Finally the report of my ride to the SPEZI and back. It was quite a task I had attached myself to: 3 days to ride to SPEZI through hilly Sauerland and 3 days to get back along the flat Rhine. During the winter I had almost only been riding to work (2x5km) and my only preparation for longer rides was three rides of about 100km. Feeling that my body needed a tough challenge anyway to get myself somewhat into shape again, I said to myself that it would have to do. Given that there was also going to be a reunion of the ROAM "veterans", there was no question that I would ride ROAMango there. This despite the fact that I had been riding my grey Mango Sport all winter. I had lend ROAMango to my sister for most of the winter and it was still in Twist (near Meppen, Germany). I had been planning to collect it beforeheand, but time was running out and since Twist was on the route, I agreed with my sister that she (in fact it turned out to be my brother-in-law) would pick me up and I would start out in Twisk. This would cut the 1200km ride by 75km, but would mean that before I got to ride, I had to adjust seat and BB bracket position to my size. I also lubed the chain, pumped the tires and the DT Swiss rear shock.
After setting off towards the Youth Hostel in Munster, I had to adjust the BB7 disc brakes several times to get them to brake exactly equal. On flat ground it's not a big problem, but I was going to meet hills later and in a fast downhill you don't want your velo to veer off into one direction or the other.....
destination day1: youth hostel in Munster
Cycling in Germany is completely different from the Netherlands. Munster and Groningen are both cities where many people cycle, but in Munster the facilities are not nearly as good as in my hometown. The cyclepaths are mostly horrible, narrow and in town space is shared with pedestrians. Now really! The discontinuity of cycling routes is very bad for me as a long-distance cyclist. Especially outside the cities I prefer the safety of the segregated cyclepath, but the quality is so variable that many times I feel that I'd better switch to the road. This is often a dodgy maneuver because of all kinds of obstacles between cyclepath and road. I would navigate a lot quicker when, like many German velomobilists, I would default to the road. I really do not feel safe there though.... I mean, there are blind bats in all traffic categories, but the ones in heavy steel cages are definitely the scariest. Despite this, I am experienced enough to deal with that. I just can't help but thinking about the less confident and very young cyclists that are put off by less safe conditions. When that happens ultimately only the sporty riders and thrillseekers remain and cycling for getting around town will suffer.
It's a shame that Germany does not seem to identify cycling as a viable, non-pollutant and healthy way to get around that should be encouraged more by means of safe cycling for everybody, especially since they are doing very well in the field of alternative energy sources: I saw many roofs covered with solar panels and huge windmills were abundant.
I could have done more however to prepare a decent route myself though. I was just going South and checking my Garmin now and then to see if I was going roughly the right way. So with the inevitable detours, it still took more than 200km's to get to Munster.
part of the track, not the shortest route (cough)
Knowing my sorry state of fitness, I had planned to take it easy, but in hindsight my average heartrate was 147bpm. What!? Too high for long distance cycling, so no wonder that after a shower and a good meal at a Greek restaurant I felt very sleepy and I went to sleep early to be fit for the next day when I would meet the first serious hills.
So far to the uneventful first day, things would get more interesting in the following days.....
Tires have been one of my favorite subjects to investigate from the day I found out that the rolling resistance at moderate velo speeds is almost as high as the aerodynamic drag. Apart from reading a lot about it on the Internet, I have switched tires countless times (I have a closet full with half used tires) and almost every time I ride home I roll down from a small bridge to see how far the tires of choice will roll. This is of course not very scientific, but over the course of the years I have gathered a lot of insight on tires this way.
Rolling resistance is the energy that is lost when the tire deforms in contact with the road and the rubbing of the rubber molecules amongst each other. There are several ways to make these losses smaller. Narrow racing tires typically use the most advanced techniques to lower the rolling resistance (RR) like more and thinner threads to make a thinner and more supple tire possible and better rubber compounds. For wider touring tires, the tire producers tend to give more attention to puncture proofness and durability. I think I can safely say that the HPV scene is slowly changing this, because there are a lot of geeks among them that like to push the tire producers towards Speed.
