Imagine a nice stretch of trail, perfect for bike training except for a 10mph speed limit.
Imagine that a 7-mile path leaves from your back yard and goes through a wooded park straight to your work place in the same time that it takes to drive there, and that your triathlete spouse works in the same building. There is bike storage and a gym with showers at your work place. It’s a fantastic opportunity to spend time together, save money, not burn gas, build fitness, avoid traffic and thus avoid risk.
Does anyone have thoughts on how to make 350w propel a bike at only 10mph?
Wheels with generators such as the Shimano Alfine, probably won’t create enough drag to get a good workout at 10mph.
The variable drag hub that popped up on ST a while back still seems to be vaporware.
Perhaps setting the brakes to drag on the rim could work, but would wear out pads and rims rapidly. Even an old tandem drum brake probably isn’t durable enough.
Sure, I could drag anchors, bricks, rugrats or drag chutes, but they might be unreliable, risky or land me in jail.
Perhaps adding a wind drag unit could add resistance, but probably not enough at slow speeds, and it wouldn’t be adjustable.
Perhaps bolting a unit from a fluid trainer onto the frame would offer adjustable drag. How much can the drag be adjusted? Could it offer enough resistance at 10mph? Would it be durable enough for use in dust or humidity?
panniers filled with stuff and heavy duty tires with flat proof tube (the thick ones)… Between the aero hit and the Crr hit and the weight hit you’ll be fine.
I think I’d just ignore the speed limit and maybe throw on some tires you wouldn’t be scared to veer off into the grass with occasionally to avoid other traffic.
Are you wanting a solution that works on a “good” bike in a good TT position, or is a junker bike fine too?
Having ridden with super low rolling resistance tires and heavy panniers, I don’t think panniers/weight + bad tires would get you to the 10mph range.
I think your idea of mounting the guts of a trainer seems like your best bet.
There is something called a powerwheel and a slowwheel that is made for this purpose. Expensive. http://www.gizmag.com/...ycling-wheels/19859/
I don’t know how much these slow you down.
This is likely the vaporware you talked about. Couldn’t find a for sale site.
You could load a trailer up all you want. It would never keep you under 10 mph. Guessing you’d want to add a triple front crank and shifters too to keep up your cadence.
All that effort for a 7 mile bike ride? Why don’t you just make it a run instead?
Because biking at 10mph seven miles is 42 minutes twice per day. That’s a good daily dose, with all the other benefits noted above. Running some legs makes sense, but 14 daily miles of running is a recipe for injury.
All that effort for a 7 mile bike ride? Why don’t you just make it a run instead?
Because biking at 10mph seven miles is 42 minutes twice per day. That’s a good daily dose, with all the other benefits noted above. Running some legs makes sense, but 14 daily miles of running is a recipe for injury.
You could ride one way, run the other. Then reverse it the next day.
Unless there are hills, even a trailer w/ lots in it won’t slow you down all that much.
And then be a hassle to deal w/ at work.
My suggestion would be to ride in on path, super mellow in the am. Then ride home another way, hard, as your actual bike workout for the day.
(I do this, my commute is a little over 12m each way. I’ll either TT the ride home, or go a different route to extend it. The TT option on that specific route is obv NG for you)
All that effort for a 7 mile bike ride? Why don’t you just make it a run instead?
Because biking at 10mph seven miles is 42 minutes twice per day. That’s a good daily dose, with all the other benefits noted above. Running some legs makes sense, but 14 daily miles of running is a recipe for injury.
Well, I guess you have to tailor it for your needs and training plan. I wouldn’t think that running 7 miles in the morning and 7 at night on a high mileage day is out of the question, but 5 days a week is not a good idea. Maybe run it some days and bike it for others, but I would think that the aggravation of rigging a resistance unit, parachute, extra weights, etc. is not worth the hassle.
For my training plan - here is what I would do:
Run to and from work a day or two a week.
Ride my bike as a commute and super easy recovery pace a couple of days a week. Do some other training in addition.
Consider one way run, one way bike ride. That would mean leaving bike at work some days if that would work.
Any way you do it, it sounds like a cool trail. Have fun with it.
Are you looking at this as a training opportunity or commuting opportunity??
