Thursday, April 5, 2012

Got a new Bike-cicle!

Bikes Bikes more Bikes!

Did something important today.. I got a new bike.  Not a motorcycle but more specifically a road bicycle.  I like to stay in shape and I do a lot of physical activity, but I want to start training like the Moto Gp riders.

(<----- My new bicycle!)

The a lot of similarities between sport bikes and road bikes.  The main difference is weight distribution, on both bikes wight is moved over the front wheel and traction comes from the front.  Another similarity is bike weight, lighter bikes are easier to travel with because of their overall weight.

 I've watched plenty of videos interviewing riders and what they think about training in the off season, and almost all of them have some kind of regiment in place so when they do go back to the track they are in as good of condition as can be.

Moto Gp Training
Following twitter a lot, I've noticed that a lot of the Moto Gp riders I follow train in the off-season with road bikes.  I've always liked spinning and this just seemed to fit right into my life.  I've been traveling around the city of San Francisco quite often to go between jobs and school and I've noticed that I could make the distance if I had a well equipped bicycle.

Randy De Puniet- another Moto Gp rider-- puts it best "The harder I work off the track the easier it is when I get back on."  Mental and physical limits have been amped up and makes exhaustion a little more difficult to reach.

Body Weight
Not only this but it's important for a rider to keep their weight in a specific zone.  Remember my few posts on riders wight and bike weight? Well here it comes in again, the bike's weight isn't going to change but certainly if my favorite rider chooses to eat nothing but McDonalds and not work out he's sure to put on a few pounds.  This is going to slow the bike because of the extra weight and also hinder the rider because he's now going to be pulling and moving all this extra weight around.


Cycling Teams as a form of Motivation
Do you remember my favorite rider from Moto Gp? If you guessed Ben Spies you just won a cookie!  Ben has actually taken upon himself to create a road racing team, ElbowzRacing where he cycles with a team competitively.  The picture above is of Ben and his team training earlier this year (2012).  Ben has created a team to help himself  stay in shape and also get his leg muscles to use for all that racing he's going to be doing in the upcoming season.  By having a team to cycle with this can serve as a form of motivation to keep his weight in the correct zone

Below is a short video of Ben talking about some of his training in Italy. Ben Spies thoughts on road biking in Italy.  He has a lot of sponsors he has to please but I think he's still using his own motivations to achieve his goals.  When I say his own motivations I mean, to achieve the rank of Moto GP Champion, a person is going to have to be extremely adept at racing and this means a lot of pushing down on the pegs and swinging the bike over side to side at speeds up to 200mph.  To achieve this Ben is using his cycling team as a means of achieving that goal

We'll just have to see how the season plays out, but my hopes are high for Ben and his team. That goes for both Elbowzracing and Ben's Moto Gp team! 

Hopefully after a few weeks of riding my bicycle I will feel more conditioned and riding my motorcycle will be an easier task.  

I'll fill you all in as I can,
Johnny 5-

No comments:

Post a Comment