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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6897
Location: Maine10/4/19 4:22 PM |
Me too!
I can’t even begin to understand what that’s all about, but at the infamous century I’ve posted about, I got passed by a sort of mountain/touring bike with a rather unconventional pedaling style, and I thought, “well, whatever works...” but later someone mentioned that it was an e-bike.
So I guess e- is getting into both virtual and actual cycling. As to E-bikes, some Specialized folks spoke at the start and they are definitely pushing these.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19099
Location: PDX10/4/19 5:09 PM |
Seeing more and more E-Bikes. On my sparse club rides, the easy groups have quite a few 75+ year olds adorning these. By the grace of the tech, they can stay out and enjoy the social aspects as well as the air and exercise.
A strong rider my age had a new one recently, bough it for his wife [he is strong] and wanted to test ride it. This one did not assist above 20 MPH he said, so when I dropped him I was happy to know the delineator.
On another ride, a recumbent e-bike on a hilly ride which only I showed up for... OTOH had me wondering if I was killing myself chasing after a few good hills and a bonk on my parts. Note to self, eat before hilly ride. Still can't believe I made that mistake at my supposed tenure.
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dfcas
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 2816
Location: hillbilly heaven10/4/19 6:39 PM |
I also once read that a pro cyclist was racing on Zwift and was never able to finish in the top 20. It seems that some know how to fudge their calibration to show more watts and of course weight doping is common. Many people that weigh 100 pounds produce 300 watts.:)
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19099
Location: PDX10/5/19 9:29 AM |
My googling fest to better understand what the Tron Bike is, [I know what zwift is] to grasp the ebike part of the British Cycling rule... Well I know the future is here, but get all this shit off my lawn, yawn.
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5102
Location: Nashua, NH10/6/19 10:15 AM |
It was predictable. The current issue of Velonews has several articles about e-Bikes and Zwift e-Racing. Zwift has taken measures to prevent cheating, but people are inevitably going to find ways around them, if fame and/or money are involved. Beyond the easy stuff like lying about their weight (which affects e-racing), they'll find ways to hack their trainers and the software. This will become even more of an issue if the Giro actually goes through with their plan with Zwift to have pros ride a "virtual stage", probably sometime after 2020. I assume that they'll all be on identical trainers, though I can already hear the complaints from riders if the stage is actually going to count. Zwift is pushing hard for this and also for inclusion of e-racing in the Olympics in 2028, but the IOC doesn't seem interested.
Apparently, e-MTB racing is becoming a big thing now and cheating is inevitable there, too. I'm sure people will find ways to "juice" the batteries and overcome the speed governors, among other things.
The one bright spot (?) is that e-road bikes aren't huge yet, other than for commuters. Trek, Specialized, BMC and others are making high-end road e-bikes, but the market for them is very limited, primarily old guys with lots of disposable cash.
I can understand why e-bikes appeal to people who are either incapable of riding un-powered bikes for a given purpose or whose limited - or diminishing - strength is preventing them from doing rides that they really want to experience (we're all heading in that direction, after all). However, racing e-bike makes no real sense to me. It just adds more complexity and make the sport harder to understand.
OTOH, e-racing on a trainer simply adds another dimension to indoor riding, though I have no interest in it. Cheating will be rampant and that may be it's undoing on any type of professional level, but I imagine it will continue to be wildly successful among amateur/recreational riders.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19099
Location: PDX10/6/19 11:58 AM |
but the market for them is very limited, primarily old guys with lots of disposable cash.
I will add the Doman-E-bike is $7k, The SLR 9 is 200 under $12k.
Seems targeted 'more so' to the masses perhaps, than the SLR 9 anyway...
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5102
Location: Nashua, NH10/7/19 5:43 AM |
What "masses"?
We
may not bat an eye at 7 grand for a bike, but the average new rider would think that's an insane price. That's the starting point for e-road bikes, which makes it seem even crazier. I guess if you're referring to the less-than-huge,-and-dwindling "masses" of old farts like us, that may make sense. ;-)
Getting back to the e-doping scandal, Peloton Magazine has a couple of articles online:
https://t.e2ma.net/click/pjtkxc/t2utd/dqaxfg
https://t.e2ma.net/click/pjtkxc/t2utd/tibxfg
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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6897
Location: Maine10/7/19 7:11 AM |
Old Skool e-racing
Way back we used to have trainer time trials Thursday evenings at the LBS, 5 miles, absolute killers. I will confess weight issues worked to my advantage. We used I believe Tackx trainers that had no weight input, so it was just power~speed with no weight penalty. Since I was bigger than just about everyone, it worked to my advantage, and I could best better, though slighter, riders.
One memorable ride I was next to a friend who was a much better rider, we were eyeballs out for 9 minutes or whatever, and I lost by less than a second.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19099
Location: PDX10/7/19 8:50 AM |
Dan, your post reminds me of late 90s Joisey. I maintained a Computrainer pair at a LBS. In winter, as was the owners plan, the setup had roadies in the shop in numbers in the off season, with their wallets. ;)
Their was many a time the 8x8 platform with a white picket fence in the middle of the shop shifted around quite a bit. When two bigger riders sprinted out of the saddle it got quite loud in that LBS too, and I mean the mechanical racket, platform bouncing etc, the cheers and Whoas over that too. ;)
I still have two CTs, although only one is setup anymore. I remember doing the modem connection for dual rides with the CT, tedious at best. Some bandwidth would have been nice. But it was the 90s.
Brian, I suppose there is an oxymoron there, older and masses? ;) But there are dozens of them in the older rides with the local club. I ride these sometimes. as well as some other spring chickens as compared to the 75+ group. Usually 6-7 of us go off the front as the ride breaks into 2 groups, well always really.
There is on 76 year old rider that can [does] ride the US spring chicken group tete de course. He can't ride guys off his wheel that I have seen, but neither have I seen anyone get in front of him including myself.
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