read some of the stuff a while back think it was during the TDF about covert motors and thought it all just b0ll0x but reading this the UCI seem to think has been an issue in Gran Fondo events and will be extending testing to cyclocross

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/12/qa-with-uci-technical-manager-mark-barfield-weight-limit-disc-brakes-more/

about half way through, thought rest is worth a read if do some road

Some Italian guy, sponsored by a DC motor company did win a Grand Fondo and then held his hands up to cheating. Early last season IIRC.

I think this is the most BONKERS way of cheating!
I mean, really!!

DrP

I know this isn’t rational but I don’t think this would be huge amongst pros. I think that riding a bike with a motor would always feel wrong. I know that dopping is wrong but some how that is in the past once you are racing

Oh and I reckon that you could build sensor that the whole peloton could ride over and it could know if there was a motor operating. Probably it could detect motors that were off

You reckon? What sort of sensor, detecting what, how would the signature of an electric motor differ from that of anything else on a bike, and how would it discriminate which bike the motor is in out of the tens passing over it every second?

I suspect the horse has bolted for that particular idea given that most bikes in the peloton now have two perfectly legal motors on them…

Oh dear I’ve been drinking

I’m thinking for a working motor lots of inductance, way more than anything else (creates a phase difference in an EM wave)

Oh and lots of magnetic fields

Fair suggestions, but the distance from the motor to the sensor would make things rather tricky – I’m thinking that normally when you’re making such detections you have a sensor a lot closer – not to mention the discrimination problem I already mentioned.

Motor could be shielded but that adds weight, the drive for the motor (prob ac motor fed by a DC inverter drive) will be very rf noisey so theoretically a sensor would work in the road but far easier just to randomly impound bikes at start or end of race or if they mysteriously swap for a mechanical.

Formula 1 cars use a timing coil that’s no bigger than a fingernail and passes within 50mm of the sensor embedded in the track. Waving a suitable sensor past the bb area of a bike to check for a distorted field due to the inductance of a motor winding would be a piece of pi55.

That said, do we not think this is a just a sideshow distraction from the real topic of drug taking.

*cough* di2 has motors in each derailleur as lerk alluded to *cough*

would have thought any eddy current testing would be able to filter out the “standard” signature of a Di2 motor – or maybe everyone will have to go 1×11 😆

Should be quite easy to determine from telemetry from the bikes on power via pedal/crank arm mounted power sensors, cadence, gear ratio, speed, inclination, cyclists heartrate and knowing the all up weight. If a bike shoots off ahead of the field wit all that data at your fingertips you should easily be able to calculate if the performance if from the rider or the rider plus motor. If there is an invisible 200 watts of power then there is something fishy going on.

Or there cna be a Parc Ferme before and after stages where bikes can be inspected that captures any bikes swapped during a stage.

DrP – Member
I think this is the most BONKERS way of cheating!
I mean, really!!

I know probably in jest but some of them are a little brash when it comes to mechanical assistance
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv_g4BJregQ[/video]

I think this is the most BONKERS way of cheating!

As a doctor I would’ve hoped you’d consider this as the very best and safest way of cheating. But no you’re just another quack pushing pills as the answer to everything! 🙂

Yeah, but the suggestion was a sensor they ride over – which would be way more than 50mm away from any motor (and the F1 timing thing is presumably something rather more than a dumb coil).

Should be quite easy to determine from telemetry from the bikes on power via pedal/crank arm mounted power sensors, cadence, gear ratio, speed, inclination, cyclists heartrate and knowing the all up weight. If a bike shoots off ahead of the field wit all that data at your fingertips you should easily be able to calculate if the performance if from the rider or the rider plus motor. If there is an invisible 200 watts of power then there is something fishy going on.

Easy to mask as long as you keep the motor on proportional to your effort. Resting more on the easy bits would still be useful, even if not as useful as an extra few watts all the way up the HC climb.

Or there cna be a Parc Ferme before and after stages where bikes can be inspected that captures any bikes swapped during a stage.

This would work, though.