Trivia question....What is this?
Recently a good friend requested I build something (I fabricate goofy stuff once in a while) and I could not resist the request.
Here are some pictures...All I ask is, Can you figure out why a guy would want such a thing? Let's make this a little game, you guess, and hopefully he will chime in at some point and explain why.
Photo 1. This is a mold we fabricated for the melt, and cast. It is primitive, cheap, but effective.
Photo 2. This is the lead brick fresh out of the mold. It weighs about 12 pounds.
Photo 3, and 4. This is the finished product. Basically what we have are two bicycle pedal sandwiches that weigh more than a bicycle (each).
So, let the games begin! Why in the hell would someone want really heavy pedals that you can not even put your feet on?
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Here is a hint....
This request did not come from some nut trying to build the worlds heaviest bike....oh to the contrary (this guy is well known in the cycling community...if you do not know of him, you should).
This person has some VERY sound logic and reasoning behind the creation of such a device. There were some careful design considerations that went into this as well (in spite of the clunky looks of it).
hevy-dooty
WTF you plan to do wit those hevy-dooty pedals? Those are pedals in there right? You planning to take em off some sweet jumps? I don't think so. Crazy. Just crazy.
Ghost Riding
I wonder if you had a fixie and put those on and pushed it as a ghost rider bike down a really big hill if all that weight spinning around would make it go faster.
I have no guess but hope
I have no guess but hope it's not for descending faster.
there is a great story from the Tour de France decades and decades ago where a rider added a lead water bottle at the top of a mountain - hoping for faster descent.
He forgot to practice with it and during the descent he had a horrific crash - due to the destablizing effect.
Wow!
No, not for descending...
That is an interesting story. I would imagine that a lead bottle (if solid) would weigh enough to tear the cage off the bike (at least a modern cage, anyway). Definitely enough to make it much harder to control the bike when leaning through curves...and disastrous if the bottle would suddenly fall out of the cage (or break it off).
The only way these would aid descending is by making the rider stronger....
Flywheel
I'll take a guess and say that it's some type of kludgy, unrefined flywheel (of sorts).
Brilliant
Yes, you are on the right path. Not a flywheel, in fact, this system will be FAR from a flywheel in that it will be very unbalanced, but you are thinking in the right direction....
How about pedaling in six different ways instead?
For anyone seeking something different from the conventional circular pedaling motion, how about pedaling in six different pedaling strokes. This will definitely ease the boredom of the 360-degree circular pedaling, because you can actually pedal in six different motions, including one that closely resembles a person's natural walking and running/jogging motion, with one flick of the gear shifter.
This bikes are now being manufactured in China, and are being used by the China National Bicycle Team, as they gear up for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Boredom?
I get bored periodically, it is one reason I switch from road riding, to MTB, to trials, to unicycling, to lord-knows-what. I do not think that the 360-degree circular pedaling was ever the problem though... These mondo-pedals will be used to train for a stronger ride on that conventional pedaling stroke.
Okay, so what's the answer?
Come on...
The answer is...
I was hoping that Andy would come over and explain it.
These pedals are to be used as counter-weights (one at a time). The basic thought behind it is when a rider does one legged workouts, the imbalance causes undesirable effects (such as a cadence drop). There is more to it than that however...I can not begin to explain it the way Andy might be able to ....Andy?....Care to take over?....
Jim Martin's idea
'lo everyone!
The purpose of those "boat anchors" is to mimic the gravitational and inertial forces normally encountered during two-legged pedaling when you're only pedaling with one leg. Without the counterweight, you have work harder than usual to bring the pedal back to the top of the pedal stroke, and you may not have to push down as hard on the downstroke (since you aren't having to lift the other leg). With it, however, pedaling with one leg is, for that leg, essentially the same as pedaling with two. What we (Mark Ewers and I) plan to do is use them in conjunction with an SRM with the torque analysis option, as crude alternative to use of an instrumented force pedal. (The idea is really Dr. Jim Martin's, and in fact he's got a patent application in for it.)
Thanks again, Ken, for fabricating those puppies, and quite quickly to boot!
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