addicted2wheels

A blog about bikes, bike racing and physiological research.

Hi, I'm Rob, and this is a wandering diatribe of sorts, focused on the very real, human existential tragedy that is/was my cycling career. Yeah, yeah, I still ride, but not quite like I used to. Now I'd love to do 700km weeks again, sure, but somehow I don't think so. It's just not gonna happen. 100km weeks, yep; maybe even 200km. But that doesn't mean I can't bore you to tears with my 'life history on the bike'. It's optional, though. I was sucked into the vortex with my first ride on a too-large Alcon 28" fixed wheeler, and haven't stopped riding since. Bikes are magic carpets - they were when I was 16 and remain so today (and I'm much older now!). You get on a bike and - unlike a car or motorbike - you empower the machine. In return you get a buzz out of achieving something physical, pleasurable and testing. You may still like driving a car, but riding a bike puts you in touch with the air, the temperature, shade and sun; it connects you, rather than isolating you in a steel and glass cocoon. But this blog could just as well be about business, music, mythology, philosophy, photography or art...

You can check the lot out right here.

Whatever fits: if it has a recommended torque setting, can be imagined or digitised, it's in.

We do try to cover our costs by selling mugs, teeshirts, hats, bags, stickers and images...
The A2W large mug!	The GTVeloce mug!	OODB large mug!	The Tipo116 large mug!	Yet another mug!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Effect of posture on high-intensity constant-load cycling performance

Well it's nice to see it proven.

At least in one experiment, anyway. My take on this is that an upright cycling posture is better than a supine one, if only when looking at a lab test of endurance.

I once 'raced' a recumbent with full aero fairings along a freeway from Bargo to Picton in NSW, Australia. I (on my 'real' bike) had more power up the hills but he certainly had the top speed advantage! So there is certainly an aero advantage to 'lying down on the job' but from a physical endurance perspective there's a decided disadvantage of some 10%. Anyway...

From the European Journal of Applied Physiology; Jan2006, Vol. 96 Issue 1, p1-9. Authors: Egaña, Green, Garrigan and Warmington, from the Department of Physiology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and the School of Biological, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, University of New England, NSW, Australia.

To quote from the abstract, "The time sustained during a graded cycle exercise is ~10% longer in an upright compared with a supine posture. However, during constant-load cycling this effect is unknown. Therefore, we tested the postural effect on the performance of
high-intensity constant-load cycling." So they tested constant-load and found that "there is a very large postural effect on performance during constant-load cycling exercise and this effect is significantly larger in men than women". So upright beats supine, particularly for men. Not sure what this means to the crazy racing folk who sit on an 'upright' bike but bend down so far that they are almost parallel to the ground but I suspect they are successfully adapting the efficient upright style to gain an aero advantage. The racing tuck is a compromise,
and of course we can always sit up and stretch.

Other compromises made for racing include the need to 'pull up' on the bars when climbing or sprinting, so the bars have to be close enough to do so comfortably whilst being low enough to gain an aero advantage. Anyway, I suspect it still beats lying down!

Aside from all that, recumbents are almost invisible and need a flag on
a pole to be seen. They are pretty cool devices though.

posted by gtveloce # 1/24/2006 11:46:00 PM