Reverence: Lezyne Rule 31 Sack
Rule #31 was conceived out of necessity, aesthetics and plain good taste. Seeing an oversized saddle bag hanging limply by velcro under a Flite, Arione or Regal just isn’t right. Frame pumps, while they undoubtedly do the finest job of inflating a tube, add nothing but bulk and clutter to the lines of a frame (and aren’t compatible with the majority of curvy, plastic frames prominent today). While a folded tubular held under the seat with a Christophe toe-strap may have been de riguer and kinda cool back in the day, running tubs nowadays is not only uncommon, but an exercise in futility should one ride on any road less smooth and glass-free than a baby’s bum. So you see, Rule #31 was a no-brainer.
But even this most important of Rules has its drawbacks; stuffing the three pockets of your jersey can leave you looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, albeit with the hunch on the lower back, and more akin to a series of tumours across the hips and lower spine. Not a pretty sight. My usual pocket-stuffing routine would entail a tube and tyre levers bundled together with a rubber band, stuffed in the middle pocket, with a mini pump accompanying it. The phone would go in the right hip pocket, along with a camera (if there were to be some photo ops along the route, or blatant bike porn shots) and gels and bars in the left. Any extraneous clothing shed en route (arm warmers, cap, gloves) would then be forced in wherever they would fit. If a jacket was required, then all hell would break loose.
But recently I happened by chance upon an item that has made my life, and my riding experience all the easier and clutter-free. Lezyne products were having a season launch of their new, cool gear, and everyone attending received a free gift; in my case, I was handed the Caddy Sack, a simple PVC pouch. Inside was a metal patch kit with glueless patches, and a pair of mini tyre levers. I took it with a degree of dismissal, thinking it would just end up in the pile of superfluous bike crap scattered around my house. But I decided I’d see how much I could load it up, and was surprised to find that it holds a veritable shitload of gear. There’s room aplenty for a tube, levers, patch kit, multi tool, card wallet and phone. But if I want to, I can easily ft in another tube, a bar or two and a couple of gels. And it fits with ease into the middle pocket of all my jerseys, especially the sweet V jersey which is always the go-to garment of choice. This leaves the two outside pockets with more room than ever for whatever the ride requires from the aforementioned list-of-crap-one-may-carry.
Sitting alongside the 31 Sack is always the best mini pump I’ve ever used, the Lezyne Pressure Drive M (for medium). Why is it the best? Just look at it! It’s sexy, yeah, but for such a small unit it packs plenty of air into each stroke, and I can get a geniune 100PSI into my tubes during any roadside repair. But the best feature is the flexible screw-in hose, which eliminates the chance of breaking off the screw-on end of Presta valves, as has happened to the best of us when vigourously hacking away with a fixed-head pump. C’mon, admit it, you’ve done it. No more chance of that with this little beauty. Quite simply, it rules (31 especially).
Has anyone actually done / seen any empirical analysis of whether there are any adverse (or positive) physical effects of seatbags vs pockets (or vice versa) in terms of riding efficiency? For example, do bulging pockets create greater turbulence, thereby impeding the rider and/or wheel sucker? Does carrying weight higher up (i.e. on body) mean more energy expenditure (given the greater arc which that weight travels through when cornering and/or the greater amount of movemenet it undergoes as the body moves about relative to the bike)? Of course, we all acknowledge (and generally revel in) the universal preference for assertion over analysis, and accordingly understand that any “scientifically proven” facts will not sway hearts and minds sufficiently to unseat aesthetic preferences / prejudices. But it might nonetheless be interesting (in a dry, “nobody likes you, you spotty-faced, bespectaled, girly-swot geek-freak” kind of way).
@G’phant
Totally not empirical but your question brings to mind the part of The Rider where the narrator explains how Anquetil used to put his bidon in his jersey pocket at the start of climbs to make his bike lighter.
NO WE DON’T!!
http://threepockets.blogspot.com/2007/05/pockets.html
@G’phant
Lance Armstrong’s kyphosis has been proven to be more aerodynamic as have backpacks/hydration packs. The rear pockets, I don’t know.
@G’phant
Well, there is a very good physical justification for saying heigh-dee-ho! to the saddle bag: you want the objects that move the most to be the lightest, especially things that rotate (from a physical perspective, rotation involves constant changing of direction). This is why the most significant improvement you can make to a bike is to upgrade to lighter rims – a good wheelset means much more to the performance of your bike than a light frame does.
So, in that vein, if you are even a semi-competent cyclist, your bike moves much more than your body; it’s the basic notion of shock absorption. Your legs and arms will absorb shocks and let your bike follow the road while your body stays (relatively) still. Same goes for climbing out of the saddle; the bike will rock back and forth and (hopefully) your body will stay relatively still.
