What kind of jackasses live in Colorado, anyway?

[BrotherMan]

I'm fond of potatoes myself.

[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by Plant Woman

1. It was joke.

2. It would be hard to hide a gun in spandex, wouldn't you say?

If you are wearing a biking jersey with the rear pockets then depending on what you had back there I'm not sure they could tell if you had a gun. And it would depend on the size of the gun.

The Ruger LCP™ - Lightweight Compact Pistol

But the point would be for the assholes to see the gun. Because all I want to do is ride, not play bumper cars or trash target on a rural road.

[BDS]

Originally Posted by naturalist.atheist

But then again a pissed off biker in good shape on a good bike can get up to 60mph or more on flat terrain and catch up to a car in urban locations....

And the fastest cyclist was a bike mounted on a treadmill going over 205 mph. Frankly BDS if you can't do at least 30 mph for at least 30 seconds you suck.

BDS before you poke fun at somebody maybe you should do your homework. You look stupid when you don't.

What crap! You can't go 60 mph on flat terrain, and neither can Matt Cavendish (the fastest sprinter in the Tour de France this year.) I doubt I can go 30 mph for much more than 30 seconds (unless I'm going downhill, or have a tail wind). The difference between me and n.a. is that I actually ride a bike, and I actually know how fast I can go, without deluding myself. Any non-bike-racer who thinks he can go more than about 20 mph over an extended period of time, riding by himself with no tail wind on level ground is deluding himself. Amateur bike racers only go about 20 mph while training by themselves (this is over a 20-40 mile ride). The pros can average 30 mph on short (6-15 mile) individual time trials (they might go 25 in training).

And what's with "mounted on a treadmill"? Isn't a bike mounted on a treadmill going zero miles per hour?

Also, I looked at the picture of the bike that is supposedly capable of doing 60 mph on flat ground. It's aerodynamically completely different from a bicycle one would ride around town and would be illegal in a bike race. I doubt n.a. ever owned one. I'm sure the guy riding it is in far better shape than n.a. ever was, too. Recumbent, aerodynamic bikes are efficient and have high top-end speeds, but would be useless around town because they are less powerful than a normal bike -- less able to accelerate, climb hills, or maneuver.

[Adam]

I mount my bike on a treadmill to work out during the winter, and that's pretty much the only time I can get a decent reading on my speed (OK, technically, it's 0mph, but you know what I mean). I can get up above 30mph for very short bursts (i.e. when I first got the thing and was curious to see how fast I could go), but it's very difficult to cruise at more than 15mph or so.

[BDS]

Originally Posted by Adam

I mount my bike on a treadmill to work out during the winter, and that's pretty much the only time I can get a decent reading on my speed (OK, technically, it's 0mph, but you know what I mean). I can get up above 30mph for very short bursts (i.e. when I first got the thing and was curious to see how fast I could go), but it's very difficult to cruise at more than 15mph or so.

I've never ridden on a treadmill, but I wonder how accurately the speeds translate into real biking. The two factors that reduce speed on a bicycle are friction from the ground and wind resistance. That's why the speed-record bikes that n.a. linked to are completely enclosed -- so they can be more aerodynamic. I've read that an aerodynamic wind screen (like on some motorcycles) can increase bicycle speed quite a bit, but they're illegal in bike races. My question about treadmills -- how can they judge the impact of wind resistance on speed?

[Adam]

Well, obviously, they don't. They just measure how fast you're making the drum spin. On some of them, you can adjust the resistance of the drum, but I doubt that's a good proxy for wind resistance.

ETA: I've never tried one of these, but it may model wind resistance more accurately than fluid trainers do:

[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by BDS

What crap! You can't go 60 mph on flat terrain, and neither can Matt Cavendish (the fastest sprinter in the Tour de France this year.) I doubt I can go 30 mph for much more than 30 seconds (unless I'm going downhill, or have a tail wind). The difference between me and n.a. is that I actually ride a bike, and I actually know how fast I can go, without deluding myself. Any non-bike-racer who thinks he can go more than about 20 mph over an extended period of time, riding by himself with no tail wind on level ground is deluding himself. Amateur bike racers only go about 20 mph while training by themselves (this is over a 20-40 mile ride). The pros can average 30 mph on short (6-15 mile) individual time trials (they might go 25 in training).

And what's with "mounted on a treadmill"? Isn't a bike mounted on a treadmill going zero miles per hour?

Also, I looked at the picture of the bike that is supposedly capable of doing 60 mph on flat ground. It's aerodynamically completely different from a bicycle one would ride around town and would be illegal in a bike race. I doubt n.a. ever owned one. I'm sure the guy riding it is in far better shape than n.a. ever was, too. Recumbent, aerodynamic bikes are efficient and have high top-end speeds, but would be useless around town because they are less powerful than a normal bike -- less able to accelerate, climb hills, or maneuver.

Why don't you go do your homework. Also I am talking about high speeds for a short duration and in traffic where you can draft. And the people riding at 60mph were riding regular road racing bikes, but they were in a peloton drafting each other. And you have no idea what sort of shape I was in when I rode regularly, so shove your ego back up your ass, where it belongs.

[BDS]

The track world record for one kilometer is more than 1 minute. That translates to less than 60 kph -- let alone mph. No doubt there are special circumstances (tail wind, peloton) where people can go faster, but they were not doing so "on flat terrain (to) catch up to a car in urban locations." And neither were you.

Where do you live? Perhaps we could get together and time your speed. I'll bet $500 to your $5 that you can't ride 40 mph (timed over, say, 1/4 mile), let alone 60 mph, solo on a flat, windless course (unless your real name is Matt Cavendish). I'll bet $100 you can't ride solo 30 mph for one mile (on a flat, windless course). Were you ever a professional bike racer? If so, you could possibly win the bet. If not, you won't be able to.

[BDS]

By the way, I looked up the team pursuit world record, which is 3:53.31 for a 4 k. course. That's remarkably fast -- slightly more than 60 kph. However, it involves four cyclists drafting off each other, and the speed is still less than 40 mph. And these are Olympic athletes, not commuters.

Brits smash team pursuit world record | Olympics 2012 | Cycling Weekly