230 vs 240 watts for an im is a rather large difference


So an extra 100 os mind blowing

Wow. That is awesome. I can see lots of legitimate uses for touring riders. It makes rides like Bike Maine, Bike Oregon, Greater yellowston, ext accessible to folks that might be a little past their prime.

I am sure we will see one show up at a race eventually. Why do you suggest it will be an AG rider? Why not a pro looking for a breakthrough payday?

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Austin Hardy -

900g battery. Lithium-ion batteries peak at 950J/g, so this thing could pack up to 855kJ of energy.

Let's say your bike setup is such that an IM bike leg takes 4h 47m (38km/h) @ 300W. That'd mean it'd take you 5115kJ of energy to complete it. So a 855kJ battery is actually pretty big deal unless I made a math error. It'd let you reduce your power output by ~20% and still go the same speed. The 2kg mass addition is meaningless compared to the 70-90kg mass of bike+rider.

I was really not expecting the battery to make a difference at something as long as an IM, I'm surprised.

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STAC Zero Trainer - Zero noise, zero tire contact, zero moving parts. Suffer in Silence starting fall 2016

Wow!

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<We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak>

They need to make it a variable power assist so you can get the boost over 4 or 5 hours instead of just one. Getting an extra 50 - 75 watts over a 1/2 or 20 - 25 over an IM would be kind of handy.

And you know people would use these. They already skip laps and cut courses to get that elusive $1.75 trophy.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Business opportunity: cheap device that can detect this inside bike frames. TdF can x-ray the bikes, but that's obviously not feasible for an AG field at a triathlon. Not even at just the World's.

Maybe a chemical detector looking for lithium (or nickel?) or a sensitive magnetometer looking for the motor? Something. Actually forget looking for a battery. Di2! We need to look for a motor. Or a hidden switch.... but then they'll just make it controllable wirelessly. And so on and so on.

Edit: as for DQ, first one will be found and DQd when one of these fails and battery catches on fire or the motor seizes up and starts grinding inside the frame. No idea how else you'd catch this at this time. People will get away with it for a loooong time just like they got away with EPO etc... for a long time.

53 to 52? 100w? That's like 53 to 1 if you're at 200w ish

Ummm, just turn it on and off as the terrain dictates?

When you go flying by people then slow down in front of them like the jackasses on the freeway you'd give yourself away.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

IME, athletes in a race are not that observant. We are all racing our own race and don't have time or inclination to analyze others not unless they are doing something monumentally stupid like cutting the course or hitching a car ride. A lot of inexperienced AGs attack the bike, blow, recover, attack again. It doesn't look that unusual.

Waaay too obvious at 200W, or even 100W. The ones that will be trickier to find/catch will be the 20W to 40W ones - which will be a fraction of the size of that device.

Why? Us fat asses do it now, without a motor. Gravity is a bitch.

like the folks on their electric bikes already. going flying by at ungodly speeds while not even pedaling and then monumentally slow, repeat

The problem with these systems is they are noisy as hell. Like an electric drill . Not sure that sound can ever really be removed completely. Other than the noise, I'm not sure there is any way to tell someone is using a motor.

I can see this type of device being used in time trials or hilly triathlons when the distance between individual riders is large enough that the noise wouldn't be heard.

As much as I applaud the ingenuity of the technology, I can't help but be annoyed by this being one more way a person can cheat.

Once BestBikeSplits creates a program to optimize your use of your motor/battery (an extra 40w on the climbs and 20w on the flats all determined based on battery capacity/rider power/rider time on course/course terrain), then I will get one.

Just put in 80W less effort than usual, but go faster, then run the crap out of the course. Would be very hard to detect from results or observing you on the bike.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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Would be kinda cool to help me ride with the wife ;)

The low tech solution is for me to pull a stroller with the dog in it.. weighs me down a good -50 watts...

Are they really noisy? Electric bikes are not. One guy in jeans and t-shirt on a leisure/cruiser bike passed me on a climb. WTF I thought? He went straight, I made a left onto a well known climb around here. Then about 15 minutes into the big climb, here he came again and passed me again. It was only then I noticed a large battery pack on his bike and a faint whirring sound. The noise was so slight that it could only be heard when he was passing me and even then only with no car traffic around us.

Age group? - Check out Cancellara (2010'ish) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nd13ARuvVE

I thought about that, but I didn't think it would offer the same benefit. My solo-run top speed / times are not hugely different than when the run is after a bike & swim. I'm not sure I'd get all the benefit. But 20W might be the difference between KQ or not to KQ. As a shorter distance guy (Olympic) I'm more limited by top end than straight endurance, but I guess at Iron distance, the benefits of 80W savings over 5 hours would be a big fatigue savings on the marathon portion.

How to detect it? How about a good magnet? There should be nothing steel inside that seat tube on a carbon bike.

Scott

Strava segment killer right there.

Not everyone rides a carbon bike.

I like this idea a lot better, I usually just skip a lap, but this seems more sporting.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.