The Bugle | Blast 351

Friday 7th September 2018




 

QUOTE  OF THE WEEK

“The bicycle is already a musical instrument on its own. The noise of the bicycle chain, the pedal and gear mechanism, for example, the breathing of the cyclist, we have incorporated all this in the Kraftwerk sound…" - Maxime Schmitt, Kraftwerk friend and collaborator

BICYCLIST OF THE WEEK

Pete R was gonged this week at our Tuesday Tea Stop. This was in recognition of his epic 2017 ride from San Francisco to Mexico. Braving rattlenakes, raccoons and freeways, hostelling and camping. This week he exchanged the blue Pacific for the grey Thames. Why?

Good that it was presented on the Tuesday ride as Pete's work on compiling the ride list is much appreciated. 
 

BICYCLE OF THE WEEK

OK, underneath it's a recumbent trike. Seen speeding - and we really mean speeding past us at our Sunday Ride start point this week.
 

CYCLING MYTH 1: Tyres must have a tread pattern

Car and motorcycle tyres have grooves in the tread to disperse water, otherwise they can aquaplane. Bicycle tyres, being much narrower, can’t aquaplane at typical bike speeds. In fact, you’d have to be doing over 200mph aquaplane a bike tyre, in which case Dave Brailsford probably wants to hear from you.

But tyre company marketing departments remain wedded to grooves, even though they can actually degrade tyre performance. That’s because the sections of rubber between the grooves can flex and squirm into them, and that increases the tyre’s rolling resistance.

 

CYCLING MYTH 2: Rotating weight is crucial

“An ounce off the wheels is worth a pound off the frame,” goes the old saying. But it ain't true.

“When evaluating wheel performance, wheel aerodynamics are the most important, distantly followed by wheel mass. Wheel inertia effects in all cases are so small that they are arguably insignificant.”

You spend most of your time, and therefore effort, shoving the air out of the way, and that’s a far better basis for choosing wheels. The roughly tenfold difference in the effect of aerodynamics versus total mass means you’re far better off with a pair of good aero wheels than a pair of light ones.

Need to know more? These and other cycling months are explored in an excellent road.cc article this week at: https://road.cc/content/feature/194441-cycling-myths-busted-da-vinci-dead-frames-skinny-tyres-rotating-weight-and

RIDE REPORTS

Sunday 2nd September: Tom's awayday to Eastbourne. Five riders and only two saw this: https://anerleybc.org/sunday-awayday-2nd-september-2018/

Tuesday 4th September: Team 'A' goes on a 100km tour of the Dareth Valley and the Thames Path. Here is the Thames Barry: https://anerleybc.org/tuesday-a-ride-tour-4th-september-2018/

UPCOMING RIDES

FINALLY