Electric Assist Trikes in the Recumbent World, Part I

My first experience with electric assist was somewhat of an epiphany. At the Recumbent Cycle-Con in Pomona, California in 2013, HP Velotechnik was showing their new Scorpion FS26 S-Pedelec. This trike has a fully-integrated 500w electric assist system by GoSwiss Drive built into the bike. I was ambivalent - I have two legs that work quite well - why would I need electric assist? Then I took it for a spin!

That trike came back to the shop with me. The switch had been flipped in my head and I realized that e-assist didn't mean you wouldn't get a workout, it just meant you could go farther and faster. I spent the next year putting 1100 miles on that trike in a variety of settings and loved every mile of it!

At Bent Up Cycles, we now offer three different e-assist systems to meet the needs of all different types of customers. Shown is the Scorpion FS26 S-Pedelec, a Catrike 559 with an Ecospeed kit, and an HP Velotechnik Gekko with a Falco system. I would like to spend the next three posts highlighting each of them and then end with a wrap-up comparison of all three.

Before I do, I think it is important for people to understand how e-assist systems work. The biggest question we get is "how many miles can it go?" The best article I have read on this subject makes Watts, Amps, and Voltage really easy to understand. Ultimately, nobody can tell you how far you will go because the human engine and terrain will differ with every rider. But understanding the basic math behind each system can give you valuable data in making your choice.

The HP Velotechnik Scorpion FS26 S-Pedelec is built on the chassis of the Scorpion FS26, the most popular trike made by the company. It incorporates a GoSwiss Drive rear hub motor with a 500W, BMZ 36v Li-Ion 558Wh battery, controller with a color display and easy-to-use controls, a USB port for charging small devices, front and rear lights and regenerative braking. A second battery can be purchased and it easily mounts on the left side of the bike. On their current 2nd generation system, the battery does not need to be moved when changing batteries - you can easily reach under the seat, disconnect the cable from one battery and connect it to the other.

The ride of this trike is sublime - the full suspension soaks up all of the bumps, the seat is exceptionally comfortable and available in five different varieties, and the build-quality and component specifications are exceptional.

I rode this trike everywhere! With five levels of assist, it could provide just a touch of assistance at level one to a full-throttle sports-car feel at level five! The hub has some drag to it, so you will want to always run it at level one to make up for this drag. In level five, I had no problem accelerating and maintaining the top speed of about 28mph. This trike allows you to become traffic, and it needs to be ridden accordingly.

The trike had no problem climbing hills and I frequently rode it to meetings knowing that I would not show up all sweaty. The only downside I found was the linked front brakes and large rear wheel did not handle technical descents on bad roads well. The large wheel skipped around when hitting repeated bumps, and I couldn't modulate the brakes well in turns because they were linked. In fact, I had to take my left hand off the brake lever to ensure that I did not hit the rear brake, causing an accident. Due to German law, the trike is not available with independent front brakes, but we frequently swap out the brakes for Shimano XT (but you lose the brake light).

We have been an HP Velotechnik dealer for 13 years. Anyone who knows me knows that I love their bikes and trikes! So I am delighted that they were the first company to turn me on to the e-assist trike world with another wonderful product!

WHAT'S IN YOUR TOOL KIT?

Everyone on the internet wants to tell you what you should include in your tool kit.  From chain breakers to spoke tools, they will have you loaded down with enough tools and gear to start your own repair shop. Unless you know how to use all of those tools, however, or even whether they are useful on your particular bike, you’re going to wind up with a ton of dead weight. Literally. There are a few things everyone should consider when amassing their kit:

LENGTH OF YOUR RIDE

Depending on the length of your ride and the locale in which you’re riding it, you may or may not need a buncha stuff in your would-be tool kit.  The tools needed on a commute through an urban area will vary drastically from the tools needed on a long-distance rural tour.  If I get a flat on my way to Target or on my way to work, I’d much rather grab a bus or train and continue my journey than sit on a curb along a busy roadway sweating and swearing while fixing the flat. This means that I don’t carry an extra tube, pump and whatever other “essential” tools around with me at all times while I run errands.  If I’m going out for a leisure ride on a Sunday morning, however, I will most certainly bring and tube and pump so I can keep on keepin’ on.

            Touring is a whole different beast altogether. Depending on where you’re riding, you may not see a bike shop or even a gas station with air for a hundred or more miles at a time.  This means that you will need to be prepared for anything.  Spokes break.  Inevitably, it will always be a drive-side spoke that breaks and you will have to remove your cassette to gain access to the spoke holes.  This problem/procedure alone requires a slew of parts and tools that you would never ever bother to carry in your day-to-day zipping around.