That means, if you displace the weight from your bike to your body, you will enjoy a more efficient ride. To paraphrase Tim Krabbe in The Rider, at the base of a climb, Master Jaques always moved his bidon from his frame to his jersey pocket in order to climb better. Had he left it in the frame, he would never have won a Tour.
@Nate
Oh, yeah – nicely done. You beat me to it.
@Steampunk
Thought you might bite at that! Sad reflection of our different professions – analysis (supported where necessary by assertion) vs assertion (pretending where necessary to be analysis)?
@frank
Holy crap. If ever there was someone I thought I could count on to simply assert it was you. And you’ve gone and got all scientific on us. I blame you, Steampunk. (Though I admit that the analysis is compelling.)
@G’phant
My work here is done (ride off into sunset)…
sad old bags?
@frank
I’ve been meaning to try your method out, but I keep finding room in my pockets for my jacket. I think next time I go out I’ll just stick my rain jacket in my jersey and see, no rain required.
@all
I sew for a living and just sewed up a little bag that holds all my crap. I am obsessive enough to carry two tubes but am seriously considering going down to one.
Absolutely. We are all sinners and must worship at the altar of the V
A-Merckx
8kg of bike, 2kg of bottles and pocket crap and 80kg of rider is exactly the same mass to get up a climb no matter how it’s distributed around between bike and rider – it’s a poorly thought out myth that it’s somehow easier if the extra weight is on you rather than on your bike.
I agree 100%. It’s psychosomatic.
@sgt
Grew up on a farm.
Actually, I was just asserting rather than defending any professional turf.
@Oli Brooke-White
True, it’s the same amount of of weight, but but every time you change it’s velocity (i.e. move it) inertia kicks in and it takes energy to do it. Inertia is not a “myth”, it’s “physics”.
My reply when people ask me why I don’t have a bag with tools and tubes and such in it under my seat is “Because you do.”
Any then I refuse to help you since you didn’t prepare!
Kidding, kidding… I actually do offer random folks help (even when I’ve been driving). I think it’s bad karma not too, and I’d want help too if I was having a mechanical issue I couldn’t solve.
I actually carry a tube and CO2 and a lever in my jersey pocket (but people don’t seem to notice that). If my stuff (and your stuff) isn’t sufficient I have a cell phone.
You can fit 2 tubes and 2 CO2 cannisters plus a set of tyre levers into the smallest Spesh saddle bag. Buy it in black, cinch the velcro straps down tight, you hardly notice it. Leaves your pockets fee for food/gels, keys, phone, cash & card, assos rain jacket, plus room into which to discard shoe covers, knee warmers/arm warmers and gilet if required. Pragmatism dictates rule violation.
After some douchebag intentionally tried to run me into the curb this morning, I’ve decided I do indeed want a frame pump. One capable of smashing car windows and craniums.
All this talk about taking jackets and warmers and gloves for a bike ride in pockets seems like excessive catering. Seems like Paris with a dog and bag to accessorize and all the garrish over the topness. Can we aim for sleek and stylish? Maybe more riders should see themselves in windows as a self check? Either wear the stuff or leave it at home. Does the weather change that much in 2,3,4 hours?
Smiley face shoulder things= saddle bag
@nvvelominati
Yes. When I left for my ride this morning at 8.30 it was 36F, when I returned at 12.30 it was 57F.
@frank
@Oli Brooke-White
I’m with Oli in that it’s absurd from the perspective of physics. At the same time, the pathetic psychology of the story contains more than a glimmer of truth.
@nvvelominati
It does here. I went for a ride a couple weeks ago that started at 12C. There was a tempurature inversion in the hills and along the ridgetop it was 21C. Tearing downhill into the bottom of the redwood canyons where the sun never shines it was 7-8C.
@Marko
I believe as a corollary to Rule #24 you are expressing tempurature in the wrong units.
@Nate. Thanks for that you are speaking my language.
@Nate
Well, absolutely – I hope no one lost sight of the fact we’re talking about the merits of using a fucking saddlebag and what gear goes in what pockets. The whole concept is ridiculously absurd.
The question was, “Has anyone actually done / seen any empirical analysis of whether there are any adverse (or positive) physical effects of seatbags vs pockets (or vice versa) in terms of riding efficiency?” – Absurd or not, though, the physics is rock solid that it’s more efficient to move weight to a more stable object. Whether it’s a noticeable difference, well…now we’re definitely getting into murky territory, but it’s probably measurable if you had a good enough lab.
