Smoking some roadies!
 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...140&pr=goog-sl

First – forgive me, but I suck at editing clips. Best I could do. This is all taken from a helmet mounted camera pointed backwards. It's shaky because my helmet is too loose and I need a new one.

Video starts off with me and Bud having left the parking lot last in the group. As I enter the road, two roadies in full matching kits drop behind me. You can see the scenery start to speed up as I race past them. Then one turns his head and says something to his buddy – probably “way WAY a recumbent just passed us!” and they give chase. Eventually I slow down, let them catch up, and drop them again. Yes I am an evil bastard. About 2:10 into the video, I pass a car.

Scene II – sensation of speed as you see the concrete fly by. That’s Bud_Bent behind me again. He was obviously taking an easy recovery pace since he was behind me instead of way off in the distance. The two of us were passing geeks on their tri bikes all day with no effort.

Scene 3 – same

Scene 4 – here comes Mark Leuck and it’s on from here on out in the scenes. I pretty much left everything unedited from this point on, since I didn’t want anyone to think I cut out when a roadie passed us – because that just never happened. It was “Lowracer and Highracer Roadie Spank Day”

About 7:00 in there is a short downhill followed by a lot of sharp turns that I brake hard for. You can tell this by watching the roadie behind me fade away and then gain ground.

10:00 – I’m a pretty decent hillclimber, even on a lowracer. You can see me pop over this hill and then put the hammer down. Watch how fast Mark becomes just a spot in the distance. Unfortunately, my lead doesn’t last very long because thanks to a kinked der. Housing, I can’t shift into the big ring, and Mark CAN. Not to mention he’s a strong rider of course!

Unfortunately I ran out of battery power, or I’d have some more to throw in. There was a roadie friend of Mark and TJ who gave us chase for quite a while at nearly 30mph for miles, but power was gone long before then.

Sweet, i love it when they try to draft off from me and I just walk away from them, but there are a few that can keep up with me and pass. Its fun watching the look on their faces as you pull away.

Very nice!

A couple of camera questions:
Is that an Oregon Scientific ATC 2000?
What resolution/frames per second was this video shot at?

Yes, that's the camera. They have a new and better one out now I think. This one only does 640x480 at 15fps I think.

Cool thats not bad video with one of those, I think I'll get me one

Was this on the TiCa? How fast we talking here?

Uhhhhh, none of those "roadies" were really trying I'm afraid. :rolleyes: Well, ok, maybe the chick with the aero bars was attempting to keep pace but even she wasn't staying in an aero position much. All the others you passed, including the Mad Duck riders in the beginning were pretty much taking it easy. The locked elbows, upright position and relaxed cadence is the dead give away. I wouldn't say anyone got "smoked".. unless they were actually trying. Keep in mind that about 90% of all cyclists are in zones 1, 2 and 3 while riding out there. I'm usually averaging 18-20 mph on the inside loop (zones 2-3, sometimes 4 when there is a 20+ mph headwind. Great video though.

White Rock is a great place to ride, but there are no real hills... unless you go through some of the neighborhoods just southwest of the lake (Winstead Rd for instance). Those lady lumps you called hills, I don't even notice them when I ride there ;)

Oh, and by the way, I ride WRL at least twice a week and sometimes on the weekends. When did you film this?

The entire loop is basically flat, so around 30. I can go a lot faster now that I can shift to the big ring.
And yeah, it was on the tica. I still haven't tested it on the hill climbs, but based on weight alone I should be able to fly pretty well.

You're right - in the video, only those two at the beginning were really trying to chase, escept for one later in the video. The rest of the bikes were just your average weekenders. My battery was done by the time most of the real challengers were out there. One tall Russian guy gave me a scare by keeping up with me for a couple miles before he just couldn't handle it - we were over 30mph at points on the flats. My average on a loop like that would be closer to 27, but the traffic just makes that too scary a proposition.

And I assure you, those guys, and many others were trying, because when I slowed down to let them catch up, we had some nice chats about the speed of recumbents.

That was my first ride out at WRL. I live in Fort Worth and rarely get out that far. Plus, it's kinda boring being on such flat surface. My usual ride is in Ceder Hill with the Texas Wheels. It's very little flat surface on our training loops. Rolling hills, long steady inclines, and the Texas Plume, which is a killer climb that reaches 12% in one part. I also regularly climb the wall, which is so steep the front tire of my bike lifts off the ground. I enjoy the hills. The armadillo century down in Austin was fun as heck. Flatter centuries I can break 5 hours on, but that one took me 6.

Since you're at WRL so much, look for the yellow lowracer in my video. Mark pretty much rides there every day just about. His blog is http://www.lifeonabaron.blogspot.com/. We were there on the 20th - you couldn't have missed us, since we had 4 lowracers together. He and another guy named TJ ride together a lot out there. TJ's bike is a red lowracer.

It'd be a bit of a drive for you, but come check out the tuesday and thursday night rides at Joe Pool Lake with the Texas Wheels. These guys kick my butt still, but I'm catching up quick.

Not bad, but kind of bouncy. And didn't your mother tell you not to play with your food? :) It's fun to pass tri-geeks, if only to see their reactions. Most of them think they're the fastest things on the road at 22 mph. LOL!

No video, but I smoked a Cat3 at the sign sprint on Wednesday. I made my break a mile out, and he was foolish enough to chase me! Silly mortal!

Well, all I'm saying is... the two Mad Duck riders (the ones wearing the green and orange kits) either weren't trying or don't really know what they are doing. :p

I say that because no expierenced roadie gives chase with locked elbows and such an upright position (lots and lots of wasted energy). If you were to pass me and I wanted to "play" and give chase, I'd immediately go to the drops and sprint up to your rear wheel. I'd then stay in the drops and hang on for as long as I could (I'd be out of the seat alot).

