How fast do you ride?

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news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Jeff Starr <[email hidden]> wrote:
: I wish I knew how to calculate the percentage that the missing leg plays. I know that is is much
: less than 50% because I can excert some downward pressure.

You could take your legs to the gym and see how each of them does in the leg extension machine.
That would give you a very rough measure :-) Other muscles than thighs come to play too, on a
bike, but for less effect. People usually don't get much power from pulling up on the pedal.

Though, I dunno how much butt or mid-body muscles participate. Upper body is needed on upright
bikes as well but I gather it's more for stabilizing your body when pedalling.

: My biggest limitation, so far, is hill climbing, clipless pedals have helped there. Last year, I
: didn't use any special pedals or shoes.

I just recently found out a trike is nice for isolated leg training: just rest one foot on the
crossbar :-) It serves again to demonstrate that my pedal stroke is far from a round circle, the
down/forward stroke goes powerfully, and the trike jumps forward, while the rest of the stroke is
weak and slow, and even at some points not smooth and all, I seem to negatively load the pedal :-.

Hills are very difficult with just one leg, I wonder how one could manage them without clipless
pedals :-) I guess keeping a high cadence helps...

I wonder what your technique is like. You are like doing isolated leg training the year round.

: Does anyone know any other one legged riders?

Only that they are out there: steintrikes.comnomad1.jpgOpen ↗

Check out this rider:

eisentraut.comdory.htmOpen ↗

[email hidden] wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hills are very difficult with just one leg, I wonder how one could

manage them without clipless pedals :-) I guess keeping a high cadence helps... <<

Hi, thanks for the reply. What I would do on hills, if it got really bad, was to back pedal. Luckily
we don't have a lot of hills, although I would purposely climb three short blocks of hills for
training purposes. This was with my old bike which was a double 52-39 with a 28-14 freewheel. It is
quite a bit easier with a triple [52-42-30] and a [25-14] 9-speed cassette. I changed the cassette
out from the 25-12, so that I have an 18 and 16, which I find more useful than the 12 &
13. Although I will most likely go to a 23-13 in the future. I will for sure if I upgrade to a
Dura-Ace triple crank which is 53-39-30. It may be a while, but eventually I would like to
upgrade the Tiagra crankset and brifters, both to Dura-Ace. I love riding, but I am also hooked
on the gear side of it.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I wonder what your technique is like. You are like doing isolated

leg training the year round. <<

I think it's getting better. My cadence comfort zone is going up and I think that I am making better
use of my gears, this year. Last year I spent a lot of time paying attention to riding skills that
are now pretty much automatic. Kind of like the riding I did as a kid. When I was a kid and until
16, when I got my drivers license, I rode my bike everywhere, all the time. You know, sometimes I
feel like a kid, when I'm riding now. I know this, when I was a kid I didn't understand or make good
use of the gears. Riding my LeMond Tourmalet is so much fun!!! Life is Good! Jeff

Quoted message said:

Jeff Starr <[email hidden]> wrote:
: I wish I knew how to calculate the percentage that the missing leg plays. I know that is is much
: less than 50% because I can excert some downward pressure.

You could take your legs to the gym and see how each of them does in the leg extension machine.
That would give you a very rough measure :-) Other muscles than thighs come to play too, on a
bike, but for less effect. People usually don't get much power from pulling up on the pedal.

Though, I dunno how much butt or mid-body muscles participate. Upper body is needed on upright
bikes as well but I gather it's more for stabilizing your body when pedalling.

: My biggest limitation, so far, is hill climbing, clipless pedals have helped there. Last year, I
: didn't use any special pedals or shoes.

I just recently found out a trike is nice for isolated leg training: just rest one foot on the
crossbar :-) It serves again to demonstrate that my pedal stroke is far from a round circle, the
down/forward stroke goes powerfully, and the trike jumps forward, while the rest of the stroke is
weak and slow, and even at some points not smooth and all, I seem to negatively load the pedal :-.

Hills are very difficult with just one leg, I wonder how one could manage them without clipless
pedals :-) I guess keeping a high cadence helps...

I wonder what your technique is like. You are like doing isolated leg training the year round.

: Does anyone know any other one legged riders?

Only that they are out there: steintrikes.comnomad1.jpgOpen ↗

"Chris Zacho "The Wheelman"" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]... [email hidden] (Alexey
Merz) wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Dr. Arnie Baker suggests that to begin mass-start racing a 19-29 year-old male should be able to
ride at least 10 miles in 30 minutes (and be able to ride in a group, of course). Older riders,
Baker says, might add a couple of minutes.

-Alex Merz

</snip>

Ok, how many minutes more for an old fart tourist of 46? ;-3)

Watch it -- you'll get that Denver Fox guy calling your attitude a cop-out! (Ooops, wrong group 🙂

Bill "48 years...and minutes?" S.

[email hidden] (Jeff Starr) wrote: > >> I wonder what your technique is like. You are like
doing isolated

Quoted message said:

leg training the year round. <<

I think it's getting better. My cadence comfort zone is going up and I think that I am making
better use of my gears, this year. Last year I spent a lot of time paying attention to riding
skills that are now pretty much automatic.

Have you ever thought of trying seriously short cranks (eg 140 -
150mm)? This would make the higher cadence you need on hills significantly easier. I also find
shorter cranks make the upstroke less strenuous for the weak hip flexors when pedalling
with one leg.

I also wonder if some kind of off-center chainring might not be good for one-legged riders -- on
hills at least. You might be able to test a Rotor system somewhere, which basically does the
same thing.

