Posted by zog
on July 28, 2009, 11:05 pm
I had a nice back and forth with Seebert on smallish electric rides and bicycles and so on so I want to reproduce something here, a little copypasta, because it addresses the lowly bicycle, the most underrated alternative transportation out there, the USA anyway.
Why does this fit with security? Well DUH, everything from getting to work to getting food from the store, etc is tied to security, and suppose one day we wake up and the straits of hormuz have been closed because of a new war and NYC speculators have now driven the price of crude to $250 a barrel and down at the pumps you can't get it anyway? You gonna be driving old belchfire as much if you can avoid it? But you still need to get around. Or suppose you need to bugout, but you know the roads ahead are blocked..by bad people...but you still need to cover some serious ground? Unless you have an inflatable horse robot stashed in the closet, a cheap bicycle will work better than most anything else in most situations.
Ok, here goes.
Most people can ride a bike.
Most people ride bikes incorrectly.
The big problem is they fail to make proper use of BOTH what their human body potential is (very low, around a few lights in your living room burning is a rough equivalent of power you produce while exercising heavy) and also the advantages of *really* using the gears on a multispeed bike.
As a consequence they cover the half the distance they could while getting twice as tired, which in an emergency situation where you need to put some miles behind you, could be a "bad deal". Use your imagination there.
Anyway, here is how to re-learn how to ride a bike. It's all in that little shifter(s), your terrain and how well you can read it, and understanding how your body works and using this knowledge at the same time. The following is a copypasta reply I offered for addressing pedaling, the most important part of riding when viewed as basic transportation:
You adjust gearing by maintaining that rpm level (pedalling speed for most situations while you are finally stretched out and moving) of around 200. If you drop below that, you are still in too high a gear. You pay *no attention whatsoever* to what speed you are going or might want to go when learning this, stick to maintaining the cadence, and 200 RPM is *brisk*..Go out and ride like you do normally and set a stopwatch for a minute and count your pedals around. Most people have way lower than 200 and are gypping themselves out of distance because of this and getting overly tired. Probably one reason people don't take bikes seriously, just because they are being used incorrectly and fail to deliver full potential.
You'll have the most efficient point A to B travel with the least effort by concentrating on that cadence until it becomes normal muscle memory. Once you achieve that level and can cruise for extended periods without thinking about it, you can then build strength by bumping one gear up, and getting that cadence back up. It will feel like relearning all over again, and will be. Eventually you'll hit a nasty plateau..and well, that's your human limit then, your sweet spot.
I used to be a fiend on this stuff, was a rabid hobbiest, owned and operated a bike store, and built and rode extensively one of the small handful first "mountain bikes" before they were called that. Several people and companies were developing them around the same time. I know I had the only one in my part of a state for a long time, because I hand built it and went off road with it WAY back into the boonies, a lot, so I had to learn this gearing stuff just in order to be able to get to my destinations, way down jeep trails and, in the winter, packed snowmobile trails, which I was able to traverse without a lot of difficulty. Downhill became sort of bike sledding/skiing, heh, most fun, only a few good kerplunks! hahahahah
Cadence cadence cadence.
There are exceptions to that, picking your way around obstacles, etc where you drop cadence and gears so you can go slllooow, but just bookin' down the hard surface road, 200 is the magic number for most humans. You are looking for an *average* speed per hour, not a speed per minute or trying to maintain a too high speed constantly in hills. Just wear yourself out fast then. You might only go up a hill at 5 mph, but down might be 50, see? I know I have surpassed probably 80, and I know for a verified fact I broke seventy on this hill I used to do daily because a cop caught my on a radar gun and chewed me out, half laughing about as it was the fastest bicyclist he had ever clocked. heheheheh man, I remember that day, just feeling great, plenty of sleep, a long downhill headed to work in the morning, passing cars! A 45 zone, pesky cars in the way, so right down the middle!! muahahahaha man you can be stoopid when you are younger... regular riding back then, I could maintain 30 on an expensive very lightweight bike, and around 20 average with a heavier bike and lots of gear/weight tied down on it for camping or travelling, etc. I used to go ride my bike like folks use their cars, longer type range travel, like hundreds of miles just to go visit people, etc. I think top sprinters can probably do over 40 easy now, haven't checked state of the art recently. Bikes can be *light* now, really dang light.
(the next is a little bit on add on assist motors and engines)
I certainly did like that little gas engine do-dad I added to my touring bike back then though, could still pedal as hard as I normally did, but uphills I didn't have to downshift so much, and downhills it had a quick kill switch and cammed bump off lever so you could freewheel coast. Best of both worlds, wish they still made them....I'd buy a couple right now if they did. I emailed them back..couple years ago now, they stopped making them from potential liability issues and also from emissions regs as they were road machines and thus fell into areas they couldn't hit. Just potential. They still make excellent small engine stuff, tanaka, I own one of their industrial/commercial grade pro string trimmers, just outstanding.
(back to pedaling)
When you first try it, maintaining cadence, you might find you are going slower than normal, and that's OK, you still need to learn the muscle memory the cadence gives you so you can build to your sweet spot of that cadence and gear. Then you'll get so used to road changes while maintaining the cadence that the gear changes necessary will come automagically to you. If you start out with too slow a cadence and too tall/high a gear, it will suck, and unfortunately this is what most people try. It will feel ridiculous some times at slower speeds, but maintain that cadence no matter what, eventually your legs will adapt and it becomes second nature and you'll notice on trips especially that you get to where you want to go much faster than you used to.
Sort of like running an ICE at the peak rpm and no more for torque needed for load. A regular non athlete human puts out only around 1/5th horsepower, so what torque you have is really important not to waste, plus you have to deal with biochemical muscle fatigue. Most humans are way more built for endurance than peak strength given the normal average spread of types of muscle cells (there are three types of muscle cells IIRC).
An example to prove this endurance thing: Most people can not press 300 lbs over their head, but a whole lot of people can do 30 lbs ten times in a row. It's the exact same amount of work (minus the timing of course, close enough for this conversation), but one is way more easy to accomplish than the other. Endurance over peak strength. That's why a higher pedal cadence is a more effective use of your bioengine, because you are emphasizing your natural advantage of endurance over peak strength. Gearing works once you get the rpms down correctly.
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