The Elasticity of Time: The Hour
The Theory of Special Relativity states that time for a moving object passes more quickly than for a stationary object. Einstein, in deriving this theory, demonstrated great insight and creative power for which he is considered perhaps the greatest mind in human history. If he had owned a set of rollers, however, he’d be considered a common idiot for recognizing what all Cyclists inherently know: that a two-minute interval on a trainer is interminably longer than the same amount of time on the open road. Similarly, an Hour on the track is a different animal altogether when compared to an hour’s training ride.
@scaler911, @G’rilla, and I met @VeloformaMark (founder, owner, chief product designer and engineer for Veloforma) at the Alpenrose Track circa 2:00pm on Saturday, June 15 to celebrate Festum Prophetae in the best way we know how: to ride The Hour. After introductions, Mark disappeared to retrieve the 2013 Velofroma Pista Pro he was loaning me while I slipped into my Hunchback Disguise V-Kit. Mark reappeared with one of the most stunning track mocheene’s I’ve laid eyes on – and I’ve seen at least four.
As we busied about trying to get my position right, Mark explained the engineering tolerances in seatpost extension and described how far we can go beyond the “max extension” mark (don’t try this at home, people, Mark is an expert). Impressive as they are, current engineering principles don’t accomodate for 1cm of air beyond the end of the seat post in order to get enough height. Modern engineering is similarly limiting when it comes to stem extension and saddle setback. The net result of these limitations was a saddle height three centimeters not high enough, a reach four centimeters not reachy enough, and a saddle set back an undisclosed amount not set back enough.
No sweat, I’ll just V it.
I hopped on and embarked on my first two practice laps. While my track experience is limited, I’ve ridden enough tracks around the world to know my way around a banking. Alpenrose is a short, steep, bumpy concrete track. So steep, in fact, that after my first two laps, I got off and had to swallow my heart down out of my throat. For a moment, I considered abandoning the ride on account of nothing more than how terrifying the banking is – even in the lowly Sprinter’s lane. With crashing speed for the corners in the lane sitting at around 25-30 kmph, it was more than enough to discourage an easy warmup lap.
As we fiddled with my gear length, I gradually became more comfortable with the track and before long I stopped soiling my bibs every time I finished a lap. We settled on a 91 inch gear with a symbolic 14T rear cog.
As the gun went off, I settled into 24 second laps, right on schedule. Then it hit me; with the saddle too low, too far forward, and the bars a bit too close, I couldn’t really get any power into the bike to be able to maintain my speed. I struggled with my mind, my body, and my bike for what seemed like a lifetime as I tried to maintain momentum. I didn’t know if I was 5 minutes into the effort, or 15. All I heard was my split for each lap: 24.3 – 24.5 – 25.4 – 23.3 – 25.6…I soon realized that while I was advised by the various track riders in attendance to ride the waterline – the outside of the Sprinters Lane on the straights (the ride line) and cut in to the inside of the Sprinters Lane on the corners (the black line), how well I did this meant I would gain or lose a second per lap.
I contemplated stopping about every 25 seconds for the first quarter hour, not knowing how long I’d been at it. When I heard Mark holler out that I’d passed fifteen minutes, it was immediately obvious that This Could Be Done – no sweat. This was going to be nothing compared to bonking on Haleakala at the halfway point. The next 30 minutes passed as I focussed on my line; the only thing I was aware of was my constantly slowing pace and my inability to do much about it. I wasn’t particularly tired, and wasn’t hurting aside from my aching back on account of the short position. After a few wobbly attempts, I learned how to stand up on a fixed gear in order to get some speed back into the thing. Eventually, I got into a routine of accelerating to tempo on the home stretch, and then riding out the gear as it slowed down on the remainder of the track.
Throughout, my track inexperience showed itself most plainly whenever I’d have a little lapse of concentration or a muscular twitch; the slightest mistake would send me up the banking in a disheartening speed-sapping uphill climb or down toward the Cote d’Azure and a terrifying appointment with the pavement on the apron.
For 55 minutes, this pattern developed and while my body started to show signs of the effort – like my right ass cheek burning from the force of turning left for an hour – it didn’t feel particularly long. Then came the last five minutes.
Out of the saddle to sprint, do what I can not to crash through the first two turns, then sprint on the back stretch. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. A lifetime later, it was four minutes to go.
Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn.
Three minutes.
Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn.
Two minutes.
Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn.
One minute.
Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint. Turn. Sprint.
Ten more seconds.
