131–140 of 307 posts
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Have you heard of Group B? That's the story of why racing today has heavy regulations.
I wanna learn more and wikipedia isn't very helpful; any places I should read?
Am I the only cyclist here? I can't imagine voluntarily putting batteries in my bike on a long, mountainous stage. There's no way the batteries will last, and then I'm stuck with dead weight. And, looking through the actual documentary, I didn't see any incontrovertable thermal proof of a battery in any racer. In the guy posing for a shot, yes, but not in the cyclists laboring up the hill.
I've got about 150 Watt Hours from a ~900g battery on my cheater bike. (link below) I dunno how much ballast a really lightly built race bike has to carry these days, but even a quarter of that energy would likely make a dramatic difference - at 25W of assistance (which is something like 10% of a rider's total long-term output) a battery 1/4 the size/weight of mine would provide 90mins of assistance. Would that be "w…
What makes cycling so particularly attractive to cheating? Or is cheating in cycling just getting more publicity than in other sports?
Its getting more press because the other leagues are suppressing it. It is not hard too believe that there is an immense amount of PED use in NFL (way too much money on the line) and probably the NBA and Soccer.
This is the most mind-boggling cheating scandal ever. It jiggles my engineering nerves in place I didn't know was possible.
Racers are willing to put their health at risk with various performance enhancing drugs and procedures, putting a motor on their bike seems to pale in comparison.
What makes cycling so particularly attractive to cheating? Or is cheating in cycling just getting more publicity than in other sports?
Most professional athletes are doing everything they can to get ahead, and cycling is no exception. That said, there are pretty amazing stories about cyclists cheating - perhaps because the sport is so grueling that small advantages can really translate to substantial gains. One of my favorites for the Tour de France was cyclists being pulled by cars attached by fishing line to a piece of cork held in the mouth!
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Have you ever used an electric assist? a 50Wh battery weighs very little[1], the motors are similarly light, even by road-bike standards. Remember that there is a minimum weight, so you have a small amount of deadweight to play around with as well. That would give a pro biker a 10%[2] increase in power usable over 1 hour of the stage. It would make the uphill parts way better while negligibly affecting flat terrain a…
Ive some of these tube-size assists are 100 watts. That could be as much 30% in sustained riding. They were designed to provide half the power for commuters.
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It's a balance between man and machine, between tradition and progress. F1 racing cars would be faster if they replaced the driver with a computer. The fans want to see the skills of the driver tested, so the sport bans common driver aids like traction control and anti-lock brakes. Cycling with motors isn't cycling, it's motorcycling. Allowing motors would change the sport in an undesirable and irrevocable manner. In…
> Technology is an intrinsic part of the sport, but it is not allowed to play a dominant role. I can't make any sense of this. Any bicycle is 100% a product of technology. I can't think of anything that plays a more dominant role in bicycle racing than... bicycles.
What makes cycling so particularly attractive to cheating? Or is cheating in cycling just getting more publicity than in other sports?
After many years of training cheating becomes more attractive than admitting your natural endurance limit is just too low.