KNOW YOUR BIKE, KNOW YOUR TOOLS

So you’ve done your research and your shopping and have a kickass and appropriate kit for the riding you do.  You read the reviews, you compared features and prices, and you spent the extra money to get the good stuff, but can you use it? A beautiful high-polished Lezyne pump won’t do you an ounce of good (or a pound of pressure for that matter) if you haven’t learned the difference between a “presta” and “schrader” valve. Practice with your new tools in the safety of your own driveway or living room.  Don’t be afraid to ask your local bike shop how to use the stuff they’re selling you.  If you’re just a little rusty, you can count on YouTube to have a tutorial for just about anything you can think of.  Still not sure? Shoot me an email or give me a call. Really.

Getting a flat is a real bummer.  Standing on the bike path waving your pump/chainbreaker/arms around, waiting for a Good Samaritan to pull over and help you is an even bigger bummer.  One of the best feelings, other than the wind in your (helmeted) hair, is the feeling of successfully navigating a technical problemo and getting back on your bike and back on the road.

UNCOMMON TOOLS

For the most part, bikes are all pretty similar. Almost everyone should carry a patch kit and a multi-tool.  For those of us with uncommon or unconventional bikes, there may be some specific tools that you’ll need but generally won’t be part of most people’s kits.  I have a travel bike with S&S couplers, for example. To loosen or tighten them, a special spanner is required.  This is a tool that I would never expect anyone else to carry, but is pretty essential to my bike.  Older American bikes may not always use metric or hex fasteners.  This means that the rider may want to add couple of odd-ball things to their loadout. With carbon fiber and/or high-end bikes, it may be imperative to make sure something is tightened to a specific torque value.  Torque wrenches are available in preset values and are fairly inexpensive.  I have a Thomson stem on my travel bike (which is occasionally taken apart) that specifies a torque value of 5 newton meters, so I carry a 5Nm Torque Key for just that purpose.

Charging your S-Pedelec batteries

We frequently get questions about charging and battery life of the GoSwiss systems on the HP Velotechnik bikes and trikes. To help with your questions, here is the latest information I have received from HP Velotechnik:

In terms of warantee, GoSwiss guarantees you will get at least 500 cycles to a 70% remainder of original capacity. Cycles are always calculated using full charging cycles.

"Partial charging can cause problems with the battery and may cause the system to loose capacity at an unusually high rate. Fortunately, there is an easy fix - run the battery down to the point where it shuts down while driving. At this point, using the lights is no good and actually somewhat dangerous as the remaining charge then really is at the limit before the (battery) system shuts down.
 
Once the battery has gone into safe sleep mode it should be charged without interruption for at least 6 - 8 hours once. That actually is called a learning cycle and should restore full capacity. If it doesn't do it straight away, it may take a second charge with the battery being awakened (as it ALWAYS should) by quickly pushing the test button before attaching the charging plug (note, this refers to the newer batteries that require the wake up if left unused for a week or more).
 
Top up trickle charging is something many people tend to do supposedly "to be on the safe side" in regard to range. But they are killing their batteries that way. Actually running it down until it shuts off is healthy and necessary from time to time. It is a pedelec system after all, i.e. can be purely pedal driven as well."

If you are concerned about your system, please take your trike to your local HP Velotechnik dealer for a diagnostic check. First generation S-Pedelec systems require a special cable to run the software (your dealer may or may not have it). the second generation system uses a male/male USB plug.

Smoothies and integrity

It's been awhile since I posted anything here, and I thought I would take things in a different direction as I return to writing.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was finishing up a ride in the 95 degree heat and thought I would stop at a relatively new smoothie shop on my route for a refreshing, cold snack. While tasty, the shop was very expensive...I posted my thoughts on Yelp and got a response from the owner:

"Dana, Thanks for the review. Our smoothies and juices are prepared and produced with the highest integrity. We use raw, organic all natural produce, spring water (rather than purified tap), and glass bottles (as opposed to plastic). We constantly work on efforts to pass along savings to our customers. Check out our deals/coupons on our website/social media. Please come back in, and before ordering we would be happy to serve you up some samples on us to make sure you purchase a product you can enjoy. Thanks again"

My immediate thought was "this is a bunch of marketing BS...how do you prepare a smoothie with integrity? Is there anything other than all-natural produce?"  I shared my thoughts with him, and we proceeded to have a nice conversation small-business-owner to small-business-owner. As we spoke, it slowly emerged in my mind that perhaps my customers don't know what I mean when I say I run a business with integrity.  I am now going to spell it out:

