BHPC racing

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Our car was selected to carry a tandem or tandem trike inside without removing any wheels. It also takes two upright or recumbent trikes without disassembly. Effectively it is a shed on wheels.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

It looks like HK might be joining the laidback crew at the next race on an appropriate machine (unlike me, who will be on my normal inappropriate machine, an upright trike). Her newly-acquired Trice Micro is nearly set up for her size and it is now just a case of ongoing tweaking to get the boom extension correct and starting her recumbent legs acclimation process.

[Kim]

 

[Kim]

Peter: There’s also Lancaster, which might be too far north to show up on Thee Mappe if viewed on a small screen.  And Rhyl, though that’s in ABROAD

Yeahbut it's legally required to rain at both of those.

Lancaster appears to be fully intent on fulfilling its legal obligations...

Mental note: Know where your towel is.

[mzjo]

Peter: There’s also Lancaster, which might be too far north to show up on Thee Mappe if viewed on a small screen.  And Rhyl, though that’s in ABROAD

Yeahbut it's legally required to rain at both of those.

Lancaster appears to be fully intent on fulfilling its legal obligations...

Mental note: Know where your towel is.

But all successful intergalactic hitch-hikers know where their towel is!

[Kim]

Remarkably the weather held off, but the towel was needed anyway, as I attempted to spill barakta's not-tea into the Official Jam-Filled Babbage Engine mid-race.

Results are up in the usual place.  I expect there might be some photos and things once David has recovered his cameras from the track.


Come back on the 2nd of June to sign up for the York Rally velodrome extravaganza....

[Kim]

Very compelling video of the Stourport racing by David:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eFCSAIhLHLg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/eFCSAIhLHLg&rel=1</a>
https://youtu.be/eFCSAIhLHLg

Contains a handcyclist wearing a duck, a trike that sounds like a chicken, various demonstrations of wheels pointing in the same direction being old hat, a lesser-spotted barakta on time team duty, and some top-notch wacky races action.   

[ElyDave]

That looks like a very tricky track, several corners that could really catch you oot if you enter a bit quick or on the wrong line

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I found that there was a limit to how fast you could get round some corners. I was on the big red upright trike and there is a snippet in the second slow race with me holding a small gap to three chasing trikes. About five seconds later, I was running out of room on the exit from a hairpin with two wheels on the green stuff and three trikes immediately overtaking me.

[Kim]

That looks like a very tricky track, several corners that could really catch you oot if you enter a bit quick or on the wrong line

Yes, bikes have a real advantage over anything multi-track in the corners, and there's sufficient climbing and braking that fairings are mostly just a weight penalty.  It's a great leveller in that respect.

The hairpin can get scary (particularly going anticlockwise) if you run out of room, or the track is wet.

I raced barakta's ICE Sprint there a couple of years ago, which was fantastic - it didn't go fast enough to be dodgy, and the corners were pure fun.  On the Baron I'm always wary of overcooking the hairpin.

[Mr Larrington]

Part of me is quite glad we didn’t go there in my racing days, because I would have fallen off and it would probably have hurt.

<== Managed to overcook the last corner of Castle Combe once

[Kim]

Best to leave the falling off to the professionals, IME.  And the juniors, who bounce: Last year Dougie T did a spectacular job of overcooking the final bend on an ICE trike, discovering he was on a collision course for a spectator or something and slamming on the anchors for the full ejector-seat effect.  Before picking himself up and getting back on.  I believe Jon Woolrich attempted a slow-motion version of the same due to insufficient steering lock on the Hocus Pocus, but it was much less impressive.

I'm not sure what happened to Jochen in the last race of the video.  I saw him off his bike on the entrance to the hairpin, so can only assume he got boxed in by other riders, or had a minor mechanical.

[tatanab]

Yes, bikes have a real advantage over anything multi-track in the corners, and there's sufficient climbing and braking that fairings are mostly just a weight penalty.  It's a great leveller in that respect.

The hairpin can get scary (particularly going anticlockwise) if you run out of room, or the track is wet.

Upright trikes seem to have the advantage here.  I have ridden that circuit 5 times now and that top bend is great fun and one where we can "explore the limits".  In 2020 it rained properly which presented no problems to me , but I heard recumbent riders talking about sliding out.  This year I was slower for health reasons, but in the past I have certainly pushed the envelope on that bend.  With 50 plus years of tricycling experience a decent bend is hard to find and deserves to be enjoyed.

