What's he talking about?
Anyone??
The answer is Maas van Beek, cancer survivor, on beetroot juice....
The stories of the world of ´stayeren´ are beyond imagination and the Dutch are the main cyclists keeping it alive.
In the first decades of the 20th century it was the cycling sport with by far and then some the most spectators and the prize money was higher than today even. It was also rather risky; 60 deaths in 4 decades.
Today it has become safer, the public almost absent and the prize is the honour.
One of THE oddest characters in the sport is Maas van Beek, the holder of the world hour record with 66.119 km/h.
Last Februari he trained for >68 km/h, again in Moscow, with 80 x 12:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp0BvfFaV7M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp0BvfFaV7M
The attempt was to take place in March.
He failed.
Well not he, he never had a crack because of red tape.
Here his record run on 21-05-2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k1CjHVSPAE
Surreal.
My head hurts.
Noo, jest watt ha yoo bin up ta cet?
He did say it's surreal. ;-)
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Wel, yes, it is a bit of a limitation when an only English speaker, but it nevertheless is a fascinating world that ´stayeren´ (which is a dutchified English word).
Also 80 x 12 is universal. VERY oval btw.
You speak English perfectly well Priscilla, this is a nonsense thread for attention. More fool me for responding.
Canst t'lad rade tandem? Well, canst he?
Did Wiggins user a motor pacer?
Seems an odd event, what's the purpose of the pacer? Just to create a slipstream?
https://youtu.be/JLTf1_SN8MQ
https://youtu.be/QIJPy-mW05A
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Two different things.
van Beek's distance of 66.639km (set Oct 25th 2012 and ratified by UCI November 26th 2012) was set behind a derny.
The UCI Hour Record (UCI spec bike with no draft and no pacing) is currently held by Sir Bradley Wiggins. They also recognise Chris Boardman's record as the 'Best Human Effort' although almost everything about it (aero helmet, monocoque frame, riding position etc) would now be outside the rules.
As an aside, the hour record without a saddle is still held by Fausto Coppi.
´Odd´ only for those who don´t know about it AND are a bit conservative in their tastes. I can imagine that it is not widely known in the UK because it was not even during the heydays of it. It was very much a Continental European thing , much more so than in the US even where it was massively popular too. At the time though the large expanse of the US was still limiting. It was after all before distances got shorter in time by the development of the automobile and aircraft and Europe was simply WAY denser populated so larger crowds gathered more easily and readily.
Track racing bicycles behind motorbikes developed VERY early on in the history of track racing.
In the early days of bicycle racing bikes were the fastest thing on the planet for several decades. This lasted untill motorcycles became fast enough and even that was partly in function of making bike racing faster, more spectacular. It even pushed the development of motorcycles ahead and Indian has it´s birthplace in it. It was THE because of why/how Indian started; a track racing promoter got together with a motorcycle pioneer to develop and built faster motorcycles for drafting track cyclists, more spectacle.
The latter, the spectacle, was literally the life blood of track racing and the slipstreaming events ruled spectator sports. That is why the riders earned fabulous amounts of money; it drew large crowds and the risked their lives.
Now it has t be understood that life was not seen as precious as today. Life expectancy of the average worker was low and the common man was also cannon fother at an unimaginable scale. As such taking a risk at the track was not seen as such stupid rik and less still because it was actually worth it in gold.
When I was a little kis my father took me to those ´stayeren´ events in the Amsterdam Olympic velodrom. The sound of the last of the thundering big twins, the smell of the oil/gasoline, the incredible sensation of speed! We were sitting CLOSE and the max speeds surpassed 90 k/h when duelling for position or a lap.
Then too the Derny had been developed, mainly to make things safer. These still whize about with the rider pedalling to maintain the speed of the moped more precisely.
The latest development is electric mopeds.
I understand both but it does make the events rather ´sterile´. Like F1 without the noise, without the racers being allowed to race, with a safety halo etc. All very laudable but .... it does kill the spectacle.
Anyway, stayeren is still alive and kicking in the Netherlands with some support from Germany and Poland.
Maas van Beek is the world hour record holder stayeren. Stayeren too is submitted to the exact same regulations about the bicycle. This regulation basically states that the bike must look like the one Eddy Merckx used in Mexico in 1972. That still is the most outstanding performance in world hour record history imo. By far.
Mercxk also won track events, even competed behind the Derny in his early days. Later he would make extensive use to train behind the Derny on the open road.
p.s. There were road racing events behind the Derny too. Classics even! Bordeaux - Paris was one.
Last edited by Huertecilla; 19th August 2017 at 11:54.
And away from the track, moto-training has a long history. If a rider can get a good tow and drive a bigger gear than they would otherwise, it will have benefit when the tow's not there.