For me, running a business with integrity comes down to four essential values.  The first is how do you treat your employees.  From day one, my staff have always been paid a liveable wage, with paid vacation, holidays and sick time.  What is liveable, though? According to Federal standards, the poverty line for a family of four is $23,850.  I don't need to read any studies,though, to know that someone needs significantly more than that to live alone in Los Angeles, let alone raise a family of four! Several sources suggest that $40,000 is the minimum amount that a family needs to pay modest rent and be able to eat. So, rather than focusing on how little I can pay my staff, I have done some research to find out the cost of living for someone in Los Angeles, and make sure that my lowest paid staff are making more than this.

Integrity also includes where we source our materials. In the manufacturing chain, it can be pretty difficult to determine where everything is coming from, but if at all possible, we source from local manufacturers.  Our in-house bags are made in Santa Barbara, our tubes for Carbent are made in Utah, and many of our accessories are made by small manufacturers on the West Coast.

For all of us here, integrity has to do with how we treat our environment. We all ride our bikes to work. There are no paper cups here...yes, washing dishes is more tedious but wouldn't you rather have your fresh cup of coffee in a real coffee cup? Customers enjoy the fresh fruit we have for snacking on - it comes from local farmers and is seasonal and organic.  We use cloth towels instead of paper towels.  Finally, our trash company ensures us that they separate recyclables when they collect the garbage.

Lastly, integrity is defined by how we do our daily work. We believe that the final product you receive should be perfect in every way. We use torque wrenches when working on your bike and don't count on parts being assembled correctly from the manufacturer, we have redundant systems in place to make sure that your bike or trike is set up correctly before you pick it up. Yes, sometimes we make mistakes, but rather than try to hide them, we accept that we are not perfect and do what we can to make things right. Finally, we hope that you leave here feeling appreciated. All of the above is meaningless unless you enjoy coming here and keep coming back!

Wine and Waves 400k

I was really looking forward to this adventure!  I rode this course back in 2011 and thoroughly enjoyed it.  In fact, reading over my blog post from that ride, it felt like I had almost the same ride this year, but without the knee pain.  After the first 80 miles of climbing, the course is incredibly recumbent-friendly with great winds and rolling terrain.



I drove up to SLO early on Friday to deliver a trike and have dinner with my wife's aunt and uncle.  Stu and Janie are very active with the SLO Bicycle Club and were busy getting ready to help with the Wildflower Century the next day.  We enjoyed catching up and yakking, and I took off early to get to bed.

The ride started at 6am and 11 of us immediately started climbing the Cuesta Grade, a 1200 foot, 5ish mile climb out of SLO.  I was the second-to-last rider to the top...take it easy, we still have 240 miles to go...  The ride through Atascadero, Templeton, Paso Robles to San Miguel was just as good as always.  I enjoyed catching up a bit with Nicole and learning about her new training business, the scenery was fantastic...it was a great start to the morning.

I don't get up to Paso Robles much, but when I do, I love to ride through the wineries in the hills to the west.  Chimney Rock Road is wonderful and the climbing just didn't seem that difficult this time around.  It was warming up and pretty soon I was down to shorts and jersey.

Here, I start to rain praises on our wonderful ride coordinator, Vicky, but then get quickly distracted.  You can see what my true priorities are...

It warmed up a bit as I hit Highway 46, but with only about 8 miles to ride to the coast, it was bearable.  The descent off the top of the 46 was rather uneventful.  In fact, it seemed like the wind was trying to push me back up the mountain!  Soon enough, I arrived in an overcast Cambria.  There were now only three riders ahead of me and I took about 20 minutes to get some food and apply more sunscreen.

Nicole and Rob left about 10 minutes ahead of me, but I fully expected to catch them on the 22 mile stretch to Ragged Point.  The headwind can get pretty fierce, and it's really important to keep your mind occupied on anything but the wind.  About five miles out of Ragged Point, I caught Nicole and Rob.  As I rode by, I called out "Just think about the killer tailwind on the way back!"  Rob responded, "I tend to be rather pessimistic when it comes to winds..."  "Oh, come on, Rob!  Then think about sex!"  At which point, Nicole interjected, "I tend to be rather pessimistic when it comes to sex..."  I almost fell off my bike laughing and smiled for the next few miles as we climbed into Ragged Point for a snack.

The ride back from Ragged Point to Cambria was fast.  What took two hours in one direction took a hair over an hour in the other.  Sweet!  Rather than stopping in Cambria, I continued on down Hwy 1 toward Cayucos and ultimately SLO.