Sprint some more. I couldn’t hear and had no idea how far I could go in 10 seconds. So I sprinted some more until I couldn’t sprint anymore and assumed I’d gone at least 10 more seconds, keeping in mind the slower clock of the stationary timers in @Scaler911 and @VeloformaMark’s hands.
Of the Hour I spent on the bike, the first 15 minutes were psychologically the hardest, and seemed interminable. When it came to the last V minutes, they seemed as long as the entire 55 minutes that came before it. Eistein should have been a Cyclist.
I thought the Hour would be a one-time affair, that I’d never try it again. I like to be proven wrong at least once a day, otherwise I’m not trying hard enough. @VeloformaMark is going to build me a custom seat post and stem to get my position perfect, and I’ll be back next Festum Prophetae to try again. In the end, I rode 139.25 laps at an unofficial distance of 37,317m. Next year I’ll come out a few days early, get the position dialed in, do a few good training blocks on the track prior, and have official timing equipment so the lads can heckle rather than be bothered with tapping the lap counter on their phones. I might even shoot for 42km or 43km. Just to be proven wrong again.
Special thanks to the community for voting on my time like you did; it’s a nice feeling disappointing a group rather than just myself for a change. Thanks to @VeloformaMark for loaning me a bike for the effort, for hanging out and helping with the timing, and for proactively starting to design gear for next year’s ride. Thanks to @Scaler911 and @G’rilla for supporting and helping in the recovery session afterwards – and thanks to @MrsScaler911 for her hospitality. Finally, thanks to PeepCode for loaning camera equipment, live streaming, and doing the editing of the video.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/FPH2013/”/]
Believe that Special Relativity actually states that a moving observer will experience time more slowly than a stationary observer, so maybe Einstein was a cyclist after all…
“Einstein should have been a Cyclist.”
Oh, but he was!
“I thought of that while riding my bicycle” – Einstein on Relativity (source)
@Peter
No, that just means he rode a bike.
@george
Time dilation: Moving clocks are measured to tick more slowly than an observer’s “stationary” clock.
We’re moving, but the time is being measured by the stationary clock. Right? If not, I’ll say again:
Good jarb, Frank. considering the position problems. Next year you’ll definitely go 39.99.
Chapeau @frank. These episodes that involve you suffering for our entertainment are quality stuff.
@frank
It’s be cool if I could turn all my mass in to energy – that’d make me go very fast indeed – albeit briefly and with considerable damage to the Northern Hemisphere
Superb fun. To watch. Thank you.
Nice job on the edited video. The spinning V Cog is a great touch. That happen during pizza, or back at de Casa? I also have been thinking that next year, maybe 2 of us should make a run at it. Always wanted to have a go at the hour since it’s the one and only event a skinny fucker like me could do at the ‘drome.
@frank
I was able to think through this again while on a short ride. Basically, if I was in a space ship travelling a trillion kmph, my clock in my spaceship would be ticking normally for me, but when I’d look out at @Scaler911’s clock, it would be spinning like crazy. The Hour, measured by @Scaler911 at the side of the track would pass for me in a moment.
What would be measured an hour by the time keeper would feel like less than an hour to my internal clock. Therefore, my ambiguous statement that time for a moving object passes more quickly than for a stationary object is right so long as you’re thinking of the rider’s persecutive, not the observers.
That’s why its called the Theory of Relativity, I suppose.
@scaler911
Yes! Hour pursuit? Nonesense, we’d all take turns.
@scaler911
We started it at your house but I finished it up on Monday and Tuesday night.
It was fun to try to create something like the Eurosport logo. The cog spins once every V seconds.
Next time I want to write some code so we can display the splits, current distance, and a projected distance for the hour. In my first job out of college, I shared an office with the people who created the virtual first down line for American football on ESPN. What equivalent can we do for track cycling videos?
@G’rilla
It would be rather harsh, but a graphic showing how far behind Merckx’s pace our hero is at a given moment?
Ben fatto ragazzi! La bici (Veloforma) è bellissima, proprio una macchina da velocità .
Frank eri bello cotto alla fine eh, ma dopo l’Ora uno come si può sentire…
——————–
For a special occasion, a special comment! In Italian.
Very nice, Frank & other fellers. Ha, one look at the lead photo and I thought to myself, “Frank looks scrunched up.”
Frank, what frames do you have those photochromatic lenses in? Regular Radars or the new Radars with the PivLock job? I have some Radar frames and I’d really like to pick up some of the photochromes, after hearing that they actually got the tech worked out. Have heard many stories about many different lenses not working well. Impressed you’ve used yours in full sun and with lights on.