@Nate
I see your point but allow me to retort. My cycle computer has units in Km and does not have a thermometer (how lame would that be?) sure, I could convert F to C before posting but I’ll let all my metric using brethren do the conversion if they’re that interested. Thus Rule #24 was not breached and Rule #68 was also applied as I did not mention speed or distance (although I will say it was a higher average speed than stated in Rule #68 and nearly the distance).
Aside from it being high deer hunting season around here it is a fantastic and unseasonably warm time to ride. Last year during deer hunting season, some asshole actually twitched for his rifle and nearly drew a bead on me. I imagine to some bozo with buck fever a cyclist’s pace may resemble that of a deer although nothing else bears a resemblance (except for the antlers on my helmet). Great ride today and I often wondered what other Velominati were pedaling along in their corners of the globe. Especially as I was riding Il Gruppo Progetto.
@Marko
Sounds like a nice ride. Impressions of the Progetto? Last we heard you had only done a 20-30 km shakedown ride.
Around here you are far more likely to come around a blind corner and get impaled by a 12-point buck just returning from eating someone’s garden than you are to have a hunter draw a bead on you. Sounds like you need a safety-orange jersey for this time of year.
Not a recommended deer-season approach to riding.
@Nate
I’ve got a bright red Mt Hardware wind jacket that serves me well, but you’re right, it’s not blaze orange – the universal color of “don’t shoot my ass, I’m not a deer”. That’d be worse than a YJA though, no thanks, I’ll take my chances.
I’m really diggin’ Il Progetto. Since that first shakedown I’ve probably got 300k or so on it. I’d say I worked out all the bugs but there haven’t been any. It works really well. I’d say it feels just (or at least remarkably) like a steel frame but it’s been so long since I’ve ridden a steel frame I don’t want to push it. I will say it’s hella smoother (compliant if you speak Huang) than any Alu frame
I’ve ever ridden. I’m guessing it has a lot to do with the tapered seat and down tubes with a little bit of carbon fiber seat post and 28’s thrown in. At 19/20 pounds it’s a scale tipper but climbs well for its weight. Shifting is flawless, handling is rock solid, and the bike just feels bomber, is totally silent, and guiltily I wonder if I like it more than #1 sometimes. Of course bike #1 hasn’t seen any action in a couple weeks due to weather and the fact that I blew my last 60mm stem tube and am awaiting more. Oh, and BTW, the Elite Ciussi cages are pimp, yellow nubbins and everything. Thanks for asking.
Thinking about the physics, when you are climbing out of the saddle, you whole mass is on your legs. This change in mass is one reason why it is both harder/more tiring and also why you generate more power. If you have your pockets crammed with a million things, you are adding mass to yourself, thus requiring more force to lift yourself against the force of gravity when climbing out of the saddle.
How much extra force? I don’t know. Does it counterbalance the adding moving weight on the bike? I don’t know as it depends on how violently you toss your bike about while climbing. As the saddlebag is not rotational weight, the only motion it sees that the rider might not see is some side-to-side swaying.
All that said, as an engineer I choose function over form when the two have competing utilities. I don’t let aesthetics get in the way of the quality of my ride. If I break a few rules, that’s fine because I’ll still be adhering to the mother rule: The V.
@frank
Maybe we can tempt those french guys who obsessively test tire rolling resistance to expand their research interests.
@Collin
So, could the answer depend on your climbing style?
Explain please Frank how inertia applies to the rider’s pockets as opposed to under the saddle or in a bottle cage? The only difference would be if you had your saddle bag strapped to your rims. Even if you’re standing you still have to move exactly the same amount of mass – the energy expenditure of moving it on the bike would be the same as in the pockets.
@Marko Trigger-happy hunters are a sore point down this way – young teacher from local school killed recently by moron shooting at night from pick-up truck who mistook her for a deer. Am reasonably comfortable it will not happen to me, as I wear one of these http://www.exelite.co.nz/recreational.html?product=lumisash (regardless of whether or not it is Rule-compliant). Unless anyone is out hunting moving Christmas trees, I think I am safe. Deer are not a hazard here, either – they stick to the bush and run away before you even see them. (Wild goats and pigs are less flighty, and I have nearly tumbled off my MTB after being surprised by a goat leaping onto the track just ahead of me.) I did, however, have an “oops – nearly” moment on my ride last night. A glorious evening for a ride, I climbed from the ‘burbs into the country with the reflections of the city lights in the ironing-board flat harbour gradually receding from view until I was all alone on an unlit country road. Just as I started to grin uncontrollably with the tranquilo of it all as I rolled downhill into the darkness, a piercing bleat right beside me shattered the stillness – the protest of a grumpy sheep disturbed by my intrusion on its own moment of peace. The sudden shock resulted in the predictable flinch and consequent sudden loss of on-board stability. Very glad there were neither vehicles around to collide with, nor people around to witness it and record it for posterity.