30 mph is definately faster than what I can "sustain" on the flats without a HUGE tailwind (laughs), so kudos to you. :) I'm just a sandbagging Cat5. However, I can sprint to almost 40 mph (well, I could last year anyway @ 39.8 mph on a Stalker radar gun). 27 mph is a nice fast average. Heck, most of our Cat5 road races only average around 25-26 mph! :o

I think I know the guy you are talking about on the recumbant. I'll take a look at his blog to confirm.

Do you ever ride out at the Trinity paths or do the Lake Benbrook loop? I ride out there at least once a week, especially up on 1173 past 377 where the climbs are quite decent.

I do the Bicycles Inc tuesday club ride out in Keller. I can't ride thursdays because I get my offspring that evening. Thank you for the offer though!

Take it easy :)

It's only a race when all the parties in attendance know it's a race. I raced a FedEx truck today and he was so humbled he soon pulled to the side of the road and exited the truck carrying a box that likely contained all his belongings!

Definately ride with Mark if you see him - I've rode with him twice and he seems to be comprable to me in speed on the flats but I'm a better hillclimber. I've never tried to see what I can do on an all-out fast sprint. Give me any downhill and I can hit 45 just by coasting though. At HnH I was chip timed through the 10 mile stretch of good pavement at 33mph avg.

I still invite everyone to the tuesday night gig. It's a humbling experience. One of our riders in Mark Metcalf the RAAM competitor. He toys with me like a cat does a mouse. Can't wait to try the new faster bike on him and see if I can stay on his wheel for a change.

I would love to do some local crits but they don't allow recumbents, and upright bikes are just too boring for me. I only dust off my CF trek to do triathalons with.

My house is 4 miles from the trinity trail entrance at Beach Street. When I'm by myself on weekdays I'll often ride to the trail and go to benbrook, loop around, and back. But lately it's tuesday and thursday with the texas wheels kicking my butt, a century or ride with the Randonneurs on Saturday, and Sunday is either a slow recovery ride or training for the Texas Time Trials.

I haven't seen any real climbs out at Benbrook though - just a couple. I've ridden in Aledo a lot though. Did the moritz 75 miles -dont that route a few times actually as well as the Muenster ride which had some good grades, and I go to Austin a lot to ride out there.

Mao me out that benvrook loop if you can. I'm always looking for good routes to train. Or I'd be happy to meet you somewhere so I can learn the route!

Good for you!

I tend to agree with you on those guys. Greg was more or less in their way, and they didn't want to slow down to stay behind him. But they were perfectly content to see him rocket off the front (and out of their hair.)

Glad I found this , that was really cool and nice tunes

Well, let me tell you about speed. The last time I was out there at White Rock Lake, about a week ago, I actually passed three cars. I passed a number of cyclists. And I was riding my Worksman Industrial Bicycle. My average speed on the whole trip was my best ever, at 15.0 mph. Whoosh!

Seriously, I'm old and slow, and when I do pass ANYONE, I enjoy it, even if it's grannies pulling kiddy trailers. But I have learned a few things. One is that passing someone means you CAN go faster than what they ARE going. It doesn't mean you can go faster than what they CAN go. Secondly, people approach bicycling in different ways. I don't worry about the lycra or the fast bike, and just get out and go. But you've got people out there that may have spent $3,000 on bike and gear and yet this is their first day riding. So you can't just assume that people with the gear are the good riders. (I know on the Turkey Trot, I passed quite a few people in all the "right" gear- of course, I was still probably in the last 10% of the crowd, too.)

Something I figured out long ago is that you don't know where other people started. I may hop on my bike and take off, fresh as can be, and pass some guy that's just finishing up his 99th mile. And I feel all manly from doing it, but he may have just ridden farther and faster than what I'll ever do.

That reminds me, a while back, I was out there riding about 15 mph, and slowly overtaking a guy doing 14.9 mph and feeling good about it, when, whoosh, some guy passes us both doing about 30, which helps put it in perspective.

Anyway, more power to you as you zip around, just be careful with the assumptions. If you see me on a yellow cruiser bike with fenders, give a wave. If I'm in your way, let me know, and I'll let you by.

Ah, yes, good old White Rock Lake. Full of fast roadies and slow pedestrians. Pass one and dodge the other. Now I remember why I don't make it over there too often.......lol.

Hey, plenty of times I'm out cruising at 15mph as well, but there's also the set that hops in full kit so that they can speeda round the lake and see who's got the biggest pecker. On that day, it happened to be me :). It just drives the knife in alittle deeper when it's a bent.

I've got some gold medals and trophies from this year that I don't worry so much about it anymore. That was essentially my first ride on that bike.

But I know what you mean about never knowing where the person starts from - I started at 315 pounda, and now I get to race and win occasionally. Pretty flippin sweet!

Okay, two points: 1) recumbents are, all other things being equal, and on a flat or downhill road, faster than an upright, and 2) the guys on the uprights in the video just really didn't care. As has been pointed out, it's only a race if everyone knows it's a race.

Alright, maybe one more point: the average recumbent rider seems to have serious issues with self-image.

And thanks for letting me share!

What is the name of that tune ??

oh yah right, it really embarresses me too
when I get passed by a 'bent rider with 'roids
and I'm on a lightweight mission


those roadies had no technique. I don't think
I could block more air if I had a drogue chute

you get someone on the rivet, you'll be shut down...just sayin....

I really enjoyed the first song. Motorhead?

The second was definitely Cake.

Bring it to California and see how it climbs.!!

Classic!