Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

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Tangled Metal
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Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Tangled Metal »

A question I have after reading the 148mph thread.

With modern bicycle technology even modestly priced bikes are capable of higher performance than bikes of decades ago. That performance is rarely balanced with the user's performance potential. Would you say that in any one of your bikes are you capable of matching the performance potential of your bike? Not sure how you would measure it but I guess if you're a cross continental tourer then you've probably matched your bike's potential. If you're a high category racer you're probably close.

However my supplementary question is whether having a bike that's capable of and designed to do more than what you can is giving you an advantage at your lower performance? I interested in the idea that better technology of bicycles is potentially capable of providing a safety net or to allow for lack of skill. For example a high quality tyre and brakes could prevent a skid or accident by stopping quicker but a lower quality tyre and brakes might need more experience to keep safe. You might be experienced enough for lower quality but better can help right?
Stevek76
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Stevek76 »

I would say that I do use the full performance potential of my pub/utility/transport and occasional light tourer bike. :wink: Since I built it up from the frame I think I get to decide what its performance potential is! Largely that's to get me places as clean as possible, with some luggage, easily up the daft hills here and still be locked up where I left it when out in town.
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Tigerbiten
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Tigerbiten »

Not around my home I don't.
I've geared my bent trike for when I'm on tour to make extreme hills easy.
So there's only a couple of hills locally that force me to use my first gear on them and that's only because I'm so unfit.

Luck .............. :D
pwa
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by pwa »

My best bike, and the only one currently up and running, is a top notch tourer. It is capable of carrying full camping gear on tours lasting as long as you like, so no, I don't often use that full potential. But with the front rack taken off ( a 5 minute job) it is transformed into the perfect bike for rides in the dense network of lanes in my region, covering anything up to 35 miles, 55 on occasion, with just a rack top bag to carry the picnic. The stability that makes it a great tourer also makes it a lovely ride on a nice day out. The strong wheels that are reassuring with a full load are also reassuring when taking on the odd broken up road surface I find on some lanes. I can't think of a better bike for these day rides. Not once have I wished I had a more appropriate bike for the ride I'm doing. It is a bike that covers the range of things I want to do on a bike. The fact that there are more adventurous things I could do on the bike if I had the time and the freedom does not mean I have the wrong bike. It just means I may have more options if and when circumstances change.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Tangled Metal »

We all like our bike or we'd replace / change what we don't like. Similarly we can use our bikes for whatever we like that the bike can cope with. However if you've got a specialist bike, and i think modern bicycles have undergone differentiation, there's a design brief and purpose to it. A potential that matters not at all but is still there.

There's no real point to this exercise but to think about whether potential of any equipment matters to it's use of that use is below the potential? Or do you have to use the potential of kit if it's there? It seems to me that bicycles you don't but powered transport there's an element of it's there so it will get used.

This thread was a follow on for me from the 148mph thread where I think there's a car hit cyclist/ cyclist hit pedestrian argument going on. If you're using a specialist tourer with half the load carrying capability getting used the 140mph car equipment is 70mph. You can do it with your bike and the driver can do it with the car. User or operator decision. If you want to ban the capabilities a mode of transport the argument behind it is still the same, you don't trust the operator so limit the tool that's being used not the tool doing the using.

Personally my touring recumbent is a nice ride loaded and unloaded. I once rode a scoobie and that was a nice drive slow or with acceleration/ road legal speed. Tbh I found it more fun driving it at slower speeds, safely, round bends. The handling was more fun than the speed.

Point and squirt is boring but enjoying the grip, braking and handling characteristics in a safe way was fun imho. Now if I ever had a track day I'd probably enjoy that too, whether on a velodrome or motorised vehicle racetrack.

Anyway I was interested in seeing how people view cars vs bicycles in terms of restrictions. That's even without discussing derestricted e bikes.
Nearholmer
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Nearholmer »

I hope to, but doubt that in practice I will use the “top end” of the gearing very much, and probably won’t get anywhere near using the lifespan of the frame, which should outlast me even if I achieve a ripe old age.

