new seat for the Quest

I made this with a very low-tech method. I made a one-sided mold from a "ONE WAY" traffic sign I found on the side of the road. I laid up two 18-20oz layers of carbon fabric, wet them out and compressed them to the pre-formed sign. Once cured I glued on a 2"x3" cross-sectioned piece of styrofoam for a spine then sanded to shape. I covered that with a layer of 18-20oz. carbon, wet it out and just hand pressed it into place. I covered with plastic wrap to remove air. I made an improvised oven with an electric heater. Once everything dried I placed it in front of the fireplace for a few hours to fully cure. Despite the low-tech method the seat came out light and strong.

Training 11-27-12

Galt, 30 miles. QuestXS (open cockpit). 24.6mph average. I rode today because there's a series of storms coming that are supposed to be really wet and windy. Rather than compromise my training by riding in that stuff I added today. I woke up tired and toyed with blowing off the ride but I know I'd feel worse if I did with the layoff coming. Given my average speed I'm glad I didn't. The day I did 26mph average I woke up tired as well. The off days will give me a chance to tweak the velo some more. I've got an idea for a different seat that will allow me to sit at the velo floor level. I've got to mock one up and see if there's any unseen complications before I commit to carbon. If it works out I'll sit about an inch lower which, most importantly, will effectively raise the bottom bracket. I should also be able to sit further back which will allow me to move the bottom bracket back which raises it due to the angle of the subframe. The aerodynamic benefit will be nice as well.

Training 11-26-12

Galt, 30 miles. QuestXS (open cockpit). 22.3mph average.

Mini velopalooza, training 11-24-12

Rancho Murieta-Ione course, 48 miles. QuestXS (open cockpit). 22.9mph average (not a steady-state ride). Peter Borenstadt and Greg Thomas came over with their velomobiles for the ride. We did some coastdown comparisons and though we equalized our weights there were too many small differences that clouded the results. The speeds were too close to say for certain one way or another which was more aero. Peter's Mango with visor and faired wheel openings was surprisingly aerodynamic, though. I moved the seat farther back, to the absolute max, and steepened the seat angle even more. I also raised the bottom bracket 3/4". It feels much better now. On the ride home I spent a great deal of time over 30mph without taxing myself. I broke training speed records on many parts of the course. I even climbed equal to my best speeds on my unfaired bikes on the longest climb. On one downhill I beat my usual good-day speed by over 10mph.

Training 11-21-12

Galt, 30 miles. QuestXS (open cockpit). 23.2mph average. After that I continued the ride by doing my Rancho Murieta short course of 23 miles with an average speed of 25.4mph. Even though the R.M. course is hillier, with 559 total feet of climbing compared to 225 for the Galt course, it's significantly faster. The R.M. course has my coastdown test hill and I did 40.7mph for the maiden run. That's about as good as I've ever done in the best of conditions (a tailwind). Today the wind was from the side. I think I hit 40-41mph twice before out of hundreds of attempts. My seat feels much better but it's still a ways off from my dual-20 FWD. About the only improvement I can make from here is to raise the bottom bracket about 1/2". I wish I could raise it three. Hmmm, Milan-esque footbumps? If I did that my feet wouldn't stick out of the bottom footholes and I could close them off flush. Another idea I was toying with is removing the top and building a whole new one. That way I could perfect my position and then build around it.

I think I got it

Instead of having the seat all the forward I shoved it all the back (and up two spaces on the rear seat support bracket). Not only did I add back the second shim behind my hips to fill in the seat bucket, I added a third. This did two good things. It increased the seat angle, closing my overall body position while at the same time opening my hip angle. That's important. While I like an overall closed body position I don't like closed hip angles. It's much better for me to achieve the proper body angle by curving my spine so that it's concave from the front. This is a feature that my beloved dual-20 FWD had. I noticed that Barbara Buatois uses this same setup in the Varna she rides. I might achieve even better results if I pad the area behind my trapezius if I have the shoulder room.

seat adjustment

As I was laying in bed with my bothersome quad tendons I realized I made a big mistake when I removed one of the two pads behind my hips that I used as shims. While it gave me a better distance to the bottom bracket, which admittedly felt too close all along, it negated the benefit by reintroducing lumbar curve (which is significant on the stock Quest seat). Nothing does more to load up my quads and knees than lumbar curve. While it feels great as a seat it does bad things for my physical performance. I learned that a long time ago when I was a powerlifter. Even though it is "correct" form to arch your back when you squat I used a neutral, or even slightly rounded, spine. Arching my back only resulted in losing at least 50lbs. of squatting power. Arching my back on the bike reduces my ability to activate my hips and hamstrings. What I should have done since my bottom bracket is at the limit of forward extension is to move the seat back 1/2". Oops. The other option is to trim the leading edge of the channel that the bottom bracket is welded to. That will allow it to slide farther forward. But, that will lower the BB even more, though slightly, opening the body angle as opposed to closing it by sliding the seat back. That's a no-brainer. Luckily I have just enough shoulder room. Now that I have shoulder pads in place it makes a nice comfortable pocket to brace against. Before the pads the shell was digging into my shoulders. Well, I hope this works out. I'm running out of options. As I'm reverting back to my three day per week routine I'll be taking today off. It's not easy to do once you condition your brain to get out there everyday. Of course, I've learned countless times over the decades how foolhardy it is to demand that your body cater to its psychological needs. That's probably the number one cause of unrealized fitness potential. Yet, still, it's such a tempting trap to fall into. Yes, it's due to craziness but unfortunately some crazy is needed to convince yourself that how fast you can ride a bike has any meaning in the grand scheme of things. Or, to realize that it doesn't and carry on anyway.