(a side note, it was really nice doing this course in late April rather than early March as it was still light out when I arrived at the dinner control at mile 174)

I should have read my 2011 report before starting the ride, because I over-ate, again, at the dinner stop.  I bid a fond farewell to Vicky.  She rolled her eyes in disbelief when I told her I would be back in about six hours...  For an hour or so, while heading down to Guadelupe, I was definitely overstuffed and sleepy.  By the time I got to Santa Maria, though, I was back to my perky self.  At this point, there was only one rider, Steve, ahead of me.  I drank a hot chocolate and filled a water bottle with Coke and headed off into the streets at 10:45 on a Saturday night.  With all the partiers cruising Main Street, I couldn't get out of town quick enough!

Bull Canyon was a fast climb and the route continued along for six miles until the wonderful five mile descent back down into Avila Beach.  Woo hoo!  At this point, I was hours ahead of my time from 2011 and feeling great.  As I started up the gentle climb towards Orcutt Road, I saw Steve (who else would be lit up like a Christmas tree on a bike on the side of the road after midnight?).  As I passed him, I decided to make it stick.

The plan...two miles to the steep section at the Orcutt Rd. turnoff.  I can easily hold him off until then.  Even if he catches me on the climb, there is no way he will keep up with me on the 12 mile descent back into SLO.

Steve catches me at the turn as we have to stop to read the info control sign posted there.  We start the short, steep climb.  He gets a little ahead of me, but I stay with him.  We start bombing down the other side and I easily roll away from him.  BUMP, clatter, clatter,clatter...just lost my tail light to a pot hole!  Steve passes me as I stop to grab my back up.

When randonneuring, it is really important that you keep your bags organized.  When it is cold and dark on a lonely road somewhere, that last thing you want to do is have to dig through your bags (with gloves on) looking for a tail light that seems to have disappeared in the mass of clothing and food.  Fortunately, I knew exactly which pouch contained the back up, and spent more time trying to attach it (with gloves on and no light) then actually finding it.

I worked my way down the descent and finally caught and passed Steve for the last time about five miles from the finish.  I cruised in with a finish time of 19:26, and much to my own disbelief, finished the last 75 mile loop in well under six hours.  Another great 400k on the books!

Jim Verheul, Jacquie & John Schlitter, Douglas Hoffman on Over The Top Radio w/George Thomas tonight 3/13 9pm EST

Jim Verheul will be on Over the Top Radio with George Thomas tonight. Guests are John and Jacquie Schlitter, Douglas Hoffman, executive director of the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association (UMCA), and JV. Going to focus on UMCA events, UMCA providing opportunity for all bike types to compete at the same time, a bit of controversy over uprights being declared overall winner in most events, Team Vite Racing, JBV Coaching and our personal goals with the UMCA for 2013.

http://tobtr.com/s/4518447

Its at 9PM EST, 6PM PST, tonight.
Like all George's shows it will be archived for later listening.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/overthetop1/2013/03/14/over-the-top-radio--john-jacquie-and-jim

Cheers,

Jim Verheul
Articles at UltraRaceNews.com
Associate Coach with JBVCoaching
Bent Up Cycles
TEAM BACCHETTA
My Blog

The Gila River Valley 200k

Every year, I try to get out to a brevet in a different area. I feel that the exploratory notion of randonneuring can’t be met if you just keep doing the same rides, year in and year out.  The Gila River Valley 200k came up rather quickly, but seemed like a good idea to get out to for a fast 200K in new area.

This ride is relatively flat.  It doesn’t climb more than 200-300 feet at a time over 5-10 miles.  The challenge with this ride is the wind.  Apparently the wind in Phoenix is a little unpredictable, and this year’s ride was no exception.

Prior to the ride, I got in touch with some of the local riders and one of them, Gerry, offered to put me up for a couple nights.  His wife made me feel like I was staying at a resort – thick, soft towels; shampoo and soap set out in different locations; and she even left me some dental floss!  Thanks Sandy!

I arrived later than expected on Friday night (I didn’t realize there was a time change), and we were up at 4:30am to hit the road.  Not a problem…I had been sleeping well the week before the ride so I was fresh even at the early hour!

I wanted to ride this one fast – my goal was to beat 7:30 – and set a new, personal best for myself.  I knew several of the riders who would be showing up. Gerry was on his Bacchetta CA2.0, David B. was on the CA2.0 we built up for him last spring, Carlton was a familiar face from some of the PCH events, and Lonnie Wollf from Utah kept me company for a few miles in our January 200k.