Especially velos do not really need the low aerodynamic drag of a narrow tire, because they usually are embedded in wheel arches where they are almost completely out of the airflow anyway. Since a wide tire deforms less than a narrow tire they can have a lower rolling resistance, but only when the rubber compound and the tire casing shows up similar techniques as the narrow racing tire. However, the narrow tire has a last line of defense! It can be pumped up much harder than a wide tire before bursting. A hard tire deforms less in contact with the road, so less RR.
The following question came to my mind: how practical is it to use narrow racing tires on a velo?
To come up with an answer, I have ridden Schwalbe Durano 28-406 on the front wheels all winter long and for a shorter period the most extreme 20" tire on the market: Schwalbe Ultremo 23-406.
Durano: a racy tire but much more durable than it's predecessor the Stelvio (not in produktion anymore). I managed to wreck the sidewall of a Stelvio in one race, but the Duranos' can handle almost anything I throw at them. Almost, for the one thing that took one of the Duranos' out prematurely was heavy braking to the point that I lock up the wheel. The abrasion was too much and the road simply scrubbed right through the canvas, also destroying the tube inside.
destroyed Durano, the canvas scrubbed through
Well, since then I have been braking in a more sensible manner and didn't have that problem anymore.
As to the riding experience: the Duranos' are fast tires and they give the Mango the smallest possible turning circle, so agility is also better. The feel in corners is very direct, so I know exactly what is going on. Because of the 9,5 bar of pressure I keep in them, they do not bulge under the heavy load in fast cornering like wide tires do, especially when the pressure is down to a very comfortable level. Especially in roundabouts the velo may become a "Gallopin' Gertie" with the loaded front tire hopping up and down uncontrollably until you slow down. I like to go fast in corners, so this all is a big plus for me.
Not related to RR, but the light weight does also contribute to the riding experience, since I do relatively much riding in town. A lighter tire accelerates easier, since there is less rotational weight to bring into movement. Likewise, braking is a bit quicker but as written before, it is wise to not let the wheel lock up completely. On a sidenote: I have put on lighter wheels with narrower rims to have even less rotational weight. The narrow rim is also better suited to such a narrow tire.
Comfort is of course less than what I was used to, but since the Mango has good shocks it's not much of an issue. I got used to it soon enough, but I do avoid getting next to the road and ride much slower on cobblestones. High pressure in the tires does make the velo noisier as impacts are simply more intense. Despite the high pressure and ensuing small contact patch, there still is a reasonable amount of grip on the road. I was surprised by that, since I had the idea that the high durability (for a narrow racing tire) must have something to do with a hard, slippery compound. Not so: the grip is not much less than that of the wider Kojak.
To make things more interesting, we had snow for a while this winter and one might think that a narrow tire is not good for that. Sometimes it's completely the other way around then you'd expect: the Durano cuts through fresh snow easily and does not have to displace as much snow as wide tires, so riding takes less effort and you stay in contact with the road. The non-driven front tires do not need to give traction, so that is not an issue either.
Apart from the above mentioned flat because of the abrasion of the tire, I had no flats all winter. The thin Raceguard protection that Schwalbe puts in seems to do a pretty good job.
Maybe you have noticed that I put in 1 bar more pressure than Schwalbe gives as maximum pressure. I do so, because high pressure cuts the RR from narrow tires enormously and I somehow have a lot of confidence that the Durano is strong enough, unlike the old Stelvio.
So overall the Durano is pretty practical, be it that you won't like to do dirt trails with it as it sinks away too easily there.
Ultremo: Given the rather good impression I got from the Duranos' it only seemed logical to take it even further. The even lighter, narrower Ultremo tire. The ultimate in the line-up from Schwalbe.
Ultremo: best kept on the shelve until racing day?
