Borg Warner for Bikes

[Grafis]

http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
Grafis <[email protected]> wrote:

> http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/

As I noted elsewhere, HDNet had some quite nice coverage of the race.

The finish featured a frankly astounding sprint from the front by the
Cutters rider.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Snack]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Grafis <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/
>
> As I noted elsewhere, HDNet had some quite nice coverage of the race.

Mark Cuban owns HDNet. Mark Cuban is an IU grad.
Thank you Mark Cuban.

Judging by this post I would assume he missed the race passed out in the
bowels of some Frat after an evening of prepping for the race but more
likely something about the Mavericks in the playoffs.
http://www.wearethepostmen.com/?p=1677

>
> The finish featured a frankly astounding sprint from the front by the
> Cutters rider.
>

Especially considering he lead most of the final laps.
The track gets loose and dicey out from the inside lane especially in
turns 3 & 4 making it harder to come around someone with a firm grip on
the lane.

http://www.gfisk.com/little-500-2007/

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
Snack <[email protected]> wrote:

> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > Grafis <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/
> >
> > As I noted elsewhere, HDNet had some quite nice coverage of the race.
>
> Mark Cuban owns HDNet. Mark Cuban is an IU grad.
> Thank you Mark Cuban.
>
> Judging by this post I would assume he missed the race passed out in the
> bowels of some Frat after an evening of prepping for the race but more
> likely something about the Mavericks in the playoffs.
> http://www.wearethepostmen.com/?p=1677
>
> >
> > The finish featured a frankly astounding sprint from the front by the
> > Cutters rider.
> >
>
> Especially considering he lead most of the final laps.

Yeah, that was the astounding part. On the bell lap, he was leading as
the pace picked up, and I thought "well, that's it for Cutters."

> The track gets loose and dicey out from the inside lane especially in
> turns 3 & 4 making it harder to come around someone with a firm grip on
> the lane.

That explains a lot of those last few laps.

> http://www.gfisk.com/little-500-2007/

Good pics, good story.

I know the bikes are a super-odd setup, but some of the photos make me
appreciate how odd.

I knew about the singlespeed, the spec frame, wheels, cranks, and
pedals, but this photo seems to show (aside from the youngest masters
fattie ever) a one-piece crank.

http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/DSC_0238.jpg.htm
l

Hm. Found the rules:

http://iusf.bloomington.com/little5/2007_team_manual.doc

Check pp. 51-52.

Interesting the parts teams are allowed to pick. No CX tires, wheels are
not spec but are severely constrained. cranks must be one-piece.

The odd part about the one-piece spec is that it forces them to use pure
custom frames. Aside from the BB, though, these things look like any
number of road-geometry track bikes for sale. Seems it would be easier
to include a spec BB in the price, and use a more-or-less stock frame.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Snack]

Schwinn builds the bike just for the event (video with Schwinn dude at
the race)
http://www.schwinnbike.com/news/press_detail.php?id=168

I'm assuming the single piece crank is still a rule to prevent teams
from upgrading the front chainring. Bikes are impounded and inspected
(least they used to be) and a normal crank would add counting chainring
teeth to the mix and assuring mechanics don't change them during the
race (teams use multiple bikes and some are working on them the whole race).

 

[RonSonic]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:36:22 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>,
> Snack <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>> > In article <[email protected]>,
>> > Grafis <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >
>> >> http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/
>> >
>> > As I noted elsewhere, HDNet had some quite nice coverage of the race.
>>
>> Mark Cuban owns HDNet. Mark Cuban is an IU grad.
>> Thank you Mark Cuban.
>>
>> Judging by this post I would assume he missed the race passed out in the
>> bowels of some Frat after an evening of prepping for the race but more
>> likely something about the Mavericks in the playoffs.
>> http://www.wearethepostmen.com/?p=1677
>>
>> >
>> > The finish featured a frankly astounding sprint from the front by the
>> > Cutters rider.
>> >
>>
>> Especially considering he lead most of the final laps.
>
>Yeah, that was the astounding part. On the bell lap, he was leading as
>the pace picked up, and I thought "well, that's it for Cutters."
>
>> The track gets loose and dicey out from the inside lane especially in
>> turns 3 & 4 making it harder to come around someone with a firm grip on
>> the lane.
>
>That explains a lot of those last few laps.
>
>> http://www.gfisk.com/little-500-2007/
>
>Good pics, good story.
>
>I know the bikes are a super-odd setup, but some of the photos make me
>appreciate how odd.
>
>I knew about the singlespeed, the spec frame, wheels, cranks, and
>pedals, but this photo seems to show (aside from the youngest masters
>fattie ever) a one-piece crank.
>
>http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/DSC_0238.jpg.htm
>l
>
>Hm. Found the rules:
>
>http://iusf.bloomington.com/little5/2007_team_manual.doc
>
>Check pp. 51-52.
>
>Interesting the parts teams are allowed to pick. No CX tires, wheels are
>not spec but are severely constrained. cranks must be one-piece.
>
>The odd part about the one-piece spec is that it forces them to use pure
>custom frames. Aside from the BB, though, these things look like any
>number of road-geometry track bikes for sale. Seems it would be easier
>to include a spec BB in the price, and use a more-or-less stock frame.

