Getting Competitive and Setting More Records with the Vendetta and the Silvio

[psychling]

Very Good news:

I'll be getting two `Time' and `Distance' courses measured out here to be considered for official sanctioning by the UMCA (UltraMarathon Cycling Association).

Time courses can be used for 12 hour and 24 hour events;
Distance courses can be used for 100 mile, 200 mile events.

The Prescott Cycling Club (Arizona) will be heading up the course measurements and submitting them for sanction and approval. We're expecting to complete the measurement process within the month and submit the data and materials to UMCA.

Each course

• 
  Has almost no traffic;
• 
  Few and no intersections;
• 
  Is flat;
• 
  Almost straight as an arrow;
• 
  Has an excellent shoulder (wide, no rumble strip, minimum road debris)
• 
  Is ideal for both the Vendetta and the Silvio.

Course # 1:

50 miles: Aguila to Brenda, AZ, on Highway 60.

This course is almost entirely on the RAAM / RAW route. In the AZ desert, with elevation from to 2160 feet to 1350 feet above sea level. The temps are what you would expect: 100 - 110 F range 8 months out of the year. Tolerable the other 4 months. No snow. Ever.

Only two or three intersections going west and one intersection coming back east. All can be navigated well by a crew that drives ahead to make the transit safe and fast. A few towns (3?) from start to finish on the 50 miles. Aguila is about 60 miles from Phoenix.

Course # 2:

25 miles: Paulden to Ash Fork, AZ, on Highway 89.

This course is not on the RAAM / RAW route and climbs from 4400 feet to 5100 feet through National Forest on good and well maintained roads. At these elevations some snow can sometimes be a factor but it is also a more temperate climate all year long. The thing about the `National Forest,' though, is that the terrain is mostly scrub desert. No intersections. Again, this could be both a `time' or `distance' course. Ash Fork is about 40 miles straight west on Interstate 40 from Flagstaff, AZ.

The road cycling community in the Prescott area is active 12 months of the year. And more and more serious cyclists are seeing the terrain and climate as being ideal for training.

Also, Prescott is considered one of the premier mountain bike locations in the country. What with the mountains, several National Forests and well maintained roads and trails it is nothing less than a hidden jewel.

--------------

You'll be hearing more soon. Stay tuned.

 

[spdixon]

I learned from another forum


I learned from another forum that you train on various platforms:

Ti Aero
Silvio
Vendetta
Airborne Zeppelin

If you were to rank your bikes, how would you rate them (subjectively or objectively if you can) in terms of climbing efficiency?

 

[John Tolhurst]

That's an interesting

That's an interesting question, isn't it? If I know Dan at all, he'll take his time to draw his conclusions, but when he spills the beans, they will be forever spilt.

 

[psychling]

Climbing beans ...

You're dead on the money, John.

 

[spdixon]

Jeez!  This question seems

Jeez! This question seems politically incorrect in the recumbent universe (or at least in a bent manufactures forum). I wonder if I will get an answer that can help guide my 2012 bent purchase on BROL?

 

[Jerrye]

Patience, my friend...

Give Dan some time to evaluate and crunch the numbers. IIRC he has not had his Cruzbikes for all that long. And he seems like the kind of person that does not make decisions (or recommendations, or give advice) without due diligence being done.

Patience, grasshopper, patience....

 

[John Tolhurst]

@spdixon 
You want to ask me?

@spdixon
You want to ask me? I think you already know the answer. You want to hear Dan's answer, you will have to wait till he's ready to draw conclusions. You're well informed of what he rides, so you know he has a profile within the bent community and has UMCA records to his name. He's not likely to want to go off half cocked, that's the point. Its nothing to do with PC.

What's your riding like? What bikes are you into? Do you ride in a particularly hilly region, or is this more of a theoretical question?

My answer to your climbing question is along the lines of preserving power into the crank and then preserving it out of the crank, while retaining good aerodynamics. There is temptation to think this question of preserving power is a marginal issue, of not much import. How wrong one would be!

Take a look at Maria's TTTT performance http://cruzbike.com/texas-time-trial-12-hour-womans-distance. Read the report carefully and then reflect on the elevation changes on that course. And then think again about the importance of preserving power. My claim is that my Silvio and Vendetta climb on a par with diamond frame road bikes, and that they have the same efficiency of getting power into the crank and getting it out of the crank into the road. Maria's ride was exceptional, but I think it would have been somewhat unbelievable if her bike was less efficient handling power than a diamond frame road bike. Any lump of power you care to make, it will all get to the road and that makes for a thrilling riding experience, trust me. Acceleration like most will never have experienced. 20mph to 25mph times lower than pretty much anyone will have seen. I mean, no matter what bike you ride today, if you put your capability onto my Vendetta, your times will drop.

That's how I see it, but you weren't asking me!

 

[spdixon]

John,
in response to your

John,

in response to your questions, I ride a Vision R65during solo weekday training rides and a Bachetta CA2 on weekend group rides with DF riders. The weekend rides (aka "the gimbels ride") are actually illegal road races that can draw up to 150 riders on warm and sunny day. The pack splits into into 3 separate peletons that take 3 different routes that are a long and hilly, a medium ride which ride has just a few well spaced hills but no major climbs and a short ride which is a no-drop ride. I am fairly competive on the medium rides but I find myself in trouble by the 4th hill on the long ride where the climbs are frequent and close together. I am looking for a bike that can help me be more competitve in the hills on the long rides.

 

[John Tolhurst]

Many B riders will insist I

Many B riders will insist I am wrong, but I say if you spread the load across your body like a DF rider, or like a cruzbike rider, then there would be no reason for you to fatigue more rapidly. The other possibility is you are riding in a group that is above your level, but only you can judge that. There are always faster riders out there, and always slower riders too.

 

[spdixon]

Hmm.  When do you plan to

Hmm. When do you plan to release the 2012 Vendettas and will customizations be available?

 

[psychling]

Not relevant to SPs question, but ...

On Sept 11 there was something out here called the `Skull Valley Loop Challenge.' Fifty-four miles and 5,700 feet of climbing. I had only been living here for 6 weeks. There were 148 entrants. There was only one recumbent rider: me. I placed 51st.

Again ... on hilly terrain it is mostly the engine and aerodynamics. But in mountainous terrain ... a different story. Hilly and mountainous have nothing in common. On the Skull Valley Loop there is a stretch of 12.2 miles of road that starts out easy (4 - 5%) and ends up really hard (6 - 9%). ANYbody can climb a couple of steep hills. But getting your legs to `endure' 12.2 miles of nothing but UP is like comparing eating candy to an enema. (O.k. Maybe that was too graphic.)

For me to get to the rode that takes me `over' the mountain in 17 miles I have to climb some `foothills' with a couple of hundred meters of 11 - 16% inclines.

Hills are not mountains.

Mo lata.

Last Sunday I did an informal 110 k `time trial' southwest of metro Phoenix. Flat as a pancake. It was the first time I rode any `flat' road in a long time. The group I came with chose not to TT it. I came in 1 hour and 40 minutes before the second person. Silvio.

I attribute my good time to the past six months of pumping up mountains on the Silvio. I attribute the fact that I wasn't faster to: a) city traffic, b) stop signs and signals, c) the fact that I wasn't on the Vendetta.

Again ... mo lata. Things is a'brewin' out here.