Putting the tire on the rim was a bit more tedious than with the Durano, but not really very hard to do. It got a whole lot trickier when I wanted to pump them up to their max. 11bar! It's not simply a question of a few pump strokes more. Most pumps do not get up to that pressure at all, but we have an excellent track pump at the shop that managed it. Alas the pressure gauge was bust, so I had to check the pressure with a separate digital gauge from Schwalbe. The problem was to not lose too much pressure while putting the gauge on the valve stem. It was almost funny how many times I had to pump and pump again to get close to the desired pressure, because the moment I pulled the gauge off the valve it could easily lose one bar in pressure! When I tried to pump it up a few days later at home again I found that my own big floor pump only just could manage to get enough pressure in the tire. Certainly my little pump that I always take with me in the Mango, cannot get even close to the desired pressure. Since I usually swap tube and tire in case of a flat it is no issue on a daily basis (simply put on a tire that does not need extreme pressure) but on multiday trips it IS a serious problem. I know, I just keep on rattling about high pressure, but it is truly vital for such a tire to have it topped up at all time. I noticed it on my roll-out course that the variation in distance rolled varied a lot, depending on how much pressure I managed to get inside! Furthermore the tire will no doubt be destroyed easily when the pressure gets too low. It's the high pressure that has to maintain the shape of the tire. Too low a pressure and the sidewalls will bulge the very supple sidewalls until the rim cuts it up. The infamous snakebite flat is therefore a very likely thing to happen when you do not keep a close eye on pressure.
In all other respects the Ultremo is a Durano on steroids and so far it also seems to be strong enough. Only the pressure that is needed to keep this tire going good, is enough for me to completely disqualify it as a practical tire. If you seriously want the max in speed however, this is it.
As you may know, I have an enormous collection of YouTube vids. Here is one featuring the Duranos:
Yep, they also come pimped (white tread)
Don't forget to alter the setting on the bicycle computer:
circumference Durano @9,5bar=146cm
circumference Ultremo @11bar=144cm
It seems there is enough enthusiasm to do a Tour like ROAM in Europe: a EUROLL. There is however great diversity about the way we should do it. The greatest controversy is about the daily distances. Some would like to make it more a sight-seeing tour and others think it should be more ambitious. Now we could of course simply say: the organiser decides and in the end, that is indeed the way it will have to go. The freedom we have as velomobile riders is than to either participate or not.
Another thing to consider is the number of riders. We will not be in practically velomobile void USA where this type of bicycle has yet to really take off, but in Europe. And Europe is the home of the velomobiles, the place where several small velomobile factories have produced quite a number and that has a well established culture. I'm pretty sure that the number of participants will be much higher than on ROAM, even with ambitious daily legs. We will need more room at campsites and restaurants on the route will be flooded with unexpected extra, very hungry guests. Some more room on campsites will not be such a problem, but the waiting time for riders to get a lunch should not be too long. I think that the 40 riders we had for ROAM was just about the limit to keep it fun.
How long a table do we need?
I have thought long and hard if there maybe is a better way to do this tour so that as many riders as possible can take part. At the same time I want to keep the organizational effort and the costs as low as possible. In fact, even though many showed interest in taking part in EUROLL, it took a long time before somebody volunteered to take the lead in the organization.
I also worry about the amount of support that is needed. SAG (Support And Gear) was indispensable for ROAM. The burden on these people was pretty high while the riders had all the fun. That burden could be greatly diminished when the riders would take their tents, sleeping bags and clothing with them in the velomobiles.
The ambition level is another thing to consider. When all the team mates have the same idea about how fast, how long and how scenic to ride, it will build a strong team. Sight-seeers and racers do not go together all that well.
A few days ago it hit me, we could make it a STAR route. Velomobile riders from all corners of Europe can make their own groups (by preference of route and/or by country) and converge at one place where we can spend a few days together and be on our merry way again. The organization will be split up over the groups and there is less discussion.
I suggested this to three forums and the responses are (as usual) variable. A concern is that the group experience would be lost.
Well, in my view a group of 20 riders is already plenty of group experience. On ROAM it was very evident that the riders mostly got together in "sub-groups by language" in the evening. That's not at all strange, because not everybody is equally good in a strange language.
Another suggestion that followed my proposal is to make EUROLL a round trip for everybody and to have sub-routes, meeting again at a hostel after, say, a week and then split up again. This would indeed give great freedom to the riders in respect to the harshness of the ride. On the other hand it might put off riders that need a sense of achievement. Like: it should not be too easy. All I can say about that is that the fitness level of riders varies greatly. A tour of this magnitude will be an achievement for all the participating riders.