Meanwhile, back at the chicken coop, Free verse, applaud, nonsense, Bicycle, Solomon, Free verse, applaud, political wisdom, satire ...
Shorter than the track one though as first the motorised vehicles AND the roads had to develop ;-)
Thanks for the photo.
The drafting behind cars is nowadays so much easier to organise, even if not all that legal. Cars are everywhere and although a break is better, any hatchback will do; just open de rear lid and presto - a suction device.
Derny bikes have become very VERY scarce. There is only one source left Rik Lievens in Belgium and the bikes are handbuilt, costly gems. The Olympic Committee ordered 6 identicals by him for the Athens olympics.
Here an earlier one by him:
My local velodrome Herne Hill has stayer racing at the good Friday meeting, great to watch.
That sure is wonderful.
When the old V-twins finally ran on their last legs, new motorcycles were developed using BSA twins. These were highly successful and soon followed by adapted Triumphs. It does not really matter; those larger capacity bikes all offer a great spectacle. Thanks for sharing.
Notice the smaller front wheel of the bicycle and ´revse´ forks to get closer to the bar and have better sight/control.
Alco look at the ear cover of the motorcyclist; his ears are covered with only apertures at the back, keeping ot as much noise as possible and optimise hearing the cyclist´s shoutings.
Ah well, sign of the times. Formula 1 has a Formula E counterpart and that is in the open air even. Cleaner, more quiet , politically correct and all.
I don´t have to LIKE it though.
Nothing like the old 2400 cc Meier BAC:
The Anzani; Only seen those in exhibition runs though.
and a ´Vredestein´ version of the BAC. Man what a sound, smell and sight!! Imagine a 2400 cc. V-twin thundering by...
It is now in the Stayerdrome; a Dutch museum about stayeren.
Last edited by Huertecilla; 19th August 2017 at 14:19.
I have no principles objection to the concept of an e-Derny but, as someone whose primary cycling interest is mountain biking that 'thing' offends me. There's something wrong about a dual crown fork with (what looks like 180mm+ travel) and a slick tyre. Also that rear mudguard makes me feel a bit queasy.
One thing I do like about a trad derny is the way they look like someone out for a leisurely bike ride minding their own business completely unaware of the tail of cyclists behind them. I'm sure that's just an illusion - it must be a skilled job and they must be very aware of what's happening behind them.
Does look whacky, riding behind an m/c.
And those old Triumphs, sitting right over the back wheel! Oddity...
and sometimes
The cyclist lost the ´rol´ and the motorcylist behind him could not evade in time, meaning his draft could not evade eitther.
Al escapes ..well not unschated, they were quite scathed, but nothing broken.
You mean....besides trains, cheetahs and marlins?In the early days of bicycle racing bikes were the fastest thing on the planet for several decades
Wasn't trying to offend, was genuine curiosity. I do get if we talk about road-going vehicles alone, bicycles could have been the fastest since they were used long before their internal combustion engine larger cousin or automobiles, but in terms of absolute speed achieved (on Earth), I doubt bicycles ever held any although I could be wrong of course.
Well I thought the baffling initial post turned into quite an interesting one!
Back to the subject, cycling, stayeren, the importance of the early bicycles and the early cycling sport heroes is easy to illustrate.
Piet van Neck was a rather anti social element and his supporters rif raf, hooligans from the dark corners in Amsterdam. Despite the trouble he and his supporters caused, he was immensely popular with the public and thus the organizers who paid him good money to attract crowd to their event.
When he died on the track in Leipzig, 1914, some 80.000!!! attended his funeral and his grave, paid by the supporters, is now, over a century later, an official sports monument.
.....
Last edited by Reeny; 20th August 2017 at 15:23. Reason: Insults removed - you wouldn't get it anyway
a cool!!! modern marketing initiative by TREK
http://granfondo-cycling.com/trek-e-...wered-diamant/
In German there is a wealth of information.
The keywords are ´Schrittmacher´ and ´Steherrennen´.
The Opel 4-cil. motorcycle was converted too;
and this is how the spectacle started; before motorized vehicles were invented:
Never even knew Opel made m/c,s . Love them! Art on wheels
As a kid I saw this guy, Noppy Koch, on that ´Vredestein´ 2400 cc. BAC bike in that stadium!
Taken in front of the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium with the velodrome:
The earlier photo of the cyclist behind a Derny rider with a kid on it´s back was of Joop Zoetemelk btw.
He also trained with his wife riding the Derny
I liked Joop!
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
from a cyclists perspective your opening title is misleading, surely it should be gear inches? in this case 80x12 = 175 GI
anyone who has ridden fixed road or on the track speaks in GI because with ratios it is not always obvious if one set of numbers is harder than the other whereas “ i’m running 68’ on my winter trainer but 90’ for my sprint sessions down the track" is easily understood.