Breakfast with a Lycra

The local Farmers market said they would provide a free breakfast for Seniors, so I signed up.

This morning was the morning, and I was preparing to ride, I wondered what my best time would be for the 1.5 mile roller coaster ride. From kick off to bikestand was a great 7 minutes, including one stoplight waiting with a Lycra.

He was also a senior, headed to the same freebie breakfast. We sat together; he shared with me he was a "sport/fitness rider" never ran errands on his bike anymore. He did not notice my bike was an ebike

Me, I told him, I ran errands and used a bike as car alternative transportation- I even rode a bus every now and then.

HE, had lived here 31 years, had never ridden a bus; tried not to carry more than one lb of tools and a tube; but 3 pints/lbs of water.

He- Used to ride a bike for errands, but since he had gotten into sport riding, never went back to the bike with folding baskets and fenders. He tried to log at least 80 sport miles a week. sometimes he could not find the time to do a long ride, so he just did little errands in his car to make room for a big ride later.

He then grabbed a banana for the road, clicked in and rode off.

I went in the store, made a few small purchases, got on the (e)bike and went for a short leisure ride as the morning air felt pretty darn good.. came back by the market knowing it was now time to clock myself for best time on the uphill home with 3lbs of produce.

9 minutes. full power for the motor and the legs, heart rate at 120, the last 1/3 mile is 6% grade.. 16 minutes flat out roundtrip

lets call it 20 minutes with a little traffic and a little less motivation.

So in the car even if I could make it instantly (thru 6 stop signs and 2 stop lights) the most I could save is 20 minutes. and the car hates that short drive with all the starting/stopping, neighborhood streets most of the way 25-30mph speed limit, lots of children.

Seemed like the ideal ride for an ebike and a local errand running senior.

But not for a Lycra I suspect.

.

nutsandvolts said:

Hehe ... A Lycra ... we speak of them like they're some other species ...
In this rare closeup encounter with a Lycra, could you tell if it appeared to be a warm blooded mammal?

Click to expand...

Lycras are reptiles. They disappear in the winter

Bill

fifthmass said:

Lycras are reptiles. They disappear in the winter

Click to expand...

Truth... uhhh, eh?

Yeah they do disappear in the winter. I go on the paved trail by my house I can go 10 miles without seeing one in the winter. Especially in the country part. Thats when I like to do speed runs and trials on new stuff. Its been way to busy and crowded during the summer. Drawing to much attention. You even get those people who like to snitch that you have a motorized vehicle. The thing is the cops have stopped me but they see that I always ride responsibly. One of the fluffier cops rode my bike once. That thing is motorized I never would have know. The lycras make the same statement. Im reply I'm going the same pace and twice the distance and almost twice the speed as you. (Then quickly leave their arrogance in the dust). Sometimes they dont like that. I would pull off slowly and you see them trying to catch up but not trying to give themselves away that they are doing so. They I leave them in the dust Or tailgate them and make them go faster until they give you the right of way. You then have kids on training wheels swerving in front of you. Joggers are ok. The roller bladers swerve back and forth all over the trail. I admit Ive had one good conversation with a lycra. I passed him doing about 25 up a slope...He was a high end lycra. Hard to pass him without looking suspicious. He later caught back up with me a mile or so after we crested the hill. He asked me if that thing was electric. I said yeah. He was like I was standing on my pedals trying to make it up the slope and you wiz by 'pedaling along with no effort or sweat' Either that guy must be fit being twice or im imagining things.

.

Catching up with a lycra two days ago, he asked if he could keep up with me by drafting. "No" I said. And he couldn't. This was on my wimpy little aotema 36v.

I ride road bikes and ebikes in street clothes and both in lycra too. On either, if I'm going to be sweating I'd rather be in lycra. It's stupidly more comfortable, but to each their own.

I've had a roadie ask to draft me riding my ebike. I modulated the throttle so he could stay tucked in and dragged him across the Sydney Harbour Bridge much faster then he could have ridden alone (at 6pm coming home from work):


If you draft properly and keep a steady pace, you can get pulled up to incredible speeds.

Yeah, some of the roadbikers around here could have left me on the ebike! It's happend to me on the 350 watt bike. But this one was a dude my age, 50, out for a ride after getting all stoked watching the TDF. He was going less than 18 mph, on a slight downhill.

As a fit recreational/commuter cyclist new to eBikes, I can say my 9C kit is only slightly faster than I was before I converted it, and slightly slower than me on the road bike. The real roadies here in Victoria are faster than my legal eBike at least. Any competetive cyclist can average over 40kph on level or rolling terrain, and sustain that for way beyond my measly 8Ah.

Yup, the really fit ones can even blow that away. There is a group of three riders here that commute to work over San Augustine Pass everyday. This is not too long, but there is a 3500 vertical gain from the valley 15 miles away, and another similar climb to get home from where they work at White Sands Missile Range. Most of the climb is concentrated at the pass itself, about 2 miles of 7% with just a bit of 8%.

