I’ve been doing a practice ride some lunchtimes at work recently - as part of training for the Red Bull 24 hour race.
6 laps of the bumpy grassy playing fields is 4 miles.
1st go Coker with 155mm cranks all laps 3.45 total 22.30 no UPD’s
2nd go (a week later) 29er 127mm cranks best lap 3.55 most longer + 3 UPDs.
3rd go today 29er 137.5 cranks all laps 2.48ish total 22.46 no UPDs.
Conclusions ?
A 29er with 127 cranks feels like a mini coker.
A 29er with 137.5 cranks feels like a very fast muni.
29er is faster off road with longer cranks !!
29er is still faster (or less effort for the same speed) on road with shorter cranks.
I’m taking both the Coker and 29er to the 24 hour race…
… 11 days to go and counting.
“leow” <leow.63n6m@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:leow.63n6m@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
> I’ve been doing a practice ride some lunchtimes at work recently - as
> part of training for the Red Bull 24 hour race.
> 6 laps of the bumpy grassy playing fields is 4 miles.
>
> 1st go Coker with 155mm cranks all laps 3.45 total 22.30 no UPD’s
>
> 2nd go (a week later) 29er 127mm cranks best lap 3.55 most longer + 3
> UPDs.
>
> 3rd go today 29er 137.5 cranks all laps 2.48ish total 22.46 no UPDs.
>
> Conclusions ?
>
> A 29er with 127 cranks feels like a mini coker.
> A 29er with 137.5 cranks feels like a very fast muni.
I’ve been playing with the setup on my 29er recently too, it’s now got a
michelin mud cross tyre which is puke green and matches the seat so it looks
really tasteful. I’m still riding 110 cranks but it doesn’t like mounting on
hills so maybe 125s will go on for the Red Bull. Using the quite narrow tyre
at 60psi it’s wicked fast on fire roads and doesn’t lose too much on single
track. I played around with the pressure and I can run 20 psi without
pinching if there’s enough mud that I really need to.
I’m still hoping the weather will clear up for Red Bull so we can use
cokers, if it’s muddy I’ll use the 29er, if it’s really muddy I guess munis
will be the order of the day.
> I’ve been doing a practice ride some lunchtimes at work recently - as
> part of training for the Red Bull 24 hour race.
<snip>
> Conclusions ?
> A 29er with 127 cranks feels like a mini coker.
> A 29er with 137.5 cranks feels like a very fast muni.
> 29er is faster off road with longer cranks !!
> 29er is still faster (or less effort for the same speed) on road with
> shorter cranks.
>
> I’m taking both the Coker and 29er to the 24 hour race…
> … 11 days to go and counting.
Myself and sarah did something quite similar today in our local
park. We just did a single lap on Cokers and then on 29er, but
the lap is ~2.5 km and includes lots of football pitch, roughish
grass, sodden turf, some singletrack, some tarmac and even a hill.
First the Cokers - I took 11m 20s for a lap, sarah took 11m 43s.
On the 29er (125mm cranks) I took 10:59, sarah took 13:03.
Neither of us had any different number of UPDs.
So for me the 29er is a bit quicker, but doesn’t allow any rest as
you have to keep spinning (unlike the Coker whose weight will do
the work for you on a gentle downhill). It was also less tiring
as it is a lot lighter - especially in rotating mass.
Sarah however was noticably quicker on the Coker.
Only 6 days to go now - still not sure which machine I’ll use for
my first lap. Of course, the weather may decide it for me - we
went out for a MUni ride today as well and it was some of the
wettest muddiest conditions I have ever seen in the Chiltern
beech woods.