Crossing the Mississippi in the Twin Cities
(Photo made by Benji)
On the Dutch fora, there was a suggestion to copy the ROAM format to a EURO (European Rollover). Sounds like a great idea to me to promote the velomobile. What made ROAM such a succes? There are more factors of course, but I think that discipline was very important for most riders. During ROAM we had the iron discipline of a time schedule. Without this schedule and without the psychological support of other riders and the support people, I would surely have taken more rest days. The downside was that it was difficult to make daily blog posts, photo and vido uploads. Not that I think there should have been shorter trips or more days of rest! (although true days of rest instead of the "rolling stops" through Minneapolis and Chicago would have been very good for recuperation and some massage of sore muscles). Especially regarding the video material, it would have been great to have someone with us that is good at editing the daily flow of material from all riders. A sort of ROAM journal. I was forced to make short clips and dump the most appealing raw on YouTube, because I simply did not have time (IF the facilities had been there at the campgrounds AND if the wifi hadn't crashed continuously because of all ROAMers uploading at the same time) to make something nice out of it.
Reception at the European Embassy in Washington DC
left-to-right: American ambassador, European
ambassador and our beloved
ROAM captain: Josef Janning
Hopefully a documentary can be made with all the material. A professional has shown interest in doing this. That would be super, because the impact will last longer. Even raw uploads was difficult. I have not even one fourth of all material of interest uploaded until now. I think it's a shame. I can obviously work much better at home behind the powerful video editing software on my iMac, but that would be too late. Fun for the riders, but promotionally it's just old news.The rides through virtually unpopulated (natural) areas are beautiful, but you really must go through the large towns, otherwise you will not be noticed! We could have made a very nice coast-to-coast tour with only local media attention. By consciously going THROUGH cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington, we have showed that it is more than doable, while also attracting much attention. When it comes to performance, then there are many solo rides that are more legendary for the HPV incrowd. But the media attention for them was virtually nil. Why not combine fun and promotion? Let's roll over Europe too!
So here I am at Cherry Hill Park campground, Maryland. That's close enough to Washington to get there by bus and metro quickly. The European velomobiles are crated and put in two containers, so it's walking and public transport until I fly home on Thursday September 1st. All kind of little aches are all of a sudden kicking in to body. It seems that it simply didn't have time to complaint while we were doing the Tour, HA. For instance my calves felt very hard yesterday and a twisted nerve in my hip makes walking a bit awkward. Today, after the storm we could go out and walk some and I feel much better already.
a tired but very happy H@rry, cruising through DC
Because of the bad weather (hurricane Irene gave us a huge amount of rain) we stayed indoors most of the day. Stop, I forget to mention the fact that "we" has now come down to Wilfred and me. The rest of the party has already gone home. Well, as far as possible, because trains and planes were cancelled or delayed because of Irene. So they might be sleeping in a hotel lobby or at the airport.
The staying indoors, seated in chairs is not very good for a body that is used to daily exercise, but it did give me a chance to upload many videoclips that I made during ROAM. My original plan was to make a little film every day. This is making me smile as I write it, since it has proven totally impossible to fit in the tight schedule of cycling, eating and camping. Let alone the fact that editing in iMovie and uploading hundreds of Megabytes to YouTube through sometimes non-existing or slowly functioning wifi on the campgrounds is, to put it mildly, very positive thinking.
I have come up with a new saying for this: "ROAM comes and Internet goes". Many ROAMers want to check e-mail, blog, Skype, upload pictures and movie clips at the same time, which caused the Internet on the campgrounds to crash constantly. You could almost hear sighs of frustration going between the tents when this happened, if it weren't for the millions of locusts in the trees that made a deafening cricket-like sound every evening.
Because I really wanted to upload clips while DOING the tour, I have shifted my "uploading schedule" to the middle of the night or early morning. This worked pretty good actually, because I had the whole band-width to myself, but in the end it was to tiring to do next to the average daily 125miles of cycling. In Minneapolis I stayed at a coffee-joint for hours, because it had such a good connection and subsequently had to rush to the campground for the "short" track of that day. I was with Benji that day. He was sort of forced to stay with me, because he didn't have a track and I did. Ben is a fun guy from Austria with a very playful and creative mind. Good company and not at all impatience because of my race for Internet access and the campground rush later.
