Concept Discussion - Range finding for road biking.

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
Each bike would need to be equipped with transmitters and reflectors. Whomever is in front, and that changes when one tires. Or when one lags behind.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
Each bike would need to be equipped with transmitters and reflectors. Whomever is in front, and that changes when one tires. Or when one lags behind.
Back in post #1 it appears that this is a "twosome", not a cluster. And it seems like only one has the lagging behind problem. When I ride with one other we tend to stay side-by-side so that conversation is easier. Of course, being in better shape allows conversation instead of hard breathing. Also, we do not hold that 25MPH pace like some groups do.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
Been such a long time since I rode a bike. Every weekend it was a 40 mile ride. 20 something to the beach and 20 something back home. The wife decided she wanted to ride too. So 13 miles out she was done. Had to take a bus home. One of those busses with a bike rack on the front. And they weren't common back then.

Most of my rides have been solo. But the longest I took was with a friend. It was 50 miles by freeway, which is a more direct drive than by bicycle. We rode the 20 plus miles to the beach, then down south eventually to Laguna Beach. Our ride can only be estimated. The route we took was probably close to 60 miles one way. Going back home - I was the brilliant one who didn't need "Batteries" for the headlight on my bike - I had the generator. And after all those miles, flipping the generator on absolutely killed our trip. We were about 15 miles away from home; so we probably did about 110 miles or maybe a little more because there was one time we had to backtrack. Weren't allowed to ride over a bridge; no bike lane or sidewalk. But that was when I was a teen.

The idea that two people ride slip-stream is something I used to do with a different friend. He always thought he was the smart one because he lead the way. I just used his draft to make my ride easier. Only, when there was a cross wind - riding, even FINDING the draft was difficult if not impossible.

So two transmitters and reflectors for in-line riders would seem like a good solution. A slightly parabolic reflector would make distance detection possibly easier. The further away the smaller the reflection. But that would need to be tested. And finding a parabolic reflector with the right shape might necessitate the need for manufacturing your own reflector. Doable. But not necessarily easy.

Peace y'all. Gotta go rotate the tires on wife's car and fix the hanger rod in her closet. Have to open the wall for that one. Anchors just pull out with all the weight.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
We are good at not rubbing tires, but I fall off the back sometimes and have a little pride thing not to shout out. My wife is in much better shape than me!
Alternative solution:

Screen Shot 2020-08-03 at 10.41.54 AM.png

I'm at least partially serious. A friend got one of these recently and it's a game changer. My wife suffered a hip injury not long ago and can ride this for fun while pedaling only as much as she wants. She usually rides behind me but loves blowing past me every time I slow to a crawl on the uphills.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
Retro-Reflectors do not need to be curved, they reflect at whatever angle the light arrives at.

And I have always wondered how long the batteries last on a battery bike. The one that I tried they seemed to get weak after about 300 yards of travel. Of course, that was a disreputable vendor and so that product may not have been representative.
 

MrSoftware

Joined Oct 29, 2013
2,188
My buddy has a Specialized brand e-bike, I think it's this one with the front suspension. It's a higher end brand, a lot of fun to ride. You can adjust how much help the motor gives you and you can fly along without much effort if you turn it up all the way. They claim 80 mile range, I'm not sure if that's what my buddy gets but he rides it all over town. You can pedal as hard as you want so you can still get the workout if you want it, just at a significantly higher ground speed than a non-assisted bike.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
My buddy has a Specialized brand e-bike, I think it's this one with the front suspension. It's a higher end brand, a lot of fun to ride. You can adjust how much help the motor gives you and you can fly along without much effort if you turn it up all the way. They claim 80 mile range, I'm not sure if that's what my buddy gets but he rides it all over town. You can pedal as hard as you want so you can still get the workout if you want it, just at a significantly higher ground speed than a non-assisted bike.
I was very pleasantly surprised at the overall experience of riding one of these. Quiet, smooth, well engineered. Much easier than I expected because the integration of the hub motor is so well done. Nothing jerky or clunky about it.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
Certainly the video showing the steam powered bike was impressive, and certainly it did not show much detail of the steam engine itself. All of the actual details were very carefully blurry , to assure that nobody can understand exactly how it works. We can not even see if it is a single or double acting power cylinder.
So while the presentation was interesting and entertaining it was also rather useless.
 
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