Ask Josh Anything #011
Josh, Hottie, and Fatty are back with all the bike-related questions too nerdy to be asked (or answered) anywhere else. In this episode, we tackle:
- What lessons from track racing can be applied to singlespeed mountain bike racing?
- All else being equal, are fewer spokes more aero?
- Is a matte finish on helmets faster than a gloss finish?
- What are the fastest patterns for tire treads?
- What marginal gains are there to be had when racing your indoor trainer online?
Got a question you’d like to ask? Text or leave a voicemail at the Marginal Gains Hotline: +1-317-343-4506 or just leave a comment in this post!
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Hi all,
love the podcasts. I have one question regarding your “trilogy” on Hour Record. It seems, that you skipped the years between Boardman’s Superman Record in 1996 and the attempts, that start in 2014 when the Unified Rules came into application. Were there no gains, no interesting attempts under so called UCI hour record rules between 1997 and 2014? Thanks a lot. Keep on doing this great work.
Recumbents often do very well in ultracycling events such as the recent Bike Sebring. Unfortunately, often when they win they are relegated to “first recumbent” , even though they were first overall.
Hi there! Nice podcast. You rarely find this level of bike geekery discussed in podcast! Very interesting and enjoyable for those of us that have a similar way of thinking.
I’d like to know you opinion on wheel balancing. On a couple of occasions I’ve added a weight of around 5-15g onto my rim, usually opposite the valve, to balance a wheel. Although it then feels nicer to spin, eliminating the small wobble, I’m not convinced it improves the performance of the wheel and bike? In terms of rolling resistance, it will remove the (very small) sinusoidal variation in normal force and rolling resistance, but averaged out, the rolling resistance should be the same shouldn’t it?
Check out Mike Mowetts hour record Google doc. (including recumbents) big shout out to Mike… Gigantic undertaking on this resource
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSs3QQr2xv3hes40Z0ZyzurY5STU_AXbmaVV-EzHBABA_54bZs3k5caNJ2q2CY21i-z0t1n40-VXSCt/pubhtml?fbclid=IwAR3ejGPJivarm_zPQUR8S6DSxf514LoYQv6Xgb3UVDqfu733lgWqvTwTS_8
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