Since I wasn’t expecting any fast descents, I went with the most aerodynamic set of wheels I had – a set of Zipp Firecrest 404s with a wheel disk cover on the back.  I didn’t bother with any lights and kept the bike as uncluttered as possible.

It was cold at the start!  My Garmin read mid-30s, but I think it was really in the low 40s.  From the get-go, we were off like a cannon.  I lead the paceline with Gerry and David right behind me for the first 8-10 miles.  The sun rose and it started warming up as we headed south towards Sacaton.  The first 25 miles flew by, but David and I stopped to pee and the lead group got away from us.

The first climb (if you can call it that) was outside of Sacaton.  We could see one or two riders ahead of us, and as we crested the climb we passed both of them.  This was the first part of the course that was “scenic”.  You need to understand, Dave and Gerry prepared me for looking at dirt all day. Actually, I have found that as I have gotten older, I appreciate the desert more and more, and I found this course quite beautiful.  The cactus waved at us in their variety of contorted shapes, hawks combed the skies for some breakfast, and tumbleweed frequently rolled across the road.

After the brief ascent, we bombed down into Casa Grande to the second control (the first was the start line).  At that point, we caught up with the lead group, and we all proceeded out together to discover the wonderful pavement in and around Casa Grande.  In a word, it sucked!  We left town and started heading SE on Main St. on rough pavement and into a slight headwind out of the east.  We tucked into a paceline, but it seemed rather dis-jointed.  It kept breaking apart and I couldn’t figure out why.  After a brief pull for a couple miles, I settled in the back with Gerry and Dave.

We finally arrived in Eloy, our third control at mile 51.  I had a quick snack and then hit the road with five other riders – Carlton, Clint, Michael, Steve, and another rider whose name escapes me.  We were heading due north and I took off.  A few miles down the road, the group caught up with me and I pulled us along at 23mph for about 4 miles.  We then started rotating pulls, but I noticed that every time Clint or Michael got to the front, the speed picked up to 25mph.  This started getting old as our speed bounced back and forth, making it hard for the riders in the back to stay with the group.  Dave and Gerry, who has also caught up, fell off the back rather quickly due to the frequent changes in speed.

A note about riding style – a brevet is not the same as a hammerhead club ride.  Experienced ultra riders know how to pace themselves.  There is no jumping anytime someone passes someone else – if riding in a group everyone tries to work together to minimize effort so the whole group goes faster.  Sometimes, local club riders come out for 200k events, and the conflicting mentalities can cause problems.  It’s not that either group is “right”, rather it is just different styles of riding. When I was pulling the group at 23mph, I was riding at an easy 130-140w, a pace that I could keep for many, many hours.  Pushing up to 200w to stay with the group was a quick way to lose energy and end up burning out.

As we started zigzagging into Coolidge, we could tell that we were going into a stiff headwind out of the east on a very gentle ascent.  I tried staying with the group, but the bouncing paceline kept dumping me off the back (I stayed in the back position so that the DF riders could get the most advantage from the draft – there was no use having me in front given the wind, but I did offer).  I finally decided to ride my own ride and let them go.  The wind had knocked their speed down to about 12mph, while I was going about 11mph, and I watched them disappear slowly down the road.

I didn’t really know how long this wind/road would last, so I just settled into my pace and kept riding.  I expected Dave and Gerry to catch up any time, but they didn’t.  I even stopped for a few minutes to try to pet some horses.  It was warming up into a gorgeous day and I intended to enjoy it at whatever pace I was riding.

The route finally crossed Pinal Pioneer Highway and a mile later, I made the turn onto Diffen Rd. that put the wind to my side.  The course slowly started descending to the next control at mile 85.  The cactus through here started taking on more interesting shapes and the views across the valley were spectacular!  All too soon, I arrived at mile 85 and met up with Thomas, one of the local volunteers who was signing brevet cards.  We chatted for a couple minutes – apparently he spent a lot of time in California doing brevets in the 80s and 90s – and he told me the fast group was only about 10 minutes ahead of me and that Dave and Gerry were 3-4 minutes behind me.  I waited a little longer for Gerry and Dave, but they never materialized.  So I bombed down the mountain, past the Arizona State Prison, into Florence for a quick stop at the Circle K to refill bottles.  The lead group was there and I left with them.

