Ultracycling

my clubmate came 19th at the strathpuffer at the weekend! Looks like a hard race.

Solo results: http://live.sportident.co.uk/home/multistage/stage/results.html?multistageid=620a0953-b550-4ce2-8bc2-af107b6d1a17&multistageclass=off

Javi second SS!

Looking for advice on aerobars, currently I have the Profile t4+:
but on TAW I felt they didn't have enough of an bend to be comfortable, so thinking of trying the Profile century:

But wondering if I just try some more "normal" extensions without the join in the middle, but with greater bend.

Are there any bike fitters in the London area with experience fitting people for ultra stuff? The people I got fitted with for the bike were great but were not too helpful re: the aerobars.

Bend in which direction?

Obviously I'd suggest seeing The Bike Whisperer near Newbury since he has experience with some pretty fat successful ultra racers.

Jorrit at Swift Cycles fitted me. He's good.

Bend up I think, will have a look at Bike Whisperer and Swift then. Cheers guys!

I have my pads rotated a bit, this allows them to bare more weight from my elbows, I find it comfortable.
Try rotate the pad clamps on the handlebar a bit. See if that helps.

And profile do a greater angle bar, I have it.

Have a look at their extension options:
http://www.profile-design.com/product/accessories/

Lots of different bends.

What is this ? https://twitter.com/R3GrandSeries

Dunno but seems big, prizes and all

5 days, 1472 miles, 200 cyclists, £50K first prize

http://www.wer3.bike/

Dunno yet. But go away, you've got BUCS prizes to win. This one's mine.

Oh, no, wait, Baloh got a sniff. I'm out.

Dynamo questions:

What do you use as a charger - eg e-werk Luxos U light, usb-werk, etc?

It looks to me like the e-werk would give the most current of the options I've looked at, so better use of pedalling energy (although it looks a bit complicated). Does it need to be run with its own (expensive) caching battery or can it be used to charge normal lithium battery packs?

Igaro D1 (prototype)
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/289960/
see also the dynamo hub/wheel threads for lots of chatter about Igaro or "D1"

I use mine to charge anything USB, but typically charge an Anker or Zendure battery pack.

weird really.

Strike while the ultra iron is hot. I'm expecting some huge corporate event with £5k per rider entry fees or something similar.

It could happen, but isn't that going to be the supported, RAAM-type stuff? If I wanted to make money, I'd put on that type of event because people will pay more if they get a little bit more, and if they are paying for a crew, won't notice a big entry ticket. Obviously we wouldn't go for that because we are all a bit weird and revel in the hardship of unsupported, but most people are not like that! So I reckon the unsupported ultra segment should be safe. I hope!

There is the Race Across Europe, which is trying to be that kind of thing, with some high entry fees as well, but it's not really caught on.

Igaro D1 (prototype)

Thanks. Spent about an hour researching it this afternoon. Looks like it is the best thing going. Annoying thing is that they are just starting to talk to the guys who make the dynamo I want (Velogical) so while they think it should be compatible, no-one has actually tried it yet.

So, either give in and get a hub dynamo, or stock up with more battery packs...

Race Around Ireland is a RAAM qualifier and follows much the same style of rule-heavy, fully-supported racing that RAAM does. I see plenty of scope for both types of events. I'd still race RAAM if someone else organised it all.

What's special about Velogical? If it's German then it should produce the same 6V3A or whatever their power requirements are so it should work with the D1. Just note that the D1 should be in the air, not in a bag or out of the wind as they get hot.

That Velogical website is heavy going.
The guy Peter Frieden is obviously a gifted engineer,
but,
he needs to emphasise the key features & benefits more clearly.

Yeah, good summary. It manages to be both not very consumer friendly and lacking in actual technical detail.

Andrew from Igaro and the Velogical guys have been in communication with each other. I asked them both but neither is actually sure that it would work. I don't understand why, but I asked if it was likely to work or anyone's guess. If it had been the former, if have gone for it out of curiosity, but Andrew said the latter, so no point in risking it.
Having been round and round in circles with dynamos, learned loads of stuff I never wanted to know, I think I'll stick with batteries. The clincher is that, if a dynamo on all the time gives 6w of drag, and I ride at 60% of threshold, which is about what I did on the TCR, not having a dynamo basically gives me the equivalent of an extra 10 w of threshold power.

I'm willing to carry a good few batteries to get that, and save all the faffing I'd need to set it up.

I measured it at 4W. For my son delux.
Did you measure 6?

For me that's 2% loss. Or on a really bad day 4%.

Not having to worry about charging stuff outweighs any drag for me.
I'll be sticking with dyno. Love it.

I've not measured it cos I've not got one, just going on the published figures, which say about 6% (with SONdelux being the least, maybe it is 5-5.5 or something).
Of course, your threshold power is a fair bit higher than mine - the less power you have to start with, the more difference the x Watts will make!

Yes, that's a good argument for the dyno, and I did have some charging stress on the TCR: having to change batteries in my Hope light in the middle of the biblical downpour in Croatia was a low point.
But this time, I will have big, fuck-off batteries = no stress!