BikePower

Today I sprinted 100m from a standing start as fast as I could on the old 72 Schwinn.

This 52 year old rider is 5'11" and weighed in at 168.75lbs. The bike weighed 38lbs

I mapped out exactly 100m with the google maps measure distance feature on my street in the front of the house.

I made 3 runs at 100% maximum effort and measured the elapsed time with the digital stopwatch on my wrist watch.

I would start the stop watch, get into position at the starting line and when the stopwatch got to exactly 1 min I launched from a standing position and remained standing througout. As I crossed the finish line, I looked at the watch which was buckled around my handlebars so I could easily see the display.

My best time was 14 seconds flat. I expected to do it closer to 10 seconds according to my calculations and estimation of my fitness level. . But I was so wrong. This is harder than I thought.

My lungs were burning in between runs to recover from the oxygen deficit inflicted by the all out sprint. I used the second gear 39 ring and 24 rear cog for a ratio of 1.625. I did not shift, just left it in that gear the whole time. I thought to shift but I didnt dare take my hand off the handlebars at full throttle to shift the Twin Shift stem mounted shifters. Click shift would definitely have a major advantage.. I know with some tuning and training I can break into the 13s. The pump in my quads and glutes was insane!

I would love to see your guy's times and what bikes you are riding.

Outrider1

What type of pedals are you using on the Schwinn? I've got to think being clipped in with SPD-SL pedals would help optimize pedal stroke in an all out sprint.

mstateglfr 

ok

big chainring 

Might add some interest by teaming with a partner and switching off after your sprint. And if you rode on an oval track you could have all kinds of fun.

Iride01 

I guess in the flat terrain of much of Florida you have to do something to amuse yourself on the bike. But for me and probably many, sprints aren't our thing. We'd rather best our times going up a hill or see how fast we can average on a 36 or 62 mile ride or some ride of more than two hours.

I tend to think the benefit for health is duration of ones cycling as opposed to short bursts of maximum power. Though when used for interval training those short bursts of maximum effort can improve everything else.

I suppose when I started back riding my 46 pound Schwinn Varsity for fitness back when I was about 50 yo I had some of the same feelings of how "great" I was and ready to challenge all comers. However I think I'm a little more sensible now on my <18 lb bike and a little less likely to challenge anyone lest they embarrass me. < big grin>

indyfabz

I would give it a try, but I am busy watching pain dry. Sorry.

skidder

I'll choose this bike, very light sprinklee rain just now so have to wait for the ground to dry out.

burnthesheep

Shrug. Where's the paint? Is it a nice color? This topic falls under "things you may go do for fun, but don't tell anybody about.........much less post about it".

I can't even get Strava to zoom in on such a short stretch to see what it was for some of my pursuit workouts with a standing start.

But speaking of paint dry, a 39/24 is a climbing gear. Not a 100m dash gear. That has to be a typo and meant a 14t, not a 24t.

dmark 

From a standing start weight is a bigger issue. If we are racing I'll bring the PX-10.
OTOH I was given a 72 Sierra Brown Continental (also 24") last year that looked like hell. It cleaned up great and rides real nice. I used a brass brush with WD40 on the wheels and all the rust is gone.

BikePower

good work Dmark! You saved a classic from the crusher. Now go out there and see if you can beat my time of 14 seconds! I challenge anyone on this board to beat my time.

BikePower

Yes a climbing gear to climb out of the hole of standing still. Ideally I would shift into the next gear once I got going but I cant take a hand off the handlebars and keep accelerating. RPM's were pretty high at the finish line and if I cant shift Im going to try starting in a steeper gear like 39/20 to see if a stronger finish makes up for a slower launch. I need another day or two to recover first. Then I will try it and report back here. What ratio do you think would be best?

BikePower

I went with 100m so I could compare it to runners times. Also I wanted to pick a distance that would be about 10 seconds worth of all out effort to simulate a running sprint race and stay in the anaerobic explosive power pathway. Ever notice the physique of a sprinter compared with the physique of the 10k guy? The best time was with the 39/24 but I am going to experiment with taller ratios and see if I can make up for the slow start with a stronger finish. 100m is not that short when you are going all out! and it takes me a couple minutes to recover. Its like a wind sprint. One thing I have to make sure not to hold my breath when pushing and straining that hard. Thats a lot of pressure not good for the blood vessels. Naturally oxygen uptake is not a factor in sprinting because the race is anaerobic and only 14 seconds long but pressure management is a concern. I should probably wear a heart rate monitor to make sure Im not exceding the safe limit for my age.