The next 25 miles became a race.  Given the slightly downhill terrain and tailwind, I quickly passed the group, figuring it would be an easy ride back to the finish.  When I saw two riders chasing me, I knew exactly who they were.  Soon enough, Clint and Michael were on my tail, drafting and working to stay with me.  After the first five miles of having them draft without pulling, and getting turn directions from me, I was getting a bit upset.  The course was now zigzagging again, and at every other turn we were either in a cross wind or head wind. It was easy to tell how hard they were working by looking at their open mouths in my mirror as they tried to keep up (keep in mind, I was pulling 130-140w and just moving along nicely).  It was rather entertaining to watch them slowly catch up, at which point I would bump it up to 190-200w for a minute or two and they would disappear again behind me.   I didn’t know if I was going to have to keep this up for five or 25 miles, so I made sure to ride a pace that I could keep indefinitely. After 20 miles of this, they pulled ahead of me and pulled off the road. I assumed someone needed to pee, but quickly turned around to check on them.  They had a flat tire and the tools to fix it, so I continued.

Since the “race” was over, I slowed way down to about 100w and tried to just enjoy the scenery for the last 15 miles.  We were riding through farmland and it was fascinating to see all of the horses, sheep, cows and crops (I didn’t realize that south Phoenix was a farming community).  About five miles from the finish, I nearly stopped at a county fair – the signs advertising fresh pie sounded great after my 7-hour diet of fruit and water.  But I continued on and soon arrived at the finish.  I was the first rider in at 7:27.  The three other riders from the lead group arrived at 7:32 and Clint and Michael arrived at 7:36.

After chatting for a few minutes, Clint and Michael (who were really nice guys) and I went over to the Cantina for some food and drinks.  I had the food, they had the drinks!  We hung out waiting for Gerry and Dave, chatting about the ride and just enjoying a sunny afternoon.  Dave and Gerry arrived at around 8:12 (Gerry beat his time from last year by over 30 minutes – yeah!). We all agreed it was a great course and a great day and I look forward to riding with this group again soon!

Gerry and Steve both wrote excellent ride reports.  Check them out here and here.

A couple of good questions from a customer

As the race season picks up, I get more and more questions like this coming through my inbox.  Read on, but please be advised that it gets a bit graphic about external catheters. If you are going to Sebring, have a GREAT race! 

Hi Dana  

I have a Bent Up Cycles Aero bag I can put two bottles of water in, but for a century ride, I need more water. Do you have any ideas how I can carry more?  I’m thinking about riding the century at Sebring on Feb 16.

I rode the Suncoast bike trail last sat - 86 miles – and I had to stop 6 times to pee and only had water for fuel.  How do you ride long distance and carry enough water and how do you take a leak while riding? I lost about 15 min stopping and only had an 16.8mph average speed. Those guys at Sebring will kill me.

Some guys use a hose and I don’t know how to do it.  Do you cut a hole in your shorts and let the hoses go down along shorts or along seat?

I won’t have any help so I have to carry enough water to make it back from the 50 mile turnaround at Sebring.  Do you have any ideas?

Sincerely, RS

Hi RS,

In my experience, many recumbent riders have to pee during the first couple hours of riding.  I guess it is something about the recumbent position that puts pressure on the bladder – I’m not sure, but I know that I will have to pee once or twice in the first 1.5 hours of a ride.  If you are one of the riders that have this issue, there isn't much you can do about it...

Catheters work for some, however, they are not 100% (they can come off and then you have wet shorts).  They fit on like a condom with a hose coming off of the end.  The hose runs down your shorts and then hangs at your side as you ride.  If you go this route, make sure to route the hose on the left side so you are not peeing on your chain.  It also takes some practice, so try it before the event.

Sometimes, if you are riding with a group, everyone may agree to stop together.  Another suggestion is to bolt off the front to get ahead of the group so you don't lose so much time.  However, you have to tell the group that you are doing this. Otherwise, they may take it as an "attack" and try to keep up with you.

Finally, at an event like Sebring, there are going to be many groups racing down the road.  If you lose your group at a stop, just jump on the next one that comes by.

In regards to hydration and nutrition, it is imperative that you have some sort of plan - you cannot ride 100 miles on just water.  There are a variety of powders out there - Hammer Nutrition and Infinit come to mind.  If you are going to try any of these products, race day is NOT the day to do it.  The general rule is you should be consuming 200-300 calories per hour.

Personally, I prefer real food.  I fill each side pocket of my jersey before a long ride - one side gets a mix of raw almonds, cashews, dried cranberries, and if it isn't too hot, some chocolate chips.  The other pocket gets filled with dates.  I can carry 900 calories this way, which is enough to get through a fast century.  I may also stick a piece of fruit or two in my bag.

