Advice please

[arallsopp]

Lots of good replies already, but here's my tuppenceworth.
if you stop in the wrong gear it's much more difficult - even impossible - to start off again because you can't get out of the saddle and heave on the pedals...get

If you get the hang of unclipping with your left foot, you'll find you can use your right heel to derail the chain from the big ring onto the middle ring by pedalling backwards and timing your kick. It works when stopped at lights, and takes about 2 secs to pull off neatly. Don't forget to shift down on the front just after you see the chain hop, so that it doesn't rub the cage and get hung up.

I do this less nowadays, as I'm getting better at anticipating things. I've tried filming it (as its hell to describe) but my cam doesn't go wide enough to show it clearly. Maybe a job for the wife

Andy.

 

[Bill Wickham]

I've just joined this forum & would like to pass on the experience gained in several years on a recumbent. I currently ride a Bacchetta Corsa, which provides for me a very comfortable neck position & the seat shape fits me well, giving good lumbar support. The Ventisit seat is a very good replacement for the standard-issue foam affair & I find that above seat steering gives me somewhere to stick computer & mirror (which I wouldn't get with u.s.s.). I agree that climbing hills is 'slow & steady' but have replaced middle & inner rings with Chris Bell's eggrings (now sadly no longer available) which can help when spinning slowly. I find Kevin Dunseath of D. Tek very helpful & has a range of about 250 'bents to 'try before you buy'. He's based in North of Cambridge. I know that it's generally held that motorists take more notice of you on a 'bent than on an upright - fine when they have time to see you & react; not so clever on sinuous country roads bounded by high hedges.

 

[Recycle]

I have always wondered about the oval or egg-ring concept. The principal is that you adjust the diameter of the ring to optimise the power stroke of the leg. According to info on Rotor rings website they measure less lactic acid build up in cyclists using these rings (but then they would say that). Bradley Wiggins uses the O-symmetric rings which is a similar concept except his look like the circumference of the chainring has been drawn by a kindergarten child.

The concept sounds rational but it's controversial. Some swear by it, others say the effect is purely placebo. From my own observation (not as a user) I suspect that whatever power or energy gains are made, some energy must be lost through chain cavitation. Anyone watching Wiggins race must surely wonder when his chain will fly off.

It is certainly logical that it will improve hill climbing because the concept is to optimise torque in the power stroke, and due to the lower cadence (with me anyway), chain cavitation is probably negligible in hill climbing.

 

[Bill Wickham]

I've had the eggrings fitted for about 2 years now; I took advice from Chris Bell & left the big ring as was as I'm unlikely to be spinning slowly there. Middle (44T) was replaced with one of 15% ovality & small (30T) with one of 30%. I'd sent Chris a photo (effectively a side elevation) of the bike so that he could correctly orientate the rings. Although I have no scientific way of analysing the effect, I'm sure that he got it right as I find I can now 'spin' my way to the top of a steep hill where I may have been walking before. Like you I don't think I spin fast enough to cause the chain to cavitate! I do find that when I get back onto round rings they feel very 'dead', however - though this may only have any effect on comfort rather than performance.

 

[Recycle]

I have always wanted to try out egg rings - the engineering concept is sound - but they are quite pricey and I think you need expert assistance (as you had) to get them correctly set up.