Help. Trying to find an article

corona
corona Posts: 116
edited October 2014 in The cake stop
Hoping someone can help me. The P.E. teacher at the school I teach at has asked me to give a short talk to her Year 11 pupils. She is teaching how to get 'race ready' , and has taught the pupils about training and the psychological aspects of preparing to race, this is for all sports, not just cycling.
The topic she has moved on to now is equipment and what advantage can be gained by using the correct, or the best suited equipment. She sees me scooting around on my road bike in lycra, and wrongly assumes that I am an expert. Despite my protests she persuaded me to bring my bike to school and give a talk. I know enough to realize that this topic is a can of worms but I have looked everywhere for a simple article giving approximate percentage gains for various equipment, eg aero bars, skinsuit, shoe covers, aero helmet. if anyone can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.

Comments

  • city_boy
    city_boy Posts: 1,616
    Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not happy.
  • corona
    corona Posts: 116
    Thanks for that City Boy, I appreciate the reply, I was looking for something even simpler but I guess I'll have to do a bit of work, as if I didn't have enough lessons of my own to prepare. I can remember reading a really good article on here a few years ago on the subject. it gave the time savings for about 10 different bits of equipment in percentage form. I remember the writer ended the article saying that the most cost effective way of going faster was to slap a race mumber on your back. Thanks again for your reply City Boy.
  • mamba80
    mamba80 Posts: 5,032
    Race prep for TT of course aero makes a huge difference but you could concentrate more on RR and there the bike and wheels etc do not make the absolute difference, so you explain the need for lighter kit and power to weight ratio's for a hilly RR and FTP and a more powerful rider for a flatter race? tactics
    or there is this on aero stuff..... a reasonable article.
    http://www.active.com/cycling/articles/ ... t-benefits

    tbh if you can, I d stick with RR, they may have heard of tdf, Cav and Wiggins/Froome but possible not the BBAR, S46 (SC) first rider off at 0800.
  • corona
    corona Posts: 116
    Thanks mamba, another good link and some sound advice. I'm supposed to be in the class on Sunday, I think I will concentrate on road bikes, the kids know of Cav and Wiggins, we usually have one stage of the tour of Qatar starting or finishing here. My bike is reasonably light compared to the usual bikes the kids ride here so I may just try to get the pupils to discuss the differences between what they ride and the position they ride in compared to a some video footage of Cav. I thank you again