Back of a bus

ritcho said:

One of life's little lessons is that drafting behind big vehicles
requires plenty of care. Heavily laden semi trailers are usually pretty
safe to draft 'cos they can't stop very quickly.

Empty buses can stop quickly.

Full ones can stop fairly quickly too. I was out one morning trying to
cross 6 lanes of traffic (3 in each direction). I was feeling a bit like
a live version of Frogger (ahh that takes me back). I picked a gap in
traffic with the only thing coming being a bus in the far lane. The gap
wasn't big but I figured if I went flat out I would slot in nicely
behind the bus and draft him all the way home. Unfortunately I was so
busy watching for new traffic I forgot to watch the bus. As I reached
the bus lane I looked up and found the bus stopped in front of me. I'd
forgotten there was a bus stop across the road. Slammed on the brakes
and just missed it before doing a very unco series of maneuvors to get
in behind him. I'm a lot more careful around them now.

Glad to hear you came out of it ok.

DaveB

It's bloody scarey when your speeding along behind a bus, and then bang the brakes come on. Just gotta give it room.

Jono

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "ritcho" == ritcho <[email hidden]> writes:

ritcho> One of life's little lessons is that drafting behind big
ritcho> vehicles requires plenty of care. Heavily laden semi
ritcho> trailers are usually pretty safe to draft 'cos they can't
ritcho> stop very quickly.

ritcho> Empty buses can stop quickly.

ritcho> In fact, an empty bus can stop faster than road bike with
ritcho> (*gasp*) rim brakes.

ritcho> Always leave extra space in front of you when following a
ritcho> bus!

You mean like 2M as mandated by law? ;-)

I rarely draft. Occasionally other cyclists on a really windy day but
even then I've got my bike lined up so if the person in front brakes
I'll shoot past. On the road it's just not worth it.

Your dismount sounds similar to the one I performed when a while back
when I ran in to the back of a car.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

On 2005-11-24, ritcho (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

In fact, an empty bus can stop faster than road bike with (*gasp*) rim
brakes.

Get disk brakes! Get disk brakes!

Quoted message said:

Always leave extra space in front of you when following a bus!

Fortunately, only light contact was made right at the end.
Unfortunately, the rear wheel was about two feet in the air when the
contact was made, causing a loss of control and a rather undignified

OK, so wheels in air, yet trying to brake. Nope, can't visualise
that...

--
TimC
"If you already know what recursion is, just remember the answer. Otherwise,
find someone who is standing closer to Douglas Hofstadter than you are; then
ask him or her what recursion is." -- Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin

TimC said:

OK, so wheels in air, yet trying to brake. Nope, can't visualise
that...

It was only his rear wheel in the air. I did something similar once on my old motorbike (a Suzuki Across). I was tailgating a van, who got on the brakes. I really thought I was going to hit him, but stopped with about a foot to spare, with the back wheel about a foot off the ground - scared the hell out of me.

Cheers,

Suzy

ritcho said:

One of life's little lessons is that drafting behind big vehicles
requires plenty of care. Heavily laden semi trailers are usually
pretty safe to draft 'cos they can't stop very quickly.

Don't you believe it. All that weight makes for some very impressive tyre
grip.

Theo

quote='Theo Bekkers'ritcho said:

One of life's little lessons is that drafting behind big vehicles
requires plenty of care. Heavily laden semi trailers are usually
pretty safe to draft 'cos they can't stop very quickly.

Don't you believe it. All that weight makes for some very impressive tyre
grip.

Theo[/QUOTE]
one of the best things Ive seen, was end of a Hell ride quite a few months ago, a bunch just making its ways back to st kilda, going on the down hill run to to Sandringham.... Bus in front, guy decides he wants to draft it, sprints off, starts catching it, looks back to see who is following him, no one, everyone else, has just decided to cruise back, watching him..... guy next to me says, "do you think he has seen the bus inidicating to turn off the road", I reply "Nope... I dont think so"

rider looks up, hits the brakes, get his bike sideways, but obviously manages to keep both wheels on the ground, beautiful sideways skid, straight into the side of the bus, but keeps it upright..... could hear the thud from back where we were, beautiful smell of burning rubber as we ride past, he was fine, rode off the road I think to compose himself.... 🙂 was pretty impressive bike handling skills, thats for sure.

