Ugly - Bradley Wiggins' Pinarello Bolide TT bike

[RichK]

are tri-spokes going to be back in fashion soon then?

 

[jdtate101]

The last mountain time trial I remember seeing was in the Romandie last yr, I think something like 80% of teams went for road bikes with clip-on's.

 

[GrasB]

And they won't do much for your speed below 25 mph in all honesty.

The advantage isn't as big but I'd certainly call the near 1mph speed gain at 10mph a significant on the flat. This is data from my TT bike & road bike on the drops. The cross over point is 3.2-3.3mph

          TT        Road   Speed gain
10mph    35.2w     39.4w     0.8mph
15mph    72.8w     85.3w     1.1mph
20mph    134.3w    162.5w    1.6mph
25mph    227.8w    281.5w    1.9mph
30mph    361.3w    452.8w    2.4mph
35mph    542.7w    686.8w    2.8mph

at 10mph on the climbs it takes a 7.5% gradient for the road bike to break even with the TT bike.

 

[VamP]

The advantage isn't as big but I'd certainly call the near 1mph speed gain at 10mph a significant on the flat. This is data from my TT bike & road bike on the drops. The cross over point is 3.2-3.3mph

          TT        Road  Speed gain
10mph    35.2w    39.4w    0.8mph
15mph    72.8w    85.3w    1.1mph
20mph    134.3w    162.5w    1.6mph
25mph    227.8w    281.5w    1.9mph
30mph    361.3w    452.8w    2.4mph
35mph    542.7w    686.8w    2.8mph

at 10mph on the climbs it takes a 7.5% gradient for the road bike to break even with the TT bike.

Interesting. Is that what most of us would recognise as a TT bike, or one of your space age recumbents?

 

[GrasB]

Interesting. Is that what most of us would recognise as a TT bike, or one of your space age recumbents?

Low racer added to the mix & time to sit down...

          LR      TT        Road    Speed gain
10mph    33.8w    35.2w    39.4w  1.0/0.8mph
15mph    66.8w    72.8w    85.3w  1.9/1.1mph
20mph    119.0w  134.3w    162.5w  2.8/1.6mph
25mph    196.8w  227.8w    281.5w  3.6/1.9mph
30mph    306.8w  361.3w    452.8w  4.2/2.4mph
35mph    455.3w  542.7w    686.8w  4.9/2.8mph
50mph    1198w   1546w     2092w   10.3mph/5.2mph

 

[VamP]

Sitting down. That's mental.

I am assuming you calculated the wattage required at 50mph for the road bike?

 

[tigger]

I must say I thought the Bolide looked fantastic on TV yesterday. Shame it suffers from punctures!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I must say I thought the Bolide looked fantastic on TV yesterday. Shame it suffers from punctures!

Feast you eyes on this then! http://road.cc/content/image/82350-pinarello-bolide-full-bike
(Sorry if the link has already been posted up but there are a few pics in there that I hadn't seen before.)

 

[GrasB]

Sitting down. That's mental.

I am assuming you calculated the wattage required at 50mph for the road bike?

That's all modelled power requirements from known good weight, rolling resistance & aerodynamics data.

What's even more scary is there is a lot of 'cheap' cleaning up to do on my low racer's aerodynamics. Where as my TT setup is fairly nailed & very clean with only expensive marginal gains are to be had.

 

[VamP]

That's all modelled power requirements from known good weight, rolling resistance & aerodynamics data.

What's even more scary is there is a lot of 'cheap' cleaning up to do on my low racer's aerodynamics. Where as my TT setup is fairly nailed & very clean with only expensive marginal gains are to be had.

Last week there was a lad riding around on something that your low racer sounds like at the Lotus Hethel track - he was flying along. It was a windy day and during my warm up laps I was at 25mph on the downwind side, but only 15ish into the wind. He seemed to be almost the same speed both directions.

What kind of competitions are there for the low racers?

 

[GrasB]

What kind of competitions are there for the low racers?

A lot of clubs will let you TT with them & there's also the British Human Power Club race series.