I definitely used (wanted to exceed) the full breadth of the gearing on the one it replaced only last week (passed to my brother in law who has been getting increasingly frustrated with his old MTB), and exceeded its practical load-carrying capacity on occasions, which is why I’ve acquired a new-secondhand one.

The “old” bike in question is an Al/C cyclo-cross bike with 1x11 gearing, which I was using as a light tourer, about 50:50 on paved and unpaved surfaces. The “new” bike is a steel bike with CX geometry and 2x10 gearing, which I am pretty sure will fit the task better. Both have hydraulic disk brakes, which I’m sure have greater thermal capacity than I’ve ever needed (I can never puff up to the heights that yield long descents!) but the controllable stopping power is a god-send off road.
freeflow
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by freeflow »

The premise of the OP is totally wrong. The premise should be that the capabilities of bikes today exceed those of yesteryear. I'd say absolutely not. Bikes of today may be more differentiated as sub genres of riding exist that probably didn't in the yesteryear. There may be some niche areas such as elite racing or other areas of cycling where riders have better performance than yesteryear.
Nearholmer
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Nearholmer »

I guess it depends how far you look back, but I’d say at at least one level the OP is ‘spot on’:

The ‘every person’ bike today, the type of bike owned by most adults who ride a bike to some degree, is the form of hybrid that emerged from early mountain bikes c1985-90. It is light, widely geared, and capable of considerable speed and distance given a reasonably fit rider.

The ‘every person’ bike of old was the steel-framed, three-speed roadster. Also a very capable animal, but nothing like as widely geared, much heavier, and needing a stronger rider to get great speed or distance.

However, in the old days, people really used their roadsters, they exploited their full capability. Nowadays, many hybrids get a spin round the park once a week in summer, often on the flat, and their capability is grossly underused by most owners.
mattheus
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by mattheus »

The question doesn't make any sense.

Performance of a bike is almost entirely about the rider; the bike is generally just slowing you down (weight and drag). The "faster" bikes just slow you down less. Top speed? Just point yourself down a big hill!

Safety? Well OK, you can "buy" some safety .. but you could put the best tyres and brakes on any bike (and it wouldn't cost you very much).
Actually I'd say just having a bike in good working order is more important safety than the technology; rider behaviour and sadly that of some other road users plays a much bigger role. But that wasn't what you were asking about, I think ...


By thinking of this in terms of performance "potential" of cars - where some can do less than 100mph, some more than 200, irrespective of the driver - the result is a pointless question.
gbnz
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by gbnz »

freeflow wrote: 26 Apr 2022, 8:34am The premise of the OP is totally wrong.
+ 1. Bikes don't have performance potential, it's down to the cyclist. The simple fact does exist that an exceptionally fit cyclist, on a heavily laden, steel framed tour bike, easily overtakes the lycra clad road bike crowd. That same cyclist would struggle to do so on a MTB, but given a 30 year old road bike, could sort it out and be winning all the races without an issue

I've nothing against lycra or carbon fibre, though rarely ride with such now. It's the person that's critical, the bike is merely a tool
VinceLedge
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by VinceLedge »

I don't use the full performance potential of my body, let alone the bike!
peetee
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by peetee »

VinceLedge wrote: 26 Apr 2022, 9:41am I don't use the full performance potential of my body, let alone the bike!
Ha ha, I can relate to that.
I have a fair few machines to choose from, all but one are 20th century steeds but they are all better at being a bike than I am at being a rider.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
Nearholmer
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Nearholmer »

Very good indeed; I must remember that.
Dingdong
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Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Dingdong »

I ride my bike 50% hard on the outward leg of any journey, and 80% hard on the way back. Saves a lot of arguments with my fellow riders 8)
Dingdong
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Joined: 22 Apr 2022, 4:59pm

Re: Do you use the full performance potential of your bicycles?

Post by Dingdong »

I think it's very poor form to utilize the full potential of anyone .. :lol:
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