Improving Road Bike Leaning Skills on Downhill Corners (Developing a System for Detecting Curvature Change Points and the Angle of a Road Bike while Riding)

In road bicycle races, advanced skills are needed to traverse downhill corners quickly and safely. A previous study revealed that in specific experimental corners, some beginners tend to lean their bikes more compared to experts. Therefore, in seeking to develop a support method for improving rider skill in controlling bike position, the authors aimed to design a system that indicates to users the positions of their bikes to lean it at the appropriate inclination when making turns. First, we determined the corner starting points using the RTK (Real Time Kinematic) positioning system. Then, we calculated the theoretical inclination and compared this to the inclination practiced by an expert. The experiment with this system showed that the expert started leaning the bike approximately 5 m short of a corner’s starting point with the speed maintained at approximately 25 km/h, with some correlation found between the theoretically ideal degree of inclination and the expert’s actual inclination.

INJURY RATE FACTORS IN EXTREME SPORTS ATHLETES WITH DIFFERENT MENTAL SELF-REGULATION TYPES

Aim. The article deals with studying the injury rate factors in athletes with different peculia­rities of mental self-regulation. Materials and methods. Male athletes aged 18–32 involved in cross-country motorcycle and bicycle races, snowboarding, and skateboarding participated in the study (n = 167). The following injury factors were taken into account: the number and severity of injuries, length of the recovery period, limitations on doing sport after recovery. The intensity of the following self-organization characteristics was assessed: determination, self-discipline, flexibility, perseverance, commitment to the current aim, and the general level of self-organization. The frequency of using the following mental self-regulation techniques during training and competitions was assessed: autosuggestion, self-persuasion, physical exercises, breathwork, auto-training, psycho-muscular training, motor imagery practice, visualization, and meditation. Results. Athletes with better-developed self-discipline and those practicing psycho-muscular training have fewer injuries while doing extreme sports. The injuries of athletes practicing psycho-muscular training are not so severe. Athletes with better determination and self-discipline recover faster after injuries. This can also be applied to those athletes who often use the techniques of autosuggestion, self-persuasion, psycho-muscular training, meditation, and visualization. Athletes with greater perseverance have fewer limitations on doing sport after recovery. This is also true for athletes practicing autosuggestion, self-persuasion, and meditation. No differences in the injury rate of cross-country motorcyclists, snow- and skateboarders were revealed. Conclusion. It is appropriate to treat the peculiarities of mental self-regulation as a factor affecting the injury rate of athletes practicing extreme sports.

Uncertainty of Outcome and Radio Policy in Professional Road Cycling

The world governing body for cycling proscribed the use of two-way radio communication in road cycling races, with the ban set to become fully effective in 2012. The ban was instituted because radio use was perceived to have altered the cycling competitions by making outcomes more predictable and of less interest to sport’s consumers. This empirical analysis of the policy rationale considers the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis (UOH) as it applies to professional cycling races and creates a novel measure, the likelihood of breakaway success (LBS). TheLBSis analyzed in 1436 bicycle races between 1985–2010 to examine potential changes in outcomes associated with the use of two-way radio technology by competitors and team directors. The data suggests that radio technology has had a significant association with event outcome types. The relevance of the findings to intraorganizational communication, management, and hierarchies of sports teams are also discussed.

Sustainable wastewater treatment of temporary events: the Dranouter Music Festival case study

Music festivals and other temporary events, such as bicycle races, lay a heavy burden on the surrounding environment. Treatment of the wastewater originating from such events is necessary if no municipal treatment plant is available. This study demonstrated that activated carbon is a performant technique for the treatment of wastewaters originating from these temporary events. Freundlich isotherms and maximum operational linear velocity (6 m/h) were determined on a lab-scale set-up. A pilot-scale set up was used to treat part (5%) of the total volume of the Dranouter Music Festival shower wastewater. On average 90% removal of COD and suspended solids concentration was obtained. Application of the activated carbon filter resulted in the fact that the local discharge limits were met without operational problems.

Coming from Behind: On the Effect of Psychological Momentum on Sport Performance

The purpose of the present study was to test the predictions derived from 3 models of Psychological Momentum (PM) regarding the elusive PM-performance relationship. Participants competed in one of two 12-minute bogus bicycle races. They were randomly assigned to either a no-momentum race (i.e., tied) or a positive-momentum race (i.e., coming from behind to tie). Perceptions of PM and cycling performance were measured at 4 different points in time. Results from between- and within-subject analyses demonstrated that when participants lost the lead, their perceptions of PM decreased significantly. When participants regained the lead, their perceptions of PM increased significantly. Between- and within-subject analyses of variance also showed that experiencing PM led to increased performance. However, losing PM also led to performance enhancement, presumably through negative facilitation (Cornelius, Silva, Conroy, & Petersen, 1997). Results are discussed in light of models of PM, and avenues for future research are offered.

Design of Neural Predictor for Performance Analysis of Mountain Bicycles

In recent years, bicycle races, along with the crest of the high technology continues to increase. Because of this increased races, performance of bicycles, in both biological and mechanical terms, is extraordinarily important and efficient. In terms of the ratio of cargo weight a bicycle can carry to total weight, it is also a most efficient means of cargo transportation. In spite of advanced technology, there are still some problems on bicycles during working conditions and road roughness such as on the mountain from tire and mechanical parts. In this investigation, a extraordinary designed with fiber-carbon body and light bicycle is tested on mountain road conditionswith prescribed trajectory on the mountain for different elevation, speed, hearth rate, bike cadence and average temperature. The real time measured parameters are predicted with proposed two types of neural networks for approaching real time neural network predictors. The results of the proposed neural network have shown that neural predictor has superior performance to adopt the real time bicycle performance.