Wizards 51st Birthday Unicycle Challenge

Quote: terapined

But they are there on the competitive cycling tours helping riders cheat

There was a good piece on 60 Minutes about it a while back. Makes me wonder if anyone in elite of bike racing is not cheating.

Quote: Fleastiff

Hard to detect when off but when on an infra red thermometer will find them instantly.

Its not that they turn it on at the start and turn it off at the end
The smart motor riders use them sparingly
Very difficult to detect. Especially when off which they are most of the time.

Quote: terapined

The smart motor riders use them sparingly.

Correct. The use is manly in uphill assists. One rider took a spill and his wheel kept turning and turning because the motor was on at the time.
No physical searching or x-raying is needed to find a motor that is working at the time, just a thermal detector which is a real cheap hand held tool. Have a stack of them as the riders go by and if one reads higher than the rest...you've got a heat source in the frame and that means a small battery driven motor was turned on at the time.

Quote: Fleastiff

Correct. The use is manly in uphill assists. One rider took a spill and his wheel kept turning and turning because the motor was on at the time.
No physical searching or x-raying is needed to find a motor that is working at the time, just a thermal detector which is a real cheap hand held tool. Have a stack of them as the riders go by and if one reads higher than the rest...you've got a heat source in the frame and that means a small battery driven motor was turned on at the time.

Time trials, maybe
No way that can be done with a peloton.
Besides, tiny motor makers are probably doing something to mask the heat anyway.

Quote: terapined

No way that can be done with a peloton.

Main body of riders often engaging in gaining a forty percent reduction in resistance by remaining in the slip stream of the riders ahead of them.

The weighted water bottle trick was done by Jean Robic who rode in the late 40s and early 50s. I doubt it's been done since, mostly because I don't think it's very effective. While extra weight helps you go down hill a little faster, it's not hard for any cyclists to descend as fast as he dares. Descending is more about tolerance for risk and technical skill in the corners. Two of the fastest descenders on the tour are Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. Neither outweighs an average cocker spaniel.

The UCI is now using a magnetic field detector to look for motors. It will find a motor whether it's running or not. When they started using it early last year, they caught a cyclist racing in an under 23 female cyclocross* race. She's suspended for 6 years, probably a career killer. They have yet to find another one. UCI also does bike tear downs at their discretion. Now that they're looking, I'd be shocked if anyone tries it at the elite level.

* cyclocross- look it up. Google explains it better than I can.

Quote: JimRockford

The weighted water bottle trick was done by Jean Robic who rode in the late 40s and early 50s. I doubt it's been done since, mostly because I don't think it's very effective. While extra weight helps you go down hill a little faster, it's not hard for any cyclists to descend as fast as he dares. Descending is more about tolerance for risk and technical skill in the corners. Two of the fastest descenders on the tour are Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. Neither outweighs an average cocker spaniel.

When we "raced" down the local two miler, I always blew everyone's doors off by riding with no hands, instead clasping hands behind my back. No amount of pedaling could make up for my aero advantage. I saw basically this same strategy used in a race somewhat recently, the slightest difference in aero can have HUGE effects...



Back in my street bike days, all the highest speed stuff had to be done "naked". Once you get to the limits, aero has ridiculous consequences. 0 - 170 will take a full mile longer to accomplish in a hoody vs a tank top (600cc bike).


Sorry for the ramble... was actually here to say I saw the unicyclist WORLD RECORD for distance was something like 106mi. Didn't Wiz pretty much walk off 55 like it was nothing? He seems like the type to at least consider an attempt ;)

Okay. It happened. Maybe it was my posts in this thread that caused it to happen.

I opened my facebook page and while I was slurping my peppered orange juice and generally getting into 'awake' mode, along comes an Amazon advertisement and that struck me as curious since I got booted off Amazon and Amazon Prime recently.

So there it is: Amazon showing me a string of ads for a unicycle. I'm an ancient and doddering old geezer who weighs too much to ever be able to have his weight supported by even a ruggedized, military unicycle, but Amazon wants to show me advertisements for a unicycle. Targeted advertising?

Quote: Fleastiff

So there it is: Amazon showing me a string of ads for a unicycle. I'm an ancient and doddering old geezer who weighs too much to ever be able to have his weight supported by even a ruggedized, military unicycle, but Amazon wants to show me advertisements for a unicycle. Targeted advertising?

I think the chances of that are 99.54%. You must have searched on something to do with a unicycle lately. I recently bought a Pickleball set on Amazon so now I'm seeing Pickleball ads all over the place.

Quote: Wizard

You must have searched on something to do with a unicycle lately.

Yes, I searched briefly about electric unicycles for some "hike" you were going to do as part of a bucket list or something and now even though I'm booted off Amazon, they are still pushing ads to me.