Bike Handling

Roland2k

Is there something about this year's course that's causing
all these crashes? Are younger rider's bike handling skills
not as good? The number of crashes this year seems
abnormally high.

The only good news is that Tyler has no broken bones yet.
Given the number of crashes, I would have figured him for at
least two :-D

Roland

Vern

wet roads, lots of wind.

"Roland2k" <roland_2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5f142948.0407090800.5be2dd5a@posting.google.com...
> Is there something about this year's course that's causing
> all these crashes? Are younger rider's bike handling
> skills not as good? The number of crashes this year seems
> abnormally high.
>
> The only good news is that Tyler has no broken bones yet.
> Given the number of crashes, I would have figured him for
> at least two :-D
>
> Roland

Dave H

"Roland2k" <roland_2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5f142948.0407090800.5be2dd5a@posting.google.com...
> Is there something about this year's course that's causing
> all these crashes? Are younger rider's bike handling
> skills not as good? The number of crashes this year seems
> abnormally high.

Wets road and diesel film Dave

Tom Kunich

"Roland2k" <roland_2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5f142948.0407090800.5be2dd5a@posting.google.com...
> Is there something about this year's course that's causing
> all these crashes? Are younger rider's bike handling
> skills not as good? The number of crashes this year seems
> abnormally high.
>
> The only good news is that Tyler has no broken bones yet.
> Given the number of crashes, I would have figured him for
> at least two :-D

In Europe I don't think they have sealed crankcases like
they do in the USA and there's a lot of oil on the roads. As
soon as it starts raining it comes out of the rather good
asphalt roads and turns them into skating rinks. I'll say
this - ALL of the roads I drove on in France and Switzerland
were of the quality of the very best roads in California.

David Off

Tom Kunich wrote:

>
> In Europe I don't think they have sealed crankcases like
> they do in the USA

Not sure what this means... but there is a lot of oil and
diesel on French roads.. there are a lot of vehicles that
run on diesel as it is cheaper than petrol, around $1.10
per liter rather than $1.30. After a dry period it is
lethal. The white lines were also painted with non-grippy
paint until recently and this causes problems for two
wheeled road users.

Roads also tend to be flat or hollow rather than convex, or
even inverse cambers, the Romans figured this one out 2,000
years ago so I can only assume this is a hang-over from the
days when the drain/gutter ran down the center of the roads
in France. The inverse camber thing is done by the highways
department to slow down drivers on bends but I've been
caught out once on a bicycle by this. Seems counter
intuitive to make roads more dangerous.

Ryan Cousineau

In article <40efedf6$0$21778$79c14f64@nan-newsreader-05.noos.net>,
David Off <david.off_dumpthisbit_@voila.fr> wrote:

> Tom Kunich wrote:
>
> >
> > In Europe I don't think they have sealed crankcases like
> > they do in the USA
>
> Not sure what this means... but there is a lot of oil and
> diesel on French roads.. there are a lot of vehicles that
> run on diesel as it is cheaper than petrol, around $1.10
> per liter rather than $1.30. After a dry period it is
> lethal. The white lines were also painted with non-grippy
> paint until recently and this causes problems for two
> wheeled road users.

He's probably referring to EGR valves, but I don't think
that's been a difference for some time. The big deal is
that, as you say, diesel is common.

Gasoline is just as slippery as diesel (I've dumped gas and
then slipped on it; it's really really slippery) but
evaporates very rapidly. The half-life of a gas spill is
minutes. Diesel is less volatile, and like motor oil, will
happily just sit on the road.

> Roads also tend to be flat or hollow rather than convex,
> or even inverse cambers, the Romans figured this one out
> 2,000 years ago so I can only assume this is a hang-over
> from the days when the drain/gutter ran down the center of
> the roads in France. The inverse camber thing is done by
> the highways department to slow down drivers on bends but
> I've been caught out once on a bicycle by this. Seems
> counter intuitive to make roads more dangerous.

Inverse camber to slow down drivers? Really? Are you sure it
isn't just an excessively crowned road? that can lead to an
off-camber in the outside lane.

If they want to slow down traffic, one of the best ways is
to paint lines on the road that give the optical illusion of
narrowness (extra-wide lines at the side of the lane are a
good one). This slows drivers down before the curve, not by
pushing them off mid-turn. Yeesh.

--
Ryan Cousineau, rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club