first time trial and my first road race they are both personal bests. I will post the offical results after they are up on the OHPV site.

My two favorite parts of the event were getting sprinting advice from Rob English which he had received himself from Sam Whittingham and the Road Race. I drafted off of Jeff Willis and Todd Marley on their faired LWB bikes for about 4 laps, then I chased Todd when Jeff bonked, eventually passing him. I then just chased anyone who appeared to be in front of me for the rest of the event. I managed to draft off the Kohans when they both passed me but I could only stick to them for 1/2 a lap. I was very surprised how fast the time passed during the road race. It was a lot of fun and very exciting.