I ran into those dudes one day at the top of the pass, the wind was blowing up the slope at about 40 mph. With my 350 watt gearmotor going down the slope I could barely make 15 mph, literally about to blow back up the slope. With a better tuck on the carbon bikes, those guys left me in the dust fast. Back on the flats, with a little less wind, I began to catch up a bit, but never caught them in 5 miles of riding.

A lot of em though, are just like me, old, slightly fat, and aren't about to hit a heart rate of 180 without needing an ambulance. None of them can maintain 23 mph for miles. Without a motor, on my roadbike, I'd say 14 mph is the best I can maintain for any distance.

Question should not be whether they could keep up with an Ebike (legal or not), rather it should be how many calories they are burning vs person on a Ebike. Comparing road bike to a ebike is like comparing it to a motorcycle.

But in the case of calories burned, it can be compared and how it will affect overall health and physical fitness. While a person can burn calories on a Ebike, its not quite the level of road cyclist doing maximum cardio workout. Although 15 to 20 miles aren't that much distant for roadies, when you are going full bore and there are lots of hills, you could burn lot more calories than a person working out at the gym for over an hour. Its one of the most efficient and fun exercise method.

huh? Why is the question of calories any better? With a monitor on you when you ebike, you could insure you get exactly the workout you want.. just like on a roadbike. But you have some flexibility in distance covered that you otherwise wouldn't. I don't see the big deal, I'm sure a lot of ebikers have roadbikes and lycra. With ebikes moving towards mainstream the overlap is only going to increase.

I can and do get lots of " Just right for me" excercise on the ebike, but most don't. Much of that has to do with bike kits that do 25 mph while most bikes are geared to go about 18. Real roadbikes are geared higher of course, but most of us are electrifying comfort or mountain bikes with 44tooth front chainrings.
I get the excercise because I found a 58 tooth mtb crank. But some excercise while riding to work for 1/2 hour is still better than in a car where the exercise is fishing for change at the starbucks.

vanilla ice said:

huh? Why is the question of calories any better? With a monitor on you when you ebike, you could insure you get exactly the workout you want.. just like on a roadbike. But you have some flexibility in distance covered that you otherwise wouldn't. I don't see the big deal, I'm sure a lot of ebikers have roadbikes and lycra. With ebikes moving towards mainstream the overlap is only going to increase.

Click to expand...

Because you can't compare sport rider to an ebiker who is riding an motorized vehicle. Sure he may not be "living" the green lifestyle but their goal is quite different.

In that terms, they are interested in very narrow interest, which is fitness. So going back to fitness, if you are truly expending enough energy to elevate your heart rate - then that's great. If you are not riding ebike for exercise, that's great too. In my experience... whether I had a low or high powered motor, the temptation is too great to not to use the motor. Sure I pedal, but according to my HRM, my heart rate doesn't go up enough to burn more than 50-80 calories (in addition to normal rate) over 10 mile commute. In contrast, I expect to fully push my heart to its limit when I ride my road bike, with a goal of getting fitter and fitter (I don't say healthier since that could be arbitrary).

So if you're burning calories or or not - really don't care. But expect that sports rider will have different goals than an ebiker and if comparison needs to be made, at least find a common overlap.

Calorie burning and cardio conditioning can be accomplished perhaps more effectively with an ebike.

For shedding fat, LSD is the recommended formula. (Long Slow Distance)
For cardio you want to move your legs faster.

Ebikes fail for the aerobic/anerobic parts and they're low on strength and lactic acid training.
Pedalling home a dead X5 will convince you of that.
They fail for speed training since they don't handle at all like a road bike.

I own, wear and still look pretty damn good in lycra. The jerseys I like best are wool. The pockets are handy.
Padded shorts are the second best investment you can make.
Padded gloves are first. Armoured shorts are nice on ice.

Bicycling specific, four-panel lycra under shorts with an absorbent pad, flat waist band and leg elastics can be worn under dress trousers or denim.
They improve your cycling comfort.

BTW: The "jockstrap" was invented, by and for bicyclists, in 1874.

For dedicated roadies every ride, other than a race, is a "training ride". Commuting, touring and utility cycling are "junk miles".
The really dedicated ones however do know about fenders, lights and rain gear while the others are riding rollers or track.

Zoot Katz said:

Calorie burning and cardio conditioning can be accomplished perhaps more effectively with an ebike.

For shedding fat, LSD is the recommended formula. (Long Slow Distance)
For cardio you want to move your legs faster.

Click to expand...

In theory yes, in real life - big question mark. Certainly not for me.

Real roadie also shave their leg - bit much don't you think? And for those who haven't tried lycra (good kind), it really does save your ass from long ride.