Andrew Bradley

[email hidden] (Chris Zacho "The Wheelman"😉 wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Alexey Merz) wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Dr. Arnie Baker suggests that to begin mass-start racing a 19-29 year-old male should be able to
ride at least 10 miles in 30 minutes (and be able to ride in a group, of course). Older
riders, Baker says, might add a couple of minutes.

-Alex Merz

</snip>

Ok, how many minutes more for an old fart tourist of 46? ;-3)

Dunno, but I suspect that a rough translation of the 10 mi./30' suggestion is: "you'll be able to
finish, but you'll still get your butt whupped." At least, I expect that I would.

I'd ask at rec.bicycles.racing but they don't appear to greet basic questions with anything other
than flamethrowers. They're worse than
r.b.tech, worse even than talk.origins, but of course they don't hold a candle to rec.skiing.alpine
in the rudeness dep't.

-Alex Merz

Alexey Merz said:

I'd ask at rec.bicycles.racing but they don't appear to greet basic questions with anything other
than flamethrowers. They're worse than
r.b.tech, worse even than talk.origins, but of course they don't hold a candle to
rec.skiing.alpine in the rudeness dep't.

-Alex Merz

There are a couple oddballs like me there who actually try to answer questions. Problem is, the guys
who really know the answer are generally all [censored]. You can get a polite but unreliable answer,
or a rude brush-off. Both, actually.

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

[email hidden] (Andrew Bradley) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Jeff Starr) wrote: > >> I wonder what your technique is like. You are like
doing isolated

Quoted message said:

leg training the year round. <<

I think it's getting better. My cadence comfort zone is going up and I think that I am making
better use of my gears, this year. Last year I spent a lot of time paying attention to riding
skills that are now pretty much automatic.

Have you ever thought of trying seriously short cranks (eg 140 -
150mm)?

No, I have never even seen them available. Plus, my guess is that they would be detrimental, for
most riding. I have very few hills that I need to ride and with the triple, no problem climbing.
My problem now lies with endurance on hills. I find that I fatique, a lot quicker on hills.
Basically, I run out of energy on hills, but seldom, on the flats. I'm sure more riding, better
conditioning, and I have to quit smoking cigars. I keep making plans to quit, and one of these
days, will have to do it. The out of round chainrings, could be beneficial, but I have no way of
knowing. I am also on a budget, so experiments like that, are seldom possible. Thanks for the
suggestions. Life is Good! Jeff

Quoted message said:

This would make the higher cadence you need on hills significantly easier. I also find shorter
cranks make the upstroke less strenuous for the weak hip flexors when pedalling with one leg.

I also wonder if some kind of off-center chainring might not be good for one-legged riders -- on
hills at least. You might be able to test a Rotor system somewhere, which basically does the
same thing.

Andrew Bradley

I don't think that there is a good answer to your question. "Alexey Merz" <[email hidden]> wrote
in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Chris Zacho "The Wheelman"😉 wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Alexey Merz) wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Dr. Arnie Baker suggests that to begin mass-start racing a 19-29 year-old male should be able
to ride at least 10 miles in 30 minutes (and be able to ride in a group, of course). Older
riders, Baker says, might add a couple of minutes.

I don't know why people always ask this question. Just go out and do it, if your not ready that is
the fastest way to find out where you need to be. I race in the 45+ groups and a beginner racer
doesn't want to race there unless he likes getting dropped very quickly. The Cat V races are much
easier than the master races. The problem is that the master races are filled up with Cat II and
higher racers. People that don't have the time to train to the Cat III level soon find out that
master racing is not for them and stick to Cat IV or Cat V racing.

As for average speeds, what is going to kill you is the surges. I did a Pro 123 crit last week were
the average speed was 28 mph. It was actually a pretty easy crit since there wern't a lot of surges
in the race. The speed was so fast that people just didn't have the energy for many attacks. In
contrast you can have a race where the average speed is 22 mph with surges up to 33 or 35mph. That
can be a lot harder race than the one that was 28mph.

Jeff Starr <[email hidden]> wrote:
: [email hidden] (Andrew Bradley) wrote in message
: news:<[email hidden]>...
:> Have you ever thought of trying seriously short cranks (eg 140 -
:> 150mm)?

: No, I have never even seen them available. Plus, my guess is that they would be detrimental, for
: most riding. I have very few hills that I

Some recumbent riders like short cranks (say 155 or 160 mm instead of 175 mm) very much. They can be
slightly expensive though. Maybe not when compared to Dura-Ace components 🙂

: flats. I'm sure more riding, better conditioning, and I have to quit smoking cigars. I keep making
: plans to quit, and one of these days, will have to do it.

Cigars make quite a difference on hills I bet. Some people with heart rate monitors see a huge
effect when they drop nicotine. You can gain some extra motivation when you see how much your
pulse drops.

--
Risto Varanka | helsinki.fihpv.htmlOpen ↗ varis at no spam please iki fi

I started as a kid, now I'm still less than 30. Last year I went for 2000 km, this year for
4500-5000 km and I'm riding recumbents now. My average depends on the type of ride - no point
staring at the average when doing intervals or lazy commuting/touring - and traffic. For details,
read at the end of helsinki.fiviper.htmlOpen ↗

--
Risto Varanka | helsinki.fihpv.htmlOpen ↗ varis at no spam please iki fi

Jeff Starr said:

Hi, I wonder too, about whether I am riding up to my potential. I'm 48 and my right leg is
artificial [above the knee].

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know any other one legged riders?

doryselinger.comdoryselinger.comOpen ↗

Alexey Merz said:

I'd ask at rec.bicycles.racing but they don't appear to greet basic questions with anything other
than flamethrowers.

Don't feel like you're being singled out. Medium and advanced questions are also greeted that way.