Here's another one - I was going home from work this tuesday with my panniers packed with clothing and stuff for work. At the start of a long downslope a 30km/h moped was gaining on me (normally they go about 35-40km/h on the straights). Behind the moped there was a Lance-dressed hammerhead trying to keep up. When the moped was allmost at my rear wheel I put the pedal to the metal and got up to 60km/h on the slope leaving the hammerhead and the moped in my dust. I never saw them again. The average speed on the 39km trip was 31.2 which I'm quite satisfied with :-) Alas, I'm not ready for this on my Python, it was on my 'ol trusty 17kg's Evita : http://www.scheel.net/HPV/evita/images/evita_race.jpg Cheers, Torben - getting ready for the Danish championship in June and World Championship in August (anybody interested? : http://www.hpvklub.dk/2005/news.php) -----Original Message----- From: "Greg Kolodziejzyk" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <python@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:38:00 -0600 Subject: [python] Re: RWS > Jürgen wrote: > > > After 160 km I also met two lycra stylish racing bikers. > > They looked down on me, sitting there with my jeans and all > > the baggage that I carried with me. Then I kindly asked them > > for the way and outran them with 38 km/h on my 20 bucks scrap python. > > I absolutely LOVE stories like this! Well done Jurgen! > > That reminds me of when my wife and I were touring across interior BC a > couple summers ago. I was touring on my Cannondale mountain bike with > two rear panniers, slicks for tires and aerobars. I passed two roadies > who were stunned that a mountain bike with packs passed them. > > This has little to do with my ability and almost everything to do with > aerodynamics and Crr. The fact that my gear laden mountain bike weighed > probably twice what the road bikes weighed, as you know, probably > mattered very little on a flat road although the perception is that the > heavier bike would be way slower - not true on a level road. > > The rear panniers probably act as a tail box providing smooth air > transition around the torso. Add to that, that fact that my frontal > area > up front was smaller due to the aerobars and you have a bike that is > probably slightly more aerodynamic than a standard road bike. > > Fat and slick mtn bike tires should have lower Crr than road tires > because of the rounder contact patch. Pressure differences between road > and mtn bike tires will counter this advantage, but if the pressure was > low on the road bike and high on my mtn bike, then it is possible that > I > was riding with better Crr. > > Greg K > > > ============================================================ > > This is the Python Mailinglist at freelists.org > > Listmaster: Juergen Mages jmages@xxxxxx > > ============================================================ > ============================================================ This is the Python Mailinglist at freelists.org Listmaster: Juergen Mages jmages@xxxxxx ============================================================