That particular circuit can be hard on the legs because of the frequent corners and subsequent acceleration (probably), plus cornering an upright trike is somewhat physical as you can see in the videos.  The small wheeled trikes are just a temporary madness amongst us and I am sure that big wheeled sanity will be restored in a year or so.

Thank you very much Kim, and all the other organisers, for giving me so much fun!

[fd3]

Very compelling video of the Stourport racing by David:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eFCSAIhLHLg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/eFCSAIhLHLg&rel=1</a>
https://youtu.be/eFCSAIhLHLg

22:49, a trio of upright trikers drifting round the hairpin.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I am third in line in that shot. From the inside, it felt a little more edgy than just some blokes drifting gently round a bend.

[Karla]

Did you nearly collect the rear left wheel of the guy in front of you?

[Kim]

Didn't look too bad to me, but with all those wheels there's plenty of scope for entanglement if someone stops paying attention.

It's great having the upright trikes at BHPC events.  Different dynamics to the recumbents, and you can really see the physicality of cornering.

[tatanab]

They are not drifting in the motor car sense.  It is possible, usually on a frosty road, or a tandem trike can be made to drift on a wet roundabout.  Extreme stuff.

All three are taking a conventional "racing line" on the exit, where I tend to exit somewhat tighter in order to get back in the saddle quicker.  A hang over from the 1970s when I would be in the company of bicyclists on club runs so did not want a gap to open up.  This year I was tighter because I was even slower than usual (number 76). 

Clashes - I have a photograph of two riders with arms overlapping as the outer rider cuts things a bit fine.  I don't do photo hosting sites so cannot show it here.  Many years ago, I remember getting home with fewer spokes than I set out with!

[ElyDave]

Yes, bikes have a real advantage over anything multi-track in the corners, and there's sufficient climbing and braking that fairings are mostly just a weight penalty.  It's a great leveller in that respect.

The hairpin can get scary (particularly going anticlockwise) if you run out of room, or the track is wet.

Upright trikes seem to have the advantage here.  I have ridden that circuit 5 times now and that top bend is great fun and one where we can "explore the limits".  In 2020 it rained properly which presented no problems to me , but I heard recumbent riders talking about sliding out.  This year I was slower for health reasons, but in the past I have certainly pushed the envelope on that bend.  With 50 plus years of tricycling experience a decent bend is hard to find and deserves to be enjoyed.

That particular circuit can be hard on the legs because of the frequent corners and subsequent acceleration (probably), plus cornering an upright trike is somewhat physical as you can see in the videos.  The small wheeled trikes are just a temporary madness amongst us and I am sure that big wheeled sanity will be restored in a year or so.

Thank you very much Kim, and all the other organisers, for giving me so much fun!

I was wondering about the logic of the small drive wheels on those trikes vs the large wheeled example

[tatanab]

I was wondering about the logic of the small drive wheels on those trikes vs the large wheeled example

For our purposes, club riding folk, there is no logic.  Note that all those frames are the same design and not remotely like small wheeler shopping/utility trikes that are sold these days.  For a start, they are half the weight and a better designed axle.  My small wheeler (on loan to rider 25 in the video) is about a pound lighter than my modern large wheeler (76).  In the 1970s, the then lightweight trike builder (Ken Rogers - example ridden by LWaB in the video) won a design council award for his design of unisex/utility trikes.  Take away the steel chainset etc and that is what is being ridden here.  It is a temporary madness cause by one person rigging one up and then another follows.  All have big wheelers too and I am sure that the small wheelers will see little use once sanity returns.  Why did we do it?  Because we could and it is fun to try something different.  Some people say that the small wheels give a lower centre of gravity, but that is not significantly so since the machine weight is pretty much the same and the CofG is dominated by the bladder of lard in the saddle.

[fd3]

I am third in line in that shot. From the inside, it felt a little more edgy than just some blokes drifting gently round a bend.

I ever said “gently”!  I thought drifting was better than skidding, but a controlled skid would have described it too.  Whichever, far too edge for my liking, but then that’s the starting position with upright trikes.

[Peter]

I loved that film on youtube.  The rider/cameraman (Lord Hostis) sounds from his accent to be Italian.  Does he appear on the results sheet?  Well done to the yacf-ers!

[fd3]

I thought French

[Peter]

You could be right.  If he's from the south-east, that might explain it NICEly!

[Kim]

David L'Hostis is indeed French.  He's rider no 18, and usually somewhere near the top of the Unfaired championship.