I was not completely surprised when I saw the picture, but still.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Lifestyle/IM_European_Champs_race_images_4435.html
His bike split was 6:18:37 and he then paid for it on the run. 
lol
i am guessing heās logging on to ST to see if he got his own thread.
Thatās still a pretty decent time, though. At some IMs, heās prob be passing some of the folks on P5s!
Thatās ridiculous.
Oh no, I fulfilled his wish.
Wow. Even more cool and yet weird at the same time: fat bike with aerobars ā¦ thatās probably a first. Interesting thing: those look like (somewhat) fat bike tires, but those do not look like fat bike rims. The narrow rims make the tires effectively a lot narrower.
I raced a few road races on my MTB with Continental Goliath tires (when I was a much younger man) but that was the only bike I owned those days. And the idea to race with it came from roadies who liked my efforts during the Tuesday Night World Championships on the river drives in Philly.
The biggest issue however was gearing. Those 1.5 Goliath tires when pumped up hard rolled pretty well
Similar experience in the past on my āspecialā MTB when racing MTB biathlons and training with roadies (when road bike was not available). Race configuration on my Fat City Team Yo Eddy was pretty wicked for early 90ās - aerobars and elbow pads, custom wheelset with minimalistic rubber, bebop pedals, etc. Looked like MTB but was much lighter and faster, and handled well on paved surface where biathlon series was typically held. Frame was as light as majority of steel and alum road framesā¦ it was wheels and components that needed to be tweaked.
we (at QR) made a bike not wholly unlike this back in the early 90s. not fat. MTB. but, with aerobars. it was my early attempt at a gravel bike.
Pinterestingā¦Iād be willing to be his tires are pumped up way past 10-15psi also.
Thatās hugely impressive though. 17.8mph avg on a fat bike for 112mi is outrageous. If he put a (more?) negative-rise stem on there to get a lower position he could probably break 6hrs. I bet the rolling resistance of the tires even dropped throughout the race as the knobs wore off!
Iām thoroughly amused by shenanigans like this.
What do you mean fat bike ? Iām pretty sure those are Hed Jet 6 Plus Plus prototypes.
What do you mean fat bike ? Iām pretty sure those are Hed Jet 6 Plus Plus prototypes.
hed jets 6 plus max?
we (at QR) made a bike not wholly unlike this back in the early 90s. not fat. MTB. but, with aerobars. it was my early attempt at a gravel bike.
Actually a bike like this with aerobars with really fat high CRR tires would be a perfect training bike. It makes every uphill longer, every downhill shorter, and reduces the overall amount of coasting, while allowing for riding in the aerobars in the worst tarmac and bad gravel. I made version of my own by putting 32 mm tires on a Cannondale Slice, but to thatās not quite the same effect.
Actually a bike like this with aerobars with really fat high CRR tires would be a perfect training bike. It makes every uphill longer, every downhill shorter, and reduces the overall amount of coasting, while allowing for riding in the aerobars in the worst tarmac and bad gravel. I made version of my own by putting 32 mm tires on a Cannondale Slice, but to thatās not quite the same effect.
Kind of like this (with 50+mm tires)?
Maybe I gotta add a set of clip-ons to stay with the times.
Greg @ dsw
Pinterestingā¦Iād be willing to be his tires are pumped up way past 10-15psi also.
Thatās hugely impressive though. 17.8mph avg on a fat bike for 112mi is outrageous. If he put a (more?) negative-rise stem on there to get a lower position he could probably break 6hrs. I bet the rolling resistance of the tires even dropped throughout the race as the knobs wore off!
Iām thoroughly amused by shenanigans like this.
I am just glad he did not go 5:15 or there would be tons of STers doing the same thing at the next race.
Actually a bike like this with aerobars with really fat high CRR tires would be a perfect training bike. It makes every uphill longer, every downhill shorter, and reduces the overall amount of coasting, while allowing for riding in the aerobars in the worst tarmac and bad gravel. I made version of my own by putting 32 mm tires on a Cannondale Slice, but to thatās not quite the same effect.
Kind of like this (with 50+mm tires)?
Maybe I gotta add a set of clip-ons to stay with the times.
Greg @ dsw
Yes, something like that might do. I just have to get around to this project. I have an old mountain bike frame with Rock Shox that might work with a forward post to replicate my current position. As my drop is only 5.5 cm, not really that hard. Just need to get the saddle in the right place in space.
Dev
we (at QR) made a bike not wholly unlike this back in the early 90s. not fat. MTB. but, with aerobars. it was my early attempt at a gravel bike.
Cool. What was the name of that bike (the model)?
How did you solve the issue of 26.0 clip-ons mounting securely on the (then) smaller diameter MTB bars?
i donāt remember what i called it. somebody here will chime in. one of our earliest offroadish bikes was called the āquinterraā. little known fact: we were the first xterra bike licensee. started back in 1993. steve hed and i thought xterra was cool, this was when it was first established. we both became licensees. back then it was called the āaquaterraā. they had to change their name because of a trademark conflict with, i donāt know, a kayak company or something. so we named that bike the quinterra.
i donāt remember what we did with the 26.0 thing, all the bars came with shims for 26.0 for many years so i suspect we just did that. we had syntace bars on MTB bars, with bar-ends, because the MTB position was really too short if you made the bike to work with aerobars. so the bar ends were the salvation of that bike. the seat angle was slightly steeper, maybe 74 degrees.
when i look at videos of jay petervary doing tour divide, with quilts and sleeping bags and part road, part offroad, part tri bike i think, man, we had your bike way back then.
we had syntace bars on MTB bars, with bar-ends, because the MTB position was really too short if you made the bike to work with aerobars. so the bar ends were the salvation of that bike. the seat angle was slightly steeper, maybe 74 degrees.
Yeah, ādo-everythingā bikes have lots of potential.
That is interesting about the bars. Because I find that, for me, (well-fitted) MTB bars typically have more reach than the tops of (well-fitted) drop bars. And I find that the tops of (well-fitted) drop bars typically have more reach than the armrests of tri bars.
āThat is interesting about the bars. Because I find that, for me, (well-fitted) MTB bars typically have more reach than the tops of (well-fitted) drop bars. And I find that the tops of (well-fitted) drop bars typically have more reach than the armrests of tri bars.ā
we might be talking about the same thing. my MTB bike has a fairly long distance between the saddle and the bars. were i to put aerobars on there, the distanced to the aerobars would be way too much. so i had to shorten the cockpit distance on this bike. which made the distance to the MTB bar too small. so i relied a lot on the bar ends, specifically the style that goes forward and then curves inward. that gave me back the distance i needed. of course, the brakes werenāt out there, they were back on the MTB bar. so, i had to sit back a bit on the saddle on descents. but it all sort of worked out.
Ah, now I follow.
You changed the geometry of the bike to fit the bars better. Got it.
If you ever remember the name of the model, would love to see if I can find a pic ā¦