For an event like Sebring, you should really try to get someone to support you.  Bring some extra bottles with you and ask someone if they don't mind bringing extra bottles out to the turnaround point so you can grab them.  Everyone is pretty friendly there and you shouldn't have a hard time finding someone to help.  Just make sure you know what kind of car they drive and where they will be.  The turnaround is generally the worst place to meet, as everyone else is there.  In 2010, we had our crew set up about a mile before the turnaround.  That way, they saw us as we came by and could get our stuff out.  We then stopped at the car on the way back to get our stuff.  This was a great opportunity to drop off clothing and pee as well.

I hope this helps.  Have a great race!
Dana

Carbon 406 rims are in stock!

We have some beautiful new rims in stock!  The 50mm deep 406 carbon fiber rims weigh in at 306g each - lighter than most 406 aluminum rims!  They are 26mm wide for a comfortable rim.  We currently have 28h and 32h hole in stock, but can also get other drillings.

Pictured above are two wheels we just built for a customer.  The One of the left will be going on the front of an Optima Baron, and features a Chris King disk hub in black, DT Swiss Champion spokes in black with silver brass nipples, and our 50mm carbon fiber rim.  Beautiful!

The second wheel features a Chris King R45 hub with radially laced DT Swiss Champion spokes.  We went for some alloy red nipples for a bit of bling.  What do you think?  We will be building a matching rear wheel with an 88mm deep rim, matching hubs, and black Sapim CX Ray spokes.  The pair will be going on a Catrike Musashi.

Let us know what customer wheels we can build for you!

How to drill a carbon fiber seat for installation on a Bacchetta frame with a seat plate.

Drilling a new carbon fiber seat for a Bacchetta frame with a seat plate ( CA1, CA2, or Aero) is critical to having the seat, and therefore you, aligned with the wheels. I takes time and patience, so you only want to do it once. And if you do it wrong, you are cockeyed on the bike.

First read the article on how to attach your drilled seat to the bike. This will give you insight into what hardware you might want to use.
 
This job is challenging if you want to do it well, as there are not good consistent reference point on a carbon seat, just a lot of curves. It hard to approach it with a tape measure and just mark it for drilling,

My first method involved a seat plate frame (CAx or A) and a set of struts and hardware. This is probably what most home mechanics will want to do:

First, position the strut brackets an inch farther down the seat than a Bent Up Cycles recumbent bag (deepest bag I know of) reaches. This way your strut location never limits your bag choice. Mount the brackets as far outboard as possible still leaving about 2mm between the head of the strut pivot bolt and the seat rib. These 2 holes don't have to be perfectly aligned  longitudinally on the seat, as long as you have Velogenesis clamps. If you still use grenade pins, they do. While you are at it, get a aluminum upper seat stiffener from Larry Graham to prevent localized seat flex and create better triangulation in the back of the bike.
 
Attach strut brackets, struts,  and mount it all on the frame. If you bend your strut ends to lay fMake sure you adjust the VG clamps so the struts are equidistant from the rear tire. Make sure the seat if roughly at your preferred seat angle. Put masking tape on the frame on either side of the plate so you don't scuff anything with the drill. Drill out all the holes you intend to use, or just all of them to 6mm (1/4" is fine). Deburr holes.
 
Now drop the seat base on the frames seat plate. Carefully center the seat plate between the rims of the seat and pick holes in the plate where the seat is closest to parallel with the plate. Centering is easy with the new seat as they are too narrow to fit over the seat plate. Mark one hole and drill it. Bolt it down with your chosen hardware and rigid spacers to keep the seat ribs off the sides of the plate. Now recheck that your seat is not twisted and is level, and drill the second hole.
 
This can take a hour. What I did at Bent Up Cycles was to then make 2 tools, that attach extremely well to the upper seat and seat base, each with drill guides and multiple set of holes for different seat angles. Now it takes 1 minute to drill a seat perfectly. ;-)

2012 Las Vegas Grand Fondo - Vegas style, Baby!

To say that I wasn't very excited about cycling around Las Vegas was an understatement.  No offense to the residents of Vegas, but I really just don't like it there (apparently this is rather common among people who only spend time on the Strip).  I had finally decided that I was NOT attending Interbike this year and was rather excited about that.  Then Scott steps in...

Scott picked up his decked out Carbent HPV Raven a couple weeks ago and invited me to join him on the Las Vegas Gran Fondo.  He assured me that it would be very scenic and fast.  I looked at my calendar and realized that it was exactly two weeks before the Furnace Creek 508 and would be a great final training ride for that.  So, I decided to sign up and also managed a quick trip to Interbike to see a few vendors.




