I have this one fantasy where I am fabulously wealthy, live in an architecturally elegant yet not too big house, and have a live-in housekeeper who motorpaces me on the weekends. She’d wear a French maid outfit even while driving the scooter and she’d have the French accent too.
Well, Herriott Performance Sports doesn’t have the more fantastical elements, but they do have the motorscooter tricked out with a Kreitler roller. The roller is a safety device in case the front wheel of your bike should get too close to the scooter. Why would you want to motorpace, as in ride in the draft of a motorized vehicle? Because a bike handles far differently at 30mph than 20mph, and to really be competitive at the upper levels of cyclesport, you need to be able to handle a bike properly at that speed. Plus the effort of turning a big gear at high speed can’t quite be replicated at a slower speed. To become skilled and strong at speed, one needs to ride at that speed.
Professional cyclists spend much of the season racing at these speeds, but most cyclists rarely spend enough time training that fast because they don’t have enough opportunities to ride in fast groups. But a motorscooter never gets tired of leading out a drafting rider, and it’s much easier to find a road big enough for a scooter and a cyclist or two, compared to a group of cyclists big enough to sustain those high speeds. I think Herriott does motorpacing at the velodrome in Redmond, though.
If one is serious about racing at the top levels of amateur or professional cycling, then motorpacing can be a valuable tool.
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