Fresh 'motor doping' claims surround Ryder Hesjedal at the Vuelta

I'd heard that there is a motor available that is driven by the magnets that the TV helicopters carrry. Discreet and lightweight but only works when the helicopters are close.
That's what a bloke in the pub said anyway.

I'd forgotten about Tom Boonens mechanic perfecting the old "Wheel in the Face" routine in Jimmy Ray Will's video

it certainly looks comedy at first glance, until you *think* for a second.

Also. Why the hell would you engage your secret motor on a *descent*

http://instagram.com/p/sh0fSPirPW/

What the fuck is Dirt? Sounds like a bunch of knuckle draggers to me.

The Vivax system is just under 2kgs (with a standard battery) and it gives you around 150W assistance. It probably only has around 30 mins runtime. As the article says, the pedals need to be turning (between 30-90 rpm) and the motor stops if you suddenly stop pedalling. But 75W per kilo isn't to be sniffed at!

Could I throw in my own conspiracy theory??

Its well known that many tour bikes are underweight, and have to add ballast to bring them up to the minimum weight limit. Could this bike have the balast in the chain stays? that might explain how the back of the bike has more momentum than the front?
From the pictures, it looks like the rear wheel touches the ground (which should have the effect of stalling its spin) - but could the pedals be keeping the wheel off the ground?

Dirt's Is this video proof that roadies really are the biggest cheating bastards ever?

Never passing up a chance to have a pop at Dirt, I'd have to suggest that a major qualification for being a journalist is the ability to write something that can at least be sub-edited into intelligible English.

The Dirt staff, and Steve Jones in particular, seem utterly incapable of this, not helped by 'interesting' formatting, e.g. blue type on a yellow page.

Ah, if you were aware, fair enough.

Note that for a race you don't need 100 extra Watts for an hour, you just need that boost at certain critical times. 100 extra Watt for a minute and a half could be quite valuable. E.g. a 100 W boost to make an attack, or to let you recover after an effort while others can't, or for a sprint - could make quite a difference.

You don't need a big capacity energy wise. 3 Wh would be enough, in a competitive setting. Even if it wouldn't be that useful in a consumer eBike context.

Course, there's all the other extra weight, the motors and cabling, that'd make it not worth it. Oh, and the Ryder ebike allegations are total guff of course.

SteppenHerring: Yes I know that. However, 3 Wh doesn't mean a battery is limited to 3 W. A Wh doesn't have anything to do with power (least not directly), rather it's the total energy capacity. That energy could be put out slowly (i.e. at a low power) or very quickly (high power). Anyway...

Steppenhering: Wh is a unit of energy (power = rate of energy use, 1 Watt is 1 Joule per second, so 1 Wh is 3600 Joules). 3 Wh is enough energy for 1 kW for 10 seconds, or 108 W for 100s.

Motor doping is pretty easy to rule out.

Look at your phone battery - the size, the weight. A lot of research goes into making them as small and energy-dense as possible. Now that battery is maybe capable of delivering 3Wh - 3 watts for an hour. So if you want an extra 100 watts for an hour you haul around 33 of the buggers for the rest of the ride - plus the motor, gears and control system.

That's without factoring in the mechanical and electronic losses in the system.

It is a compressed gas system powered by the ultra high pressure tyre and rim. You can see the gas escaping in the video past the grassy knoll. This is why they keep changing wheels when the gas runs out.

hampsters in the downtube. I use 2 off the buggers, 3 if its a headwind.

RIDERS SHOULD BE TESTED FOR GRAVITY.

40 seconds in.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7TWDNhWDlY#t=41

I'm fascinated by the continuing movement of the bike... if you look, its actually accelerating its movement right up until the motorbike runs over it.

Not saying its a motor, but interesting... I would assume its in relation to the camber on the road or something.

I watched this nonsense gather momentum over at Cycling News's 'The Clinic' subforum. The sheer number of people prepared to propose, defend and floridly embellish the ridiculous was staggering. Put me off the whole forum and put their lurid allegations of doping by just about the entire peloton in perspective.

When it was pointed out that a motor that drives the wheel in the direction it moves would not be much of a help it was suggested that the motor going into reverse and malfunctioning was what caused the crash?!?!?

I wish you were as classy as Dirt. I'd be able to look forward to clickbait posts like "Are downhillers the fattest pie-sucking knobheads in cycling?", or "Enduro - for when you're too old and frightened to win a proper race ".

The crank isn't moving so it would have to be rear axle driven, and that would be one small motor...

even if he did have a sneaky motor he wouldn't have it engaged going downhill !

I call it gravity doping myself. Turns even the fattest - infact especially the fattest - into speed demons.