@Oli Brooke-White
Isn’t the point that the amount of energy used in shifting a given mass depends on how much you shift it – so that, if it gets shifted more on the body than the bike as a result of side-to-side and up-and-down body movement relative to bike, more energy will be expended than if it was just attached to the bike (or vice versa, if your body is still and your bike moves a lot)? Having said that, I am not sure that any effect would be material relative to other factors more easily addressed (wheelset, how fat you are, etc).
@Oli Brooke-White, @G’phant
G’phant, that’s exactly right; the bike moves quite a bit more than the body, hopefully – for example if you’re standing and swaying the bike back and forth, or if riding over bumps, the bike would move up and down and your body would use your arms and legs to absorb shock and would itself move less than the bike. I’m not saying it’s a lot, but it would be a measurable, if insignificant, difference.
As a thought experiment, imagine a really heavy saddlebag that is filled with, say, a kilo of lead. Attach it to your saddle very loosely with a soft bit of Velcro or something so that it does not stay put very well. Then, if you stand and sway the bike back and forth, there would be a noticeable and significant effect caused by the bag moving about.
If you instead put the kilo of lead on your back, you’d definitely feel the strain of the added weight on your back and in your legs, but it would be constant and less prone to the effects of movement and therefor take less energy to transport it.
Now, the lighter the bag and the more firmly it’s attached to the frame the less you’ll notice, but the effect still exists, even if it’s negligible.
@G’phant
I couldn’t read anything after clicking your link to that abomination of a vest because I blacked out and only just came to. I hope you’re joking, else there will be a new Rule in your honor detailing the extent to which that violates The Rules.
While I expect you ride in your V-Kit under normal circumstances, I pray to Merckx that you you have the decency to wear other kit when you don that thing.
No empirical data here, but when I abandoned the Fizik bag for the pockets, the bike definitely handled differently… not a huge difference, but noticeable
@frank
Fair enough. I won’t wear it with the V-kit. But I will wear it. Funnily enough, the only thing problematic about it is that if my helmet mirror gets knocked it reflescts the flashing from the sash (which I always have on rapid-flash mode). But I guess that doesn’t make you feel any better. May as well confess that I also wear one of these http://www.roadid.com/Common/Catalog.aspx?C=RoadID#5.
@G’phant
While this is all eminently sensible””and I’ll be the last to condemn a rider for that, no matter how against the rules it might be””I find Frank’s response somewhat consoling; when I get shelled out the back of the group climb Mt. Velominatus, I know I’ll be in good company.
@Steampunk
Great to have you on the team…
@G’phant
I wear a RoadID as well. I use to just take my drivers license with me on rides, but I kept on forgetting it with my bike crap after a ride. Do you know how annoying it is to get to a bar and realize you can’t buy yourself a drink because you left your ID at home with your bike gear, and having to rely on your friends to sneak you drinks like you’re a damned 19 year old? After about 5 or 6 times of doing that I said screw it and just ordered a RoadID.
I do a fair bit of solo riding as well (probably 75% of my riding), so I just feel better having it in case I take a header into a ditch or something. The paramedics need a way to know who owns the sweet saddle bag, after all.
@G’phant
You are definitely Bad G’phant today.
Regarding your Sheep in the Night, did you have to sing Sinatra first or did she just cough it up without much of a fight?
Nothing wrong with RoadID, other than the fact the Eggtimer and Bob “Talking Hands” Roll promote them.
@mcsqueak
You need your ID to get into a bar? How old are you? If a bartender asks me for my ID, I puff up my chest and, upon my return to the table, declare loudly that the “hot bartender” appears to fancy a “ride on the Dutch train”.
@Marcus
HA! Just…HA!!
@frank
Most of the time yeah, unless it’s a place where they know me. I’m a young looking 28 and I don’t rock any facial hair.
I’m sorry, but if we’re talking about a spare tube, tyre levers and the odd air canister (like everyone has been) this is utterly ridiculous. How about the weight of the things in your pockets weighing you down as you get out of the saddle? What about the weight being up higher affecting the centre of gravity?
If you’re talking about a kilo of lead (does it have to be lead) swinging around loose then maybe I can see your point, until then it just looks like a nutty justification for one of the Rules…
I say settle this like gentleman. Frame Pump Duel at Dawn.