It looks like the frame is issued by the race and comes from Schwinn, so I'd
expect it to be a fairly standard lump of gas pipe and stamping.

Might not seem normal to us, but there's still a lot of that kind of
construction out there.

Ron

 

[Curtis L. Russell]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:41:55 -0500, Snack <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I'm assuming the single piece crank is still a rule to prevent teams
>from upgrading the front chainring. Bikes are impounded and inspected
>(least they used to be) and a normal crank would add counting chainring
>teeth to the mix and assuring mechanics don't change them during the
>race (teams use multiple bikes and some are working on them the whole race).

Maybe, but roll out tests work just as well, and between having a
couple of officials working the pit and putting in a challenge system
like lacrosse, I think it is eminently workable. And if anyone looks
out of meter during the race, pull the bike and do another roll out.

Get Bill C. - bet he loves doing roll outs.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

 

[[email protected]]

On Apr 26, 6:05 am, RonSonic <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:36:22 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Hm. Found the rules:
>
> >http://iusf.bloomington.com/little5/2007_team_manual.doc
>
> >Check pp. 51-52.
>
> >Interesting the parts teams are allowed to pick. No CX tires, wheels are
> >not spec but are severely constrained. cranks must be one-piece.
>
> >The odd part about the one-piece spec is that it forces them to use pure
> >custom frames. Aside from the BB, though, these things look like any
> >number of road-geometry track bikes for sale. Seems it would be easier
> >to include a spec BB in the price, and use a more-or-less stock frame.
>
> It looks like the frame is issued by the race and comes from Schwinn, so I'd
> expect it to be a fairly standard lump of gas pipe and stamping.
>
> Might not seem normal to us, but there's still a lot of that kind of
> construction out there.

Nice pictures, Graham.

Those bikes look like generic welded aluminum with a unicrown
(and straight blade!) fork -
http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/DSC_0200.jpg.html

I never really thought about this before, but how do the teams
deal with riders of different sizes, since they're exchanging
the same bike? They must also do bike changes at some
point, if only for maintenance, but wouldn't it be a pain to do
one at every rider exchange? Or are the teams selected
on inseam length?

Ben

 

[Snack]

[email protected] wrote:
> On Apr 26, 6:05 am, RonSonic <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:36:22 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hm. Found the rules:
>>> http://iusf.bloomington.com/little5/2007_team_manual.doc
>>> Check pp. 51-52.
>>> Interesting the parts teams are allowed to pick. No CX tires, wheels are
>>> not spec but are severely constrained. cranks must be one-piece.
>>> The odd part about the one-piece spec is that it forces them to use pure
>>> custom frames. Aside from the BB, though, these things look like any
>>> number of road-geometry track bikes for sale. Seems it would be easier
>>> to include a spec BB in the price, and use a more-or-less stock frame.
>> It looks like the frame is issued by the race and comes from Schwinn, so I'd
>> expect it to be a fairly standard lump of gas pipe and stamping.
>>
>> Might not seem normal to us, but there's still a lot of that kind of
>> construction out there.
>
> Nice pictures, Graham.
>
> Those bikes look like generic welded aluminum with a unicrown
> (and straight blade!) fork -
> http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/DSC_0200.jpg.html
>
> I never really thought about this before, but how do the teams
> deal with riders of different sizes, since they're exchanging
> the same bike? They must also do bike changes at some
> point, if only for maintenance, but wouldn't it be a pain to do
> one at every rider exchange? Or are the teams selected
> on inseam length?
>
> Ben
>

Hey Ben, thanks.

From experience... Grab a pair of Onitsuka Tigers and just when your
thinking wow these might be kinda classic retro cool you take them to
the shoe shop on Kirkwood in Bloomington and they give you some lift,
studio 54 style. Like this...
http://www.gfisk.com/gallery/BicycleRacing/2007Little500/DSC_0067.jpg.html

Some teams appeared to switch bikes every exchange. The mechanic was
over the fence and into the pits to grab the bike and throw it on a
stand in the infield for inspection prepped fresh for the next exchange.

A cool part of the races is the affect of exchanges. Teams fly off the
front opponents not knowing if it's an exchange or a break so a lead
group would form off the front and come smoking around for a lap or two
breaking up the field. This would leave the exchanging team chasing hard
to get back on sometimes putting lead contenders into serious trouble.
It's kinda like a closed course Madison.

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
Snack <[email protected]> wrote:

> Schwinn builds the bike just for the event (video with Schwinn dude at
> the race)
> http://www.schwinnbike.com/news/press_detail.php?id=168
>
> I'm assuming the single piece crank is still a rule to prevent teams
> from upgrading the front chainring. Bikes are impounded and inspected
> (least they used to be) and a normal crank would add counting chainring
> teeth to the mix and assuring mechanics don't change them during the
> race (teams use multiple bikes and some are working on them the whole race).

Neat stuff. Mr. Schwinn says the frame is a mod of their road bike. The
major mods are presumably the BMX BB and the track dropouts.

The gearing is quite interesting, being so low. It effectively makes the
race like restrictor-plate racing, and it seems to guarantee tighter
packs by making drafting even more potent and breakaways harder (a low
gear effectively limiting max power for most riders; I bet IU alumni
have an excellent ability to spin).

-RjC.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos