Also, why is her rear brake on the 'wrong' side of the seatstays? I've never seen that before?

Chris

It looks like she stole some poor grade-schooler's bike on her way to Ironman. It's gotta be a 700c frame running 650c wheels. According to the Specialized website, all their models have approximately a 40cm chain stay length, which I'd presume also means that all their models are for 700c wheels. Her position looks perfectly textbook. And damn.

Those pictures are also a reminder of how much more attractive women's legs are than men's.

Peter's saddle looks low in that picture. Lower than in other race photos I've seen.

Odd.

Many times, bikes for more diminiutive riders have some weird details on them. I recall the C'dale women's bike that the rear wheel looked like it was in a different zipcode.

Not having experience with designing anything other than my own personal geometry (which I have not perfected, by the way), while researching geometric differences in bike frames I have found that more diminutive bike frame sizes have trouble with getting the rider low enough and having a workable wheelbase. Some builders have addressed this in different ways. This seems like an appropriate design for someone under 5'5" tall. Also, her position looks much better than I have seen it in a very long time.

On the subject of the rear brake, this is something that has been brought out many times over the years. I don't remember if it was Harry Hanoovian who brought it out the last time in my memory, but there were a few arguments:

1) shorter cable for better brake modulation (not my words).

2) "Dynamic braking", whatever the f*** that means.

3) Better aerodynamics (?).

A caliper that does not have the stays to back it up will end up failing a lot sooner than one that does have the stays to back it up. I just cannot be sold on this being a good setup, but Lori probably does not pay for her own brakes, anyhow.

I think this was brought up before, but the Specialized transition bikes that we can buy at the store use compact frame geometry. If that's the case, then why wouldn't Specialized build it correctly (wheel closer to the frame). For the record, I like Specialized and my bike was an older M4 s-works until I bought a P3.

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56-11...the only way to fly

I think 99% of the aerodynamic frame features are rather insignificant in the real world, but they are probably quite important psychologically.

I am guessing that Specialized wanted the bike to have a good chainline.

Going less than 40cm on a 10 speed rear would make for severe chainline in some gears.

"What's up with Lori Bowden's bike?"

i couldn't say. yes, i agree it's technologically underwhelming, just by looking at the view in the photo. maybe there's a good explanation. i seriously doubt it's a 700c bike made into a 650c bike. as to the chainstay, etc., i don't know, but more to the point i'm not too crazy about her position. she's shallower on that bike than on her cheetah. i wonder if she knows it?

when peter and lori were having their hard times, lori had a great year, and peter's performances really suffered. then eventually peter bounced back and has had two very good years. this past year was lori's forgettable year. she's had a lot of personal changes (just stuff i've noticed, i'm not close to her so i don't know very much). she's had a big change of scenery. i just wonder whether it's all the change of routine that's made it a hard year for her athletically. i don't think an extra cm or 2 of chainstay can account for it.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Her riding 650c wheels is the only explanation I can think of to account for the distance between the front of her rear wheel and the rear of the seat tube, given that her's and Peter's bikes both have the same chainstay length and virtually the same seat tube angle (and we know Peter is riding 700c wheels).

Could the position of the rear brake be due to the use of 650c wheels instead of 700c wheels (if this is indeed the case)? The brake in the normal position might not be positioned sufficiently to work with the smaller wheels? Just a thought.

KW

The 1996 Litespeed Tachyon was very similar to Lori's rear triangle. I had this bike and on a 53 frame, it had 41.5 cm chain stays for a 78 degree 650 bike. I found that bike to be really lame. It also had a really long top tube. Someone told me that the only reason for the long stay was so that Litespeed could use the same tubes on 700 and 650 bikes, which would entirely defeat the purpose of a 650 bike with 78 degree angle. If I recall, one of the main reason to use 650 wheels was to pull the back wheel closer to the rider's rear end, so essentially, both the front wheel (with slacker head tube) and rear end (with short stay and small wheel) all move forward as the rider sits further forward on their tribike relative to the BB than they would on a road bike.

Dan, can you comment if I have my understanding of tribike geometry correct ?

The bigger question is why is Lori riding a Specialized at all? I thought she was all sexed up about going back to her Cheetah last year and ended up winning the race. Ok, money to ride the bike, but hey, if your'e not even on the podium why would'nt you just stay with what works ala Natascha? I'm sure NB has had some very lucrative offers to ride bike X, but chooses instead to keep going to the bank with what works.