BikePower

I went with 100m so I could compare it to runners times. Also I wanted to pick a distance that would be about 10 seconds worth of all out effort to simulate a running sprint race and stay in the anaerobic explosive power pathway.

Ever notice the physique of a sprinter compared with the physique of the 10k or marathon guy? According to my fitness textbook it talks about the SAID principle Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. The body will adapt specifically to the demands imposed on it. A sprinters body shows how the adaptation to sprinting is different than the marathoners body to distance running.

BikePower

Just the stock Schwinn unclipped pedals. I think thats a great idea once I get the rest of the formula dialed in. I wonder how much time / energy that could save me? I would think it could be considerable because you can pull with your hamstring while simultaneously driving down with the other leg. Good thinking Outrider!

mstateglfr 

Whats funny to me is that I would never set up a testing process like this outside my house on an actual bike, but I would absolutely give it a try if Zwift had some virtual 100m sprint workout where you go all out from 0.
I would do it a few times then move on and never think again about how to reach my anaerobic explosive power pathways.

woodcraft

Looking at the gear calculator, 39/24 only gets you about 16mph at 125 rpm, not even 18 mph at 140 rpm.

I think you'll have to shift to reach your goal.

BikePower

Did you figure 27" wheels? Thats very interesting. I just calculated 16mph as 23.466 feet per second and if you divide it into 328ft (aka 100m) it comes out to 13.977 sec. Thats a flying start at 16mph. I started from a stop so I would have had to reach a much faster speed than 16mph to make up for not having a flying start. It would be interesting to be able to calculate what speed I must reach by what point to equal desired elapsed time. ( any time faster than the previous time).

dedhed

What was your trap speed? surely that Schwinn has a speedometer on it.

rsbob 

I’m seeing one of those large cylindrical ones with a red needle with the MPH laid out: ****5**** 10**** 15**** 20**** 25****30 with a cable drive that goes to the front wheel hub. Probably weighs about 3 lbs

Had something like that when I was a kid.

BikePower

yes I had one too as a lad. Good times!!

I dont have a computer head on it at the moment. I used to have a Cat Eye back in the 80s on my Ross Paragon (i miss that girl). I wish I could find one like those early models cat eyes. Maybe ebay has one. It lasted for many many years, trouble free. It went with the bike, had to sell due to misfortune. It was 23 lbs of heaven on earth.

So no ded I dont know my exact speed at the finish line but I estimate it over 20mph based on past experience which was years ago already and my seat of the pants speed estimator is likely way out of calibration at this late date. However woodcraft was nice enough to do the math and has demonstrated that I had to have been going well over 16mph to span the distance in 14s from a stop.

Im going to look for a Cat Eye for my bike tonight. Do you have any suggestions on a better one? Maybe Cat Eye is not a good brand anymore I dont know.

woodcraft

It doesn't really matter how fast you are going- it's about getting a faster time, which is not hard to measure.

Try different gears & see what makes for the better result.

A heart rate monitor would be interesting as well...

BikePower

I agree, especially the HR monitor. The Schwinn is waiting for new cables from Bens. Then I have to get new tires and straighten the wheels . Ive got 45ps in them now, I would like to get them up to 90psi but the Schwinn folks on the Schwinn forum report that the Schwinn wheels cant hold much over 65lbs because the rims dont have a lip on them. I think max hr is 220 - age x 80% if I remember correctly. 168 - 34 = 134. bpm. I also have a Schwinn Collegiate 3 speed thumb shift 19" frame. I wonder how much difference that would make. One step at a time.

RChung

Very nice. Just FYI, from a standing start, 10 seconds would put you into pretty elite company. Here are some data from a standing start for a "national-level" master's pursuiter (note the IP is 4000 meters, so I'm just cutting this off after the initial acceleration. As you can see, the rider passed 100 meters just under 10 seconds. At 14 seconds, the rider had gone 162 meters).

burnthesheep

Of note, folks would need a wheel speed sensor to do this to that level of data. The Notio I've got claims 4 datapoints a seconds, but not sure the Garmin speed sensor reports that quickly.

I'd rather the folks on here see what they can get for an amateur distance 3km pursuit. Or the kilo. One out, one back, average the two. Standing start, choose your gear no shifting.

What do decent P/1/2 pursuiters do in the US for the 4km? The record at Aguas is 3:59, but in the US for someone not Lambie I thought more along the lines of 4:20? The men's elite record posted online for Valley Preferred is "only" a 04:32.5.

MoAlpha

Because of its time lag relative to power, HR is not very informative over efforts this short.