Re: Obree!

On May 23, 2:03 am, Carl Sundquist <carlsun.rem...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
On May 22, 10:16 pm, Carl Sundquist <carlsun.rem...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl Sundquist wrote:
Carl Sundquist wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
On May 22, 3:09 am, Carl Sundquist <carlsun.rem...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/graeme-obree-bidding-for-hour-r...
Lugged steel rules!
Go for it Graeme!
By a trick of memory, this brings De Villiers Lamprecht to mind. In
1964, not too many years after Bannister did it in spiked shoes, he
was the first man to run a four minute mile barefoot. I knew De
Villiers at school and college and even ran with him and Ivan Latsky
(Latski? -- sorry, Ivan) a few times (1). I remember the usual
wittering idiots saying he wouldn't ever make it in bare feet...
I don't understand the aerodynamics of Obree's posture shown in the
photograph. The flat back, okay. But those dogleg arms puts each upper
arm at a dead vertical block to the air, and adds its frontal area to
the air blockage. Why doesn't he make the stem extra long
UCI rule 1.3.022
Good point about the width though. I'm not familiar with any rule
stating minimum width.
Ah. There is one specifically under the hour record bike specs:

Now why doesn't that surprise me. I haven't yet read the Obree's book
or seen the movie, which Ron Bales recommended to me in another
context recently, but just reading on the net it seems to me like a
classic case of a blazer or blazers starting to believe they *are* the
sport rather than its athletes; that sort of personality clash always
leads to ugliness.

Just 12 days ago you wrote this:

Andre Jute wrote:

 > On May 8, 3:22 pm, larrylikesthecir...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
 >> On May 8, 9:11 am, Andre Jute <fiult...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
 >>
 >>> I made this as an aside in another thread, as a marketing argument,
 >>> but it might be worth discussing:
 >>> If I were the bicycle racing authorities, who have failed for years in
 >>> one of their primary functions, keeping the cost of racing down, I
 >>> would make a start in recovering my lost credibility by banning carbon
 >>> fiber and electronics and enforcing the ban rigorously. And I would
 >>> severely punish those aero cheats who've been thumbing their noses at
 >>> the rules for years and years and years until they've come to  presume
 >>> it as their right to flout not only the spirit but the letter of the
 >>> rules.
 >>> Andre Jute
 >>> No favourites!
 >> It's their job to tell people what to spend on their equipment?
 >
 > No, not quite that bluntly. It is marginally more subtle than that. It
 > is their job to make the sport affordable for the working man. That's
 > why the rules forbid aerodynamic aids, because they're expensive to
 > develop. If I understood a recent article in the NYT correctly, even
 > tubing section proportions are proscribed to stop extreme aero
 > sections.
 >
 > But anything aero is pretty obvious as clearly high-level expenditure.
 > I'd ban the use of wind tunnels outright. Carl was telling a story the
 > other day that horrified me, about riders contorting themselves with
 > harnesses to improve their aero profile, and that should horrify you
 > too if you have your mind in gear.
 >
 > My other examples, carbon fibre and electronics, are clearly also
 > unwarranted expenses in a sport that prides itself on being
 > accessible.

On which Carl's comment is:
Just 12 days ago you wrote this [above].

I don't understand why it should either baffle or bother you that I
wrote both pieces, Carl. I'm a professional intellectual: I see both
sides of every question. I'm a novelist: I see how character,
especially characters in conflict, confuses what should be
dispassionate facts. Also because I'm a novelist, I have no problem
stating each side's case fully; it's just a(n admittedly high level)
professional trick called point-of-view. In addition I've played quite
a few games in quite a few countries, which gives me a good deal of
experience of the blazers, who're people too (some of them barely,
true, but still).

So, in one of those pieces I'm discussing solutions to a problem from
the UCI's viewpoint (and, note this, discussing the problem in more
general terms than just Obree and Boardman's special record bikes),
and in the other I'm trying to put my finger on what seems an
extraordinarily difficult relationship for a world class athlete to
have had with his regulatory body.

Andre Jute
A little, a very little thought will suffice -- John Maynard Keynes

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Obree!
    ... Andre Jute wrote: ... this brings De Villiers Lamprecht to mind. ... >>> severely punish those aero cheats who've been thumbing their noses at ...
    (rec.bicycles.tech)
  • Re: Obree!
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  • Re: Obree!
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