@frank
It did look like there was two of you on the track at times. Is that a bit like having two magnets on your wheel, which would mean you only did about 18.6585km?
Chapeau Frank, can’t wait till you try it again on a properly Dutch Monkey fitted bike.
Nice! Dunno if a custom seatpost will fix your position though, more like a custom top tube…
“That wasn’t so bad”. ?!?
@minion
The owner of Veloforma said that they have the largest ava plastic track bike on the market right now at 59cm. At least I think I recall him saying that.
Bang up job! What were you running up front, I’m assuming a 48 tooth?
‘Alpenrose is a short, steep…’ Come to Burnaby, it’s 200m and 5 degrees steeper. We were talking about a race in Alpenrose the other day and saying how you could go so much slower on that velodrome due to it’s shallow banking.
@Nate
You could do a deal like pace virtual pace line they do on the Olympic swimming and track & field broadcasts. Loved the video, but huge opportunity missed by not laying in some “Yackiity Sax” as a soundtrack to the high speed section.
I second Nate’s thanks of your suffering for our sins, Merckx up on a cross(bike). It was fun to watch and comment in real time, to boot.
Perhaps next year, one could think of a virtual competition, each doing the hour at their local track on June 17, and see who goes the furthest, with data uploaded on line. With a VSP choosing the order of finish. Perhaps there could be two categories, people with leg muscles and those without.
@Nate
Have to agree, i like nothing better than watching others suffer for entertainment, knowing full well that whilst my mind says Im still 21 and could do that easily, the body would tell me that my brain is writing cheques that my body cant cash.
Awesome Frank! might have to give it a go oneday..
This article had me realise, that if the time of the stationery observer is faster relative to the person travelling extremely fast, whenever a space ship jumps to ‘hyperspace’, it also must travel into the future. I think my brain just exploded.
@frank Yeh, and also, we have to use general relativity here, since you accelerate around the corners (accelerating being defined as a change in velocity, and then a change of direction means a change in velocity (which is a speed and a direction). Therefore, if we discard that oval track business and think of a straight line of the length of the distance travelled in an hour we can think about only special relatity. Now, the rider’s internal clock is, according to them, correct, and measures the time being as velocity/track length. But, the stationary persons clock appears to move alot slower, better time, if the rider uses that time, which is not the rider’s ‘proper time’.
But, it all gets a little messed up when you consider the fact that to both the rider and the stationary person both cannot test whether they are the one moving (even though intuitively we know the rider is moving, but motion is relative, so the rider sees the stationary man coming towards him at the speed he is cycling at). So, to the stationary guy, his clock is correct and the rider’s clock moves slowly. So, they both see the other person’s clock move slower.
None of this is important though, unless you can ride at about 970 million kph (or 600 million mph).
So, in summary, if we are using the stationary person’s clock, then we will be able to ride for alot longer than an hour. But, only an hour will have passed to the stationary guy. But if we were looking at our watch, we would stop after one of our hours and we’d be told to keep riding. You would be riding, and looking at a sea of slow moving people, slow moving time. But people looking at you would think you are moving in slow motion. (moving in slow motion is the same as ‘your clock appears slow’).
@frank Yes, but moving in relation to what ??? The expanding universe? The earth? the moon ?
@GT
To the timer.
@Luke Bartlett
Exactly. (And welcome) I do wonder, however, if our minds are tuned to the passage of time as a constant and that perhaps this factors in to why it feels longer to ride on a trainer vesus on the road? Or are we just focussed on other things – is it as simple as that?
By the way, your dissertation was impressive enough to make my head hurt. Its late, and I can’t be bothered to sort out if you’re agreeing or disagreeing with me!
@Luke Bartlett
@frank
Luke has be from Washington or Colorado. I probably thought up stuff like that, years ago, but never bothered to write it down so I’d remember it.
@Luke Bartlett @GT @frank @scaler911
oooh yeah, the theory of ralativity, time travel blah blah. You want to stretch your brain? Try living here and working out when to tune into fucking bike races and US sports.
@scaler911 Yep or maybe as many of us as possible.
@Marcus why would you want to tune into US sports?
@frank
The “force” is strong in this one
@Pedale.Forchetta
Darn, Pedale, what an incredibly beautiful language, Italian… I’m not sure you intended this, but for me as a translator, reading your post presented an almost irresistable challenge, so I’m going to give it a try (but without using Google translate)
The first part is relatively easy, I think: “Well done, lad(s)! The bike (Veloforma) is a beauty; truly a machine made for speed” (Not sure if “ragazzi” is plural or singular)
Second line: “Frank seemed to be pretty cooked towards the end, but after such an hour, that’s how you (can) feel”
Or words to that effect?
