Cycling with 'doped' bicycles: Fair or unfair?

Certainly sounds a little dodgy to say the least.I enjoy following cycling particularly le tour de France.Years ago when the tour was in it’s infancy, without television coverage & little media interest, some of the riders would sneakily catch a train on one of the more arduos stages. So cheating is nothing new to this unfortunately tarnished event.I mean the king of the mountains, ie Marco Pantani & others were high not only in altitude were they not?

I saw the video and i am not at all believing the bicycle had any type of “engine” on it. a battery in the bikes tubing is not an engine. stop and think about it. a human weighes about 120 pounds, the bike weighes about 30 pounds, so where is the engine to push 150 pounds around? i did not see it and there needs to be much better proof and evidence to demonstrate it.

@john65pennington The “engine is the cylindrical electric motor with the worm gear at the bottom. He did not need the motor to work the whole race. Just near the end whrn he wants a burst of speed. A strong human can generate about .5 hp or 350 watts. Sustained he can only do half that – 175 Watts and tired, even less.
A 12 volt motor running at 5 amps (similar to a power window motor) will generate 60 watts. Even if it is only for 20 seconds, at the end of a race that is a significant advantage.
A simple inspection after the race would easily determine if the bike was doped or not.
They test the athletes, why not the bikes?
That would settle the argument.
Clever idea.

I understand these are bike races, and since mo-peds have an engine, and don’t pedal the way other bicycles do, it would be blatently unfair for someone to use them!

oh, doped not moped? Nevermind

I’d have to say it’s unfair. Unlike the other improvements you’ve mentioned, this one adds to the athlete’s power instead of making it more efficient.

Any idea where I can get this done for my bike?

Worriedguy, i see and understand your point, but i need proof. someone please show me the engine on a doped bicycle and demostrate how it works. the demo in the video really did not prove a thing. they cut the switch off and the pedals kept moving. i am not saying it does not exist, i just have not seen anything that makes a believer out of me. is there a disassembled version of this engine somehwere?

@john65pennington I understand your point too. We understand how the electric motor and a Li Ion battery can do what people are alleging.We know the assembly could fit in his bike frame. But, we don’t have proof other than circumstantial (the rider making surprising/unusual hand movement while on the handle bars) evidence to say that this specific bike was doped.
A quick scan with a sensitive thermal imager like a Fluke TI-20 at the end of the race would pick up the heat signature of a loaded battery and electric motor.
That might be the next step to combat this issue.

I was too late to edit my last post. Look at the video at the last race. Just after they allege he moved his hand unusually. As they are going up the coblestone incline the other rider’s bike tilts side to side as he pedals with all his might. This competitor’s bike goes up the incline smoothly with no side to side motion. It’s not worth doing the math but I’m thinking you can calculate the pedal force needed and the amount of lean you would get if it was purely human powered. That scene was the most damaging in my opinion as it appears to be violating the laws of Physics.

That would count as cheating, but it’s an interesting technology. The motor wouldn’t have to do very much, just provide a little bit of torque in addition to what the rider supplies. At that level, races are won by very small differences in ability.