Frank, believe me, there are extensive and ongoing wallet lightening procedures already in place. Quite a lot of them imposed by the government.
Nick
Tour of Britain stage 3 route
- Thread starter WaiWonChing
- Start date
Nick
Work rate
Bob (Wotwozere)
"I am not sure why this is an achievment apart from a lot of patience of sitting for 7 hours at 15 mph, are these bikes full power like a moped or do you have to pedal?"
My bike is a pedelec so I had no choice, and I was riding behind Ching for much of the ride and he definately pedalling!
I set my assist on full for the first few hills and it made the climb easy, although I still had to assist. Unfortunately it would not have been possible for me to complete the route with that high level of assistance. Ching was on low assist all the way and I changed to low assist after taking his advice!
I followed Ching up the steepest slope and we both ground to a halt on a particularly steep part, not because we could not cycle up the hill, but because, when it was steep we tended to wander a little from side to side, and a car was passing so we had to keep to the side of the road and slowed too much. A short distance up the hill it levelled out and we were able to remount and continue.
There was no time where I felt I was wasting my time, and there was no time I felt like a passenger. Having to pedel up hill and on the flat made it hard work. I sweated so much that I had to stop a number of times to rinse my eyes.
The scenery was wonderful, at times bleak, but still worth being there. Travelling as a group with people who share at least one interest is very rewarding. We stopped often as we did not all cycle at the same speed and wanted to make sure that the slowest rider (me!) was still safe.
Conal
Bob (Wotwozere)
"I am not sure why this is an achievment apart from a lot of patience of sitting for 7 hours at 15 mph, are these bikes full power like a moped or do you have to pedal?"
My bike is a pedelec so I had no choice, and I was riding behind Ching for much of the ride and he definately pedalling!
I set my assist on full for the first few hills and it made the climb easy, although I still had to assist. Unfortunately it would not have been possible for me to complete the route with that high level of assistance. Ching was on low assist all the way and I changed to low assist after taking his advice!
I followed Ching up the steepest slope and we both ground to a halt on a particularly steep part, not because we could not cycle up the hill, but because, when it was steep we tended to wander a little from side to side, and a car was passing so we had to keep to the side of the road and slowed too much. A short distance up the hill it levelled out and we were able to remount and continue.
There was no time where I felt I was wasting my time, and there was no time I felt like a passenger. Having to pedel up hill and on the flat made it hard work. I sweated so much that I had to stop a number of times to rinse my eyes.
The scenery was wonderful, at times bleak, but still worth being there. Travelling as a group with people who share at least one interest is very rewarding. We stopped often as we did not all cycle at the same speed and wanted to make sure that the slowest rider (me!) was still safe.
Conal
Last edited:
Used batteries
Frank
"It just sounded like the ulitmate in e-biking excess - using batteries as consumables and just chucking them away to lighten the load, without even stopping the bike!"
We all started off with four batteries. I was able to store some of mine in one of the support vehicles after they were used up. I suggested to Ching that he did this but he said he that he could not claim to have completed the ride on four batteries if he did not carry all four all the way.
Maybe next time I will be able to do this but I will have to get a lot fitter and lose weight to match his performance.
Conal
Frank
"It just sounded like the ulitmate in e-biking excess - using batteries as consumables and just chucking them away to lighten the load, without even stopping the bike!"
We all started off with four batteries. I was able to store some of mine in one of the support vehicles after they were used up. I suggested to Ching that he did this but he said he that he could not claim to have completed the ride on four batteries if he did not carry all four all the way.
Maybe next time I will be able to do this but I will have to get a lot fitter and lose weight to match his performance.
Conal
position of feet on pedals
John
"I'm surprised he made it at all with feet positioned like that"
I was suprised at how far back Ching's feet were on his pedals. But during the ride, and since, I have made a study of where people place their feet on pedals and there seems to be no one favoured positon.
I have always thought that the best place is with the ball of your foot on the pedal but during the Olympics and para'lympics I noticed that some riders place the middle of their feet on the pedels, as do many ordinary cyclists I have passed since the ride.
Does anyone know if there is a recommended position for the foot on a pedal?
Conal
John
"I'm surprised he made it at all with feet positioned like that"
I was suprised at how far back Ching's feet were on his pedals. But during the ride, and since, I have made a study of where people place their feet on pedals and there seems to be no one favoured positon.