And great effort, @Frank – both the ride and the report.
@scaler911
Yeah, their geo page for the bike has the TT at 57.4cm, which would work well if Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fhronk put pursuit bars on there. Dolan and Marvel have XL sizes with 59 and 60cm top tubes respectively, based on a quick google search. Look will make him whatever the hell he wants, for about 15 grand.
@Marcus
There’s a good reason the staff don’t give the tv remotes to the inmates.
Including a V-skinsuit?
@Beers
Holy cow, have I missed the news breaking on the most important scientific advance in human history? This is stated in such an affirmative way that I must have missed hyperspace capability being delivered. Frank’s mashing around the track for an hour has made this discussion far too complicated for my simple brain!
@frank yep thats it, think of it ike this, we exist in four dimentions x, y, z and time. If we are stationary then we are moving along the time axis at the speed of light. Any velosity we take, in any combination of the other dimentions redueces the our speed on the time axies. So we go slower though time. Over all velosity is conserved. ( this explaneation is usfull, but done not take in to acount mass and therefore any other complecations like the higgs field)
They got two atomic clocks synced them and put one in a plane. The plane went around the world and when they compered the two clock later on the ground, the one on the plane was running slow.
So yes you did spent less than an hour on your bike (in your frame of refrence) doing the HOUR.
@Beers
I believe that’s why they call it Hyperspace, because they’re not in real space. They are warping under it, hence Warp speed.
If they were in real space then, as you say, they would go into the future and that would just be silly.
No doubt some rocket scientist will be along in a moment to correct me – we seem to have picked up a few of them lately. Nobody mention brain surgery in the next article alright.
Now that’s a question – what would happen if a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist met at a party. Who would win a fight ?
Which leads me to mention that I was reading a survey which said that 56% of Americans think that a Bear would win a fight with a Shark (although there was no mention of whose home medium the fight would be staged in – maybe hyperspace).
Mind you the same survey had 18% believing the Loch Ness Monster was real and another 18% unsure, so I’m not sure their opinions on Bear v Shark are particularly authoritative.
Oh FFS this is getting silly. Someone post some Hoop Girl or Assos Girl to redress the balance.
(Is that frowned upon now that real girls frequent the internet?)
@Marcus
Which is why the VSPs have a countdown timer now. Because all you fellers down there kept complaining that the Time Zone Math (which might be the most complicated math on Earth) was causing your Delgado’s.
And now you still Delgado routinely.
@minion
Depending on ht and st angle, I need about 59-60cm on the top tube. And we refer to a “market” as products or consumers that are available to us. Which means Dolan and Marvel are not in the market for the US.
@sthilzy
Bien sur.
@ChrisO
A fight? Fuck that. I want to know what happens if a stationary brain surgeon operated on a patient moving at the speed of light.
@Chris
They’re big girls, they can deal. But this is more interesting.
@frank Good call. Two things to take from that. If your position was any more cramped on the Veloforma you’d have been doing a passable impression of Obree and any record would have been ineligible for the athletes hour. Secondly, at the end it liked like Merckx was training on the rollers whilst a vacuum cleaner sucked any oxygen out of his lungs. That’s the key to your success for next year.
No cycling clip will be the same again, though, with out a spinning V-Cog and V-Jersey symbol.
Frank, given how meticulous you are in your bikes and set up, I’m really surprised you went for it on a bike so obviously out of whack to your normal position. I’m sure it felt weird, but did you suffer and lingering after effects in your knees, quads?
@wiscot
Honestly, we didn’t discover the problems with the position until we were setting it up an hour or so before the ride. It hardly seemed viable, at that point, to bail out on the program…what with all the hubbub of having a VSP and live streaming going on. But that’s also part of why I didn’t force things – I really didn’t want to blow my knees, which I have a history with (I spent 12 weeks in a wheelchair when I was 18 after knee surgery).
My knees are in rough shape – nothing serious – just did a light spin yesterday and I’ll be taking the rest of the week off to let things get back to normal. My back hurt like a motherfucker during the ride, but is fine now.
@Chris
Rest assured, that will be a permanent addition to all Velominati videos from here on out. I love that G’rilla has it rotating every V seconds. Details, details…
@frank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I
What about helmet Frank ?
Allegedly an aero helmet saves something like 50 watts, which is a hell of a lot, given that you’re probable sitting on 300 watts for the hour.
Shame you didn’t ride the Powertap wheel – it would have given you some really good information for your next attempt.