Benji makes this sign complete with a velomobile
As we came close to the campground, I thought it would be a nice idea to compensate him with an ice-cream which surely would be to have at the rather big Icecream Truck I saw across the intersection. Of course it wasn't what it seemed to be, instead it turned out to be the transport of a wedding party. Of course bride and groom had to sit and our vehicles and lots of Photos were taken by the Wedding Photographer at hand.
Thinking of this, the huge amount of locusts in the Mid-West immediately jump to my mind. They sure jumped all right, right into our velomobiles. They would typically come in through the footholes, jump or climb to a high spot, which usually was my shoulder and eventually jump out again. Some riders didn't like it, but I found they were harmless and funny to watch. I'll endure 6 locusts over a single wasp anytime. Why the number 6? Well, obviously there are always 6 (or none) of them inside a velomobiles at all time. It's no use trying to remove them before they are ready to jump out by themselves, because another one will immediately jump in.
These are things you cannot plan, but sure makes the whole undertaking a lot more fun. A have many examples like these that made the whole undertaking very enjoyable. Of course the SAG-people, other riders and the people on route played a major role.
SAG was indespensible, I had a mechanical problem that could not be fixed on the road quickly enough
I have seen the people in the USA now for real. That was one of the major reasons actually to do this. I knew that infrastructure would not be the best to do such a tour. Might as well have done this in Europe for that matter. The fact that the USA has such a huge (and often in a negative way to European eyes) influence in the world and in this era, made me want to meet the people who live there. My conclusion? Most of them are very kind. I didn't encounter hefty political or religious debate and although they usually thought our mission was a strange one, they were totally open to listen to what we had to say. Of course we also met the occasional total jerk, like the ones that produce huge amounts of exhaust fumes from their oversized trucks at the moment they pass us or like the man that called our velomobiles with dismay "Obama bikes". These were the exceptions to the rule. We have seen so many people taking pictures from us while smiling, even sitting in chairs next to the road to see our small groups pass.
you click me, I click you. attention in Washington DC
Cars that gave us plenty of room and stayed patient when we boldly took priority on intersections (to keep the group together). Police officers that were mainly worried about our safety instead of giving us a ticket for impeding the traffic. Restaurant waitresses that never failed to supply us with ice and water for free and so on and so forth.
A good deal of the ROAM story is told by moving images. Because I have done almost no editing, I mostly uploaded short clips to YouTube and am still uploading as I write this. You can find them on My YouTube Channel
More movies from other ROAM riders can be found by searching "ROAM2011". Enjoy.
Now we now what it is. I must have been lying with my knee in them. It seems that the oil gets everywhere on your body when you start to scratch. First I thought it was just the Mosquitos (which is bad enough here) but now I have regular tiny lumps on knees, hips and my hole back. The itch is really bad, but I guess I'm still lucky that I'm not allergic. Just another small inconvenience on ROAM.
"Just a little bit of drag, that's all" I thought. I'm talking about my diskbrakes. They are very precise to control and have amazing stopping power. That's the good side. It seems that braking at the moment that I hit a pothole, warped the disk. Ever since the brake has been rubbing.... and robbing my power. I tried to adjust it to a point that it would not rub. The only real time I had for that was in the evening, in the dark at the moment that the mosquitos were most active. Working by the light of a torch, one hand for the bike and one hand for the mosquitos. Not the best conditions. This morning I again felt that the brake was rubbing a bit. I couldn't straighten the disk enough and even couldn't get it free completely. It was only morning and was already tired and sweating heavily. That was it for me. I stopped the SAG vehicle and we got the Mango on the roof. After a good meal in Spencer and a nap in the shade, I'm coming back to life a bit. Now off to Medina and hope that the bicycle shop there is open.
Ok. I'm lying in my hammock now. I drank, ate and slept in the SAG vehicle, so I got a bit of a rest. I managed to get a new disk, set it up, reduced my gearing by 10% (22tooth chainring on the mid-drive instead of the standard 26) shortened the secondary chain accordingly, lubed the chains and took out everything unnecessary from the Mango to reduce weight and carry only 3liters of water instead of 6. Tomorrow is going to be a serious climbing day with short but steep climbs and 200km distance! At the riders meeting we heard that tomorrow has a good chance of rain. We applauded that, because we are a bit tired of the long streak of dry and hot weather.