I have always thought that the best place is with the ball of your foot on the pedal but during the Olympics and para'lympics I noticed that some riders place the middle of their feet on the pedels, as do many ordinary cyclists I have passed since the ride.
Does anyone know if there is a recommended position for the foot on a pedal?
Conal
The general acceptance in the West is the ball of the foot, and of course all cycle toeclips leave no doubt as to the designer's view of the optimum.
I hardly ever see an experienced western cyclist using the instep, though I did to my surprise see one Olympics female competitor riding that way.
But as I remarked before, the instep seems very popular throughout the Orient, plus Africa and the India region, so the West seems a minority, certainly where utility riders are concerned at least.
.
Photos from the event.
What a great day we had. We have put some pictures up on the Tour de Presteigne site. The link is Tour de Presteigne . Then just follow the Ezee Rider link.
Andy
What a great day we had. We have put some pictures up on the Tour de Presteigne site. The link is Tour de Presteigne . Then just follow the Ezee Rider link.
Andy
Well cyclists competing in the paralympics using the instep of their foot to pedal is entirely understandable; who knows what difficulty/pain they are enduring to at least pedal in the first place - it may be physically impossible for them to use the ball of their foot. So yes, I can believe that.
As for cyclists in the able-bodied Olympics using their instep to pedal - no way! I don't believe that. I doubt it very much. Never seen cycling athletes - professional or amateur, pedal like that - ever.
And ordinary cyclists using their instep? Yep see that all the time. I find they are the are ultra short distance cyclists and could never ever envisage themselves doing an End-to-End, (every 'ordinary' cyclist is capable of completing an End-to-End.) I wouldn't mind betting that a large proportion of people who give up cycling as 'too much like hard work' pedal inefficiently, (besides believing the gears that came with their bike were what they had to put up with).
In short, cycling using the instep is very, very inefficient. It's alright to see kids cycling like that; but it's just downright embarrassing to see adult cyclists pedalling like that.
P.S.
I remember when I was aged 12 or so and almost in tears at permanently losing on the school sports running field to at least come in at a respectable time behind the 'stars' of the running track amongst my classmates. On one occasion whilst waiting my turn the school's best runner at many disciplines, cross country, 100 metres, (or was it the 100 yards?), and the 440 as it was then, to name but a few, told me of his 'secret' - he said to imagine lifting myself up on to my toes and slamming the ball of my foot hard into the ground as I ran and the resultant spring would propel me faster than normal.
I don't know if that is defacto knowledge amongst runners or not but the effect it had on my running was out of this world - stratospheric! I'm telling you, I was Forrest Gump breaking free from his callipers and running like the wind long before the author even thought of inventing such a scene. My running was transformed. Now, 'up on my toes' I flew. In actual fact I wasn't running on my toes but the balls of my feet. The spring and power that was released from running like that was amazing. I went on to win my heats and ended up in the finals - I didn't win, (look I mentioned Forrest Gump not Chariots of Fire!) but I upset the sport teacher's expected final selections. Sometime later I won, and beat that school champ in the process, in a cross country race - never did again; I'd been duly noted and thereafter taken into calculations.
If ever I've needed to run fast at any time in the subsequent years I always remember that advice, and even now it increases my natural speed no end.
It works in exactly the same way when pedalling too.
So it's balls of your feet!
Balls of your feet!
That's right; for once it's all balls
- and no instep.
As I said above Danny, to my astonishment I did see one of the women doing that in the main Olympics, clearly on the instep. It was only on one pass in a brief newsclip so it may have been due to a momentary change of position to relieve a physical problem.
Other than that odd event, as you say, no way. Experienced sports cyclists I've never seen riding like that, and toeclips/shoe attachments prevent it anyway, unless inverted.
Dig out some video of cycling in Japan, China, Korea etc though, and they nearly all seem to pedal on the instep with a flat footed splayed appearance. Very strange.
.
I know, Frank, it probably did sound like that. I don't think the e-biking scene has not quite got that competitive, but perhaps we shall see competitors adopting that tactic in next year's Tour de Presteigne.
On the other hand, it is exactly what most people do with batteries. Non-rechargeable batteries is still a huge market.
Nick
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