There was an article on the Specialized website a few months ago about how Lori signed a new deal with Specialized, she liked Specialized because they offered a 'full package'...the bike, helmet, shoes and eyewear. The article also mentioned about how she is working with Specialized to get her back on a 700c bike but that obviously never happened.

if you observe the chainstays heading forward to the bb shell you note that they do not drop, or angle downwards (compare to the black one's). thus, the bike was conceived/built as a 650 wheeled bike.

[reply]The bigger question is why is Lori riding a Specialized at all? I thought she was all sexed up about going back to her Cheetah last year and ended up winning the race. Ok, money to ride the bike, but hey, if your'e not even on the podium why would'nt you just stay with what works ala Natascha? I'm sure NB has had some very lucrative offers to ride bike X, but chooses instead to keep going to the bank with what works.[/reply]

Perhaps Lori has realized it is not about the bike but the engine on the bike. her failure to podium can hardly be laid to the brand of bike she rides - unless she was within a couple of minutes of winning, which she wasn't. Lots of things caan affect a performance. The brand of bike is a minor factor on the overall performance just as the brand of shoes is a minor factor in Michael Jordan's ability to jump.

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

I thought she got stung by a bee or wasp . That ain't good for some folks.

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Slowtwitch bitchist place on planet earth

It may just be the different angles of the two photos. Specialized's entire line of this frame uses 700c wheels. Maybe she got a one-off frame, but I doubt it.

That's nonsensical. The height of the bottom bracket is entirely dependant on the frame design and not wheel size, i.e. a 650-wheeled bike can have more bottom bracket drop than a 700-wheeled bike, even though the 650 axle is lower than the 700 one.

Diablo is right, and jhendrick correctly points out that Specialized does not build 650-wheeled bikes. Not even in their women's Dolce line. It's alleged by Specialized that this is a stock frame, so I can only conclude that it's modified to accept 650 wheels with a new seatstay brake bridge (which might go to explaining the rear brake mystery) and what looks like a Profile fork, or it's not a stock frame and designed with unusually long chainstays which is counter to modern tri-bike design.

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http://irondad06.blogspot.com/

http://irondad.blogspot.com/

diablo: the bb drop on any 700c frame will result in a noticeable angle of chainstay relative to the ground. the stay will slope from the axle downwards to the ground.

the axle of a 650 wheeled bike is already lower to the ground, and so to place the bb at ( approximately) the same height relative to the ground ( desireable) there will be less observable slope to the chainstay seen. go look at some. or, consider a bike with say, a 20 inch wheel: in order to place the bb at a suitable height from the ground the chainstay would actually have to slope UP to it. that is the phenomena which is observable in these photo's. and, incidently, explains why your claim that bb drop as being independant of wheel size is ( by definition), in truth, "nonsensical". the bb drop is actually a FUNCTION of wheel size, hence the word "drop" - or, in the case of a 16 inch wheeled moulton, "reverse-drop".



irondad:many a lie has been spoken regarding "stock" frames. a 650 wheel on a stock specialized frame will not allow any modern dual pivot brake to reach the rim.

From her website:

Lori will campaign this year on a new Specialized bike with 700c wheels and a triathlon-specific geometry (to be formally introduced later this summer), plus Designs for Women shoes, saddle, and other equipment. "Last year I was convinced that 26" wheels were the way to go for certain courses," said Bowden. "My thinking about wheel sizes has changed over the year. My 700c S-Works is light and aerodynamically clean -- it's perfect for most situations, even in small frame sizes." (Lori rides a 47cm frame). As for Kona, Bowden's only comment is "let's just say I'm working with Specialized's engineers on something "extra-Specialized" for this race."

Those are not 700c wheels, so I guess the "extra-Specialized" is the 650-wheeled bike we see.

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http://irondad06.blogspot.com/

http://irondad.blogspot.com/

Your assumptions are incorrect, therefore your argument fails.

well lesse, diablo . . .

bb drop can be defined as "BB spindle centerline below wheel axle centerlines ( in the case of conventional wheeled bikes, see below)."

so, one of the two points of reference for the measurement is the wheel axle itself. the wheel axle position (relative to the ground) is wholly dependant on the diameter of the wheel. hence, bb drop is not independant of wheel size, but dependant and, for practical purposes, defined by it to a large degree. again, to demonstrate, consider a nonconventional wheeled bike such as a 16 in wheeled moulton, where the wheel axle centers are BELOW a suitable bb height, and the bb drop is then a "reverse drop"- as direct result of wheel size. i am not sure what it is you have a problem with here, pretty clear-cut, really.