Scott's wife, Emarie, had some connections and got me a room at the Boulder Station Hotel and Casino. It was quite refreshing staying off the strip.  Scott and I spent a few hours on Friday making some changes to his bike and getting some dinner.  It seemed like we were up only a few hours later, lining up at 5am for the start.  We didn't realize there would be 2500 cyclists, and found ourselves at the back of the pack. Although the start was at 5am, we didn't cross the start line until 5:52.  However, it meant that the sun would be coming up very soon and lights would be unnecessary.

We started by cruising up the Strip, which was closed off to vehicular traffic for our ride.  It was actually pretty cool having the whole road to ourselves with the bright lights and approaching dawn.  We made our way up the strip, across the Valley and started down Boulder Highway towards Boulder City.  This section was fast...I mean REALLY fast.  We easily passed 1000 cyclists in the first 25 miles of the ride as I went hoarse calling out "on your left", "on your left".

After we turned on the road to Lake Mead, the crowds started to thin out.  The sun had just come up and we were cruising through the foothills, working it (perhaps a little too hard) on the short climbs and then bombing past everyone on the way down the other side.  I slowed down for the first aid station (and who puts an aid station halfway down a hill, anyway?) but decided to keep going. As I hit the bottom, I got my first view of Lake Mead, and it was quite spectacular.  I rode across the roller coaster around the lake, until we got to the first serious climb at the far end of the lake heading up to the highway.

Cresting the climb brought me to the descent down to Hoover Dam (I lost Scott back at the lake when I needed a pit stop).  The descent down into the Dam was twisty and technical, just the way I like it!  I had to keep the speed down, though, as there were many cyclists on the road.

Hoover Dam was awesome!  I had no idea how big it was, and took a few minutes to snap some pictures.  At the far end was the second stop where I grabbed a banana, refilled the water bottles and met up with Scott.

Having two decked out Carbents together caused quite a stir.  We received many compliments on the bikes and one local mechanic assured Scott that he could bring the bike by his shop any time for service. (FWIW, this lasted the whole ride - people were repeatedly impressed by how good the bikes looked and how well we climbed on them).

We began the climb out of the Dam.  This was billed as the hardest climb on the route, but it really wasn't that bad.  With only 40 miles under our belts we were pretty fresh and I probably pushed it a little too hard.  Oh well...  After reaching the top, we began the longer, gentler ascent up the pass to Boulder City, followed by a nice ride on a bike path that takes you from Boulder City back into the Las Vegas Valley.  All the while, I was expecting the heat to pick up, but it never really did.  The temps throughout the day were in the mid 80's, up into the 90's in the Red Rock area.

We skipped the next stop and started across the south end of the Valley.  The rollers were never quite short enough to get momentum over, but the urban scenery was still pleasant, the drivers were conscientious and there were many cyclists to talk to.  We also picked up another recumbent rider, Rich, on his Ti Virginia that I built for him awhile ago. The miles across the Valley rolled by quickly, and we soon found ourselves heading out the West end of the Valley towards Red Rocks.

We were about 90 miles into the ride and I was starting to get a bit tired.  I realized quickly though that I was starting to get dehydrated as the temps rose, and downed the rest of my water knowing that an aid station was just up the road.  A flat tire took just a couple minutes to fix, and I was back on the road with Scott and Rich heading up the gentle climb into the canyon.  Rich was slowing down and Scott was speeding up...I kept an even pace right in the middle!

The station at Blue Diamond was the only time I took a significant break off the bike for about 15 minutes.  I downed another bottle of water and ate another orange and banana and was ready to go up the final climb.  The gentle climb continued on another four miles as the scenery because more and more spectacular.  They even marked the summit with a giant pink blow-up pole that you could see from a mile away.  Definitely Las Vegas style!

The last 25 miles were basically downhill.  The crosswinds in the canyon kept Scott awake as he learned how to handle his new Zipp 404 Firecrest wheels, and we passed group after group as we made our way to the finish.  Our final time was 7 hours 50 minutes, and I had a rolling average speed of 17mph on the nose.  The climbing was more than advertised at 5380 feet and the mileage was a little low at 119.8.

I would highly recommend this ride.  The scenery was fantastic, the course was (mostly) well-marked and the stations well-stocked.  The after-ride party was a bit disappointing.  Knowing that it was catered by Outback Steakhouse, I wasn't expecting any vegetarian options, and I was right.  Papa John's was there with pizza, but they were charging for it, as were most of the other vendors that participated.  The sound system was so loud that it was hard to carry on a conversation, but perhaps I'm just getting old :).  Time for a nap...