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From: AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Disc brake maintenance tips
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2024 20:45:53 -0500
Organization: Yellow Jersey, Ltd.
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On 6/21/2024 8:22 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
> On 6/21/2024 5:55 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:
>> A path-confined tricyclist wrote:
>>>
>>> Actually, aerodynamic drag is a significant factor on a 
>>> Catrike. I do
>>> my best to keep my water bottles and bags out of the wind 
>>> stream, I do
>>> not wear any loose clothes that flap in the wind, but I 
>>> simply cannot
>>> ride with my arms tucked in as the original Catrike setup.
>>
>> I’d assume you’d still offer less to the wind than on a 
>> two wheeler?
>> Assumptions are as ever sometimes just plain wrong!
> 
> I'd be slightly curious to see drag data. A recumbent 
> tricyclist may have less frontal area, as precisely measured 
> in square inches from a front view photo. OTOH, such a 
> bike+rider seems aerodynamically far "dirtier" than a normal 
> road bike. Two wide-spaced wheels with rims and spokes 
> churning the air, lots of transverse frame components with 
> non-aero cross sections, and especially two legs and feet 
> cranking and churning away in the very front of the bike. 
> ISTM aero flow would be completely turbulent from the first 
> bit all the way back.
> 
> We could ask the trike guy for coasting and weight data. But 
> that would require a hill and his cooperation. Neither are 
> available in his case.
> 
> I've briefly ridden part of one ride with a guy who rides a 
> recumbent trike with motor assist. I suppose I could have 
> tried drafting him to see if I could assess the size of his 
> wake; but he was far too slow to ride with for long.
> 
>>> On the other hand, I learned how to ride a two wheeler 
>>> before I was in
>>> grade school, with no instruction. I think it's totally 
>>> ridiculous
>>> that some fools would actually pay some dufus to teach 
>>> them how to
>>> ride...
>>>
>> Kinda depends on what your doing...
> 
> Indeed! Nobody has ever claimed that riding back and forth 
> on a dead flat, empty paved rail-trail requires any 
> knowledge or skill. That's all the trike guy does.
> 
> When I mention riding to actually get somewhere practical, 
> he snarls something like "I never want to do that, and 
> neither should anyone else." Riding in the real world is one 
> of the thousands of things he doesn't like.
> 

That's a complex question with a lot of necessarily either 
unknown or arbitrary variables. Some addressed here:

https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/5883/isa-recumbent-trike-faster-than-a-non-recumbent-bicycle

and also:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812016670

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167610520300441

I see your point and I agree to the extent that recumbents 
can have more frontal area but a studied approach should get 
a two wheel recumbent below any upright bicycle's frontal 
area. Three wheel maybe but I don't know.
-- 
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971