IOW Randonnee on a tandem trike

[Monkreadusuk]

Hi all,

I'm looking at completing the IOW randonnee next year on my brothers tandem side by side trike that's adapted for disabilities.

It's a total of 60ish miles with 4000ft of climbs. Anyone have any advice for training for something like this?

I usually ride an upright so my legs aren't used to a recumbent. It only has 7 gears, is that something I need to worry about for the hills?

Many thanks

 

[arallsopp]

Number of gears is more relevant to speed on the flat. Range of gears will be the kicker. Can you get a ride on the trike beforehand? Who's the copilot? Many better and more relevant questions will surface, I'm sure

 

[Monkreadusuk]

Yeah I can ride it beforehand quite a bit. Planning on testing it on my local hill, portsdown (A3) this weekend with other brother who is able bodied but unfit.

Me and said brother will be completing most of the route. My disabled brother will just be riding with me for the last few miles, depending on his fitness levels at the time.

Anyway for me to tell what the gearing range is by looking?

 

[arallsopp]

Yep. Count the teeth on the chain ring at the front, eg 48

Divide it by the number of teeth on the largest sprockets at the back, eg 32

Multiply by the circumference of your wheel.

Compare that to any other bike in your stable. If the number is bigger, it's going to be higher geared.

Sheldon brown offers a page that'll let you work out speed at a given rpm. You want a low gear to be about 3mph at 60rpm, I suspect.

Sorry, mobile at mo. If no others jump in, I'll grab links for you

 

[arallsopp]

High gear is the same calc for the smallest sprocket, btw.

 

[arallsopp]

Tool is here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/index.html

The actual numbers output mean very little on their own, but if you have another bike that you are more accustomed to you can get a feeling of whether the numbers are bigger / smaller, lots bigger, etc...

I like to use MPH at 60RPM.

If it has a hub gear system, most of them are in the sheldon brown tool too. Just remember, compared to a (considerably lighter) single bike, you'll want the gearing quite a lot lower. No point having any gear above 15mph at 60rpm, you'll be grateful to roll.

 

[Sandman-bm]

Go for as low a gearing as you can get and if possible even lower, nothing wrong in going slow uphill as you dont have to balance the thing, I rode ditchling beacon on my recumbent trike with walkers overtaking me but I rode it
good luck
John

 

[paul fellows]

I can add little about the cycling except to wish you good luck!

On the training side ( you may think this as cheating ).

if you can tolerate them take 2 paracetamol half an hour before you set of training.

When you can sprint as hard and as fast whilst holding your breath, when you have to breath again pedestal easy till you recover, then repeat 2 or 3 times. If it works for you, and it dose not work for every one, you will be able to do the rest of that days training on your second wind / a runners high.

Whether you get the high or not brief high intensity training will improve your cardiopulmonary fitness. Or give you a heart attack.

 

[paul fellows]

it should say.

Whether you get the high or not.
Brief high intensity training will improve your cardiopulmonary fitness.
Or give you a heart attack.

the idea behind paracetamol helping you get the runners high, goes like this.
when you have to run for your life, your body produces its own cannabis ( ag2 ). the reasons for this is: to lessen the pain from your mussels so you can keep running, and to make you feel good about running faster than your mate Li An Chow.
the paracetamol blokes the pain receptors in the mussels, so more of this cannabis reaches your brain.

 

[DaddyPaddey]

Having ridden the IOW Randonee a number of times I can confirm it is lumpy. I see you are local so can give you a route with 7 different ways up Portsdown Hill [total 2000 ft] which would help the training-mind you you don't have to do them all at once to start with!

 

[ufkacbln]

The Isle of Wight Randonneee is a fantastic ride.

It is lumpy and that is the issue

As above, gearing, especially on the long grinds on the south of the Island

Details are available here

 

[ufkacbln]

Any chance of a piccie of the trike?

 

[Monkreadusuk]

Any idea what this means?

The overall range of the Nexus 7-speed is 245%:


Ratio 0.632 0.741 0.843 0.989 1.145 1.335 1.545
Step 17.3% 13.8% 17.3% 15.8% 16.6% 15.8%


For comparison, your old 3-speed had a range of 178%:



Ratio 0.750 1.000 1.333
Step 33.3% 33.3%

 

[ufkacbln]

Any idea what this means?

The overall range of the Nexus 7-speed is 245%:


Ratio 0.632 0.741 0.843 0.989 1.145 1.335 1.545

You have one back ring and one front ring

The basic gearing of this combination is the front divided by the back and multiplied by the rear wheel size

This gives you how far you will travel with one crank rotation - the gear inches



This is the 100% ratio


The individual gears available are calculated by multiplying this figure by the individual gear

The lowest gear is 63% of that value, and the highest would be 154 % of that value

The trick now is to get the chain ring and sprocket teeth right for your cycling.

Step 17.3% 13.8% 17.3% 15.8% 16.6% 15.8%

These are the differences between two gears. Changing from 1 to two will change the gears by 17.3%


The trick is to get the chain ring and sprocket values correct for your cycling range.

 

[Monkreadusuk]

Any chance of a piccie of the trike?

This is the one i'll be using