TimC said:

On 2005-11-24, ritcho (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

In fact, an empty bus can stop faster than road bike with (*gasp*) rim
brakes.

Get disk brakes! Get disk brakes!

Quoted message said:

Always leave extra space in front of you when following a bus!

Fortunately, only light contact was made right at the end.
Unfortunately, the rear wheel was about two feet in the air when the
contact was made, causing a loss of control and a rather undignified

OK, so wheels in air, yet trying to brake. Nope, can't visualise
that...

--
TimC
"If you already know what recursion is, just remember the answer. Otherwise,
find someone who is standing closer to Douglas Hofstadter than you are; then
ask him or her what recursion is." -- Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin

I don't think disk brakes would have helped... the rim brakes have enough stopping power to lift the rear wheel. The main problem was being too close to the back of the bus!

Live and learn (hopefully)

Ritch

On 2005-11-24, TimC (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

On 2005-11-24, ritcho (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Always leave extra space in front of you when following a bus!

Fortunately, only light contact was made right at the end.
Unfortunately, the rear wheel was about two feet in the air when the

^^^^

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

contact was made, causing a loss of control and a rather undignified

OK, so wheels in air, yet trying to brake. Nope, can't visualise
that...

Hey! It seems I can't read!

--
TimC
The Sell Dervers are balanced behind another Sell Derver, and both
have their data protected from Badness by a Dedundant Array of
Inexpensive Risks -- Aquarion in ASR revealing the secrets of RAID

suzyj said:

It was only his rear wheel in the air. I did something similar once on
my old motorbike (a Suzuki Across). I was tailgating a van, who got on
the brakes. I really thought I was going to hit him, but stopped with
about a foot to spare, with the back wheel about a foot off the ground
- scared the hell out of me.

I did that coming up to a pedestrian crossing on a downhill once. The
lights were in my favour so I had to haul on the anchors to avoid hitting
the numpty who'd stepped out in front of me. We both got one hell of a
fright as the back wheel rose up and I balanced on the front wheel for a
second or two (an ability that was probably helped by the fact that I'd
been teaching myself to ride a unicycle).

I suppose that kind of braking just means that you're stopping at the
absolute maximum rate.

Graeme

Graeme Dods said:

I did that coming up to a pedestrian crossing on a downhill once. The
lights were in my favour so I had to haul on the anchors to avoid
hitting the numpty who'd stepped out in front of me.

You don't expect people to step out onto ped crossings? And that makes them
a 'numpty'.

Theo

On 2005-11-25, Theo Bekkers (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Graeme Dods said:

I did that coming up to a pedestrian crossing on a downhill once. The
lights were in my favour so I had to haul on the anchors to avoid
hitting the numpty who'd stepped out in front of me.

You don't expect people to step out onto ped crossings? And that makes them
a 'numpty'.

Haven't you heard of crossings controlled by traffic lights before?

--
TimC
They skip the teaching of "8" and "G" in the public schools as part of
the "No Child Leaves Behinded" program. Too spendy.
-- Whosetitanelbow in ARK

TimC said:

Haven't you heard of crossings controlled by traffic lights before?

OK, but what's a numpty?

Donga

ritcho said:

In fact, an empty bus can stop faster than road bike with (*gasp*) rim
brakes.

I think your average empty bus driver would take great pleasure in
slamming on the brakes if he knew he was being drafted. In any
other situation he'd take some blame for hitting his enemy :-)

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

suzyj said:

TimC said:

OK, so wheels in air, yet trying to brake. Nope, can't visualise
that...

It was only his rear wheel in the air. I did something similar once on
my old motorbike (a Suzuki Across). I was tailgating a van, who got on
the brakes. I really thought I was going to hit him, but stopped with
about a foot to spare, with the back wheel about a foot off the ground
- scared the hell out of me.

Cheers,

Suzy

True Tim. Anytime you want me to demonstrate this on the Kat (a very
long wheel base bike notoriously not prone to this behaviour) jump on
the back and I shall demonstrate

On most things its even easier

Dave

Donga said:

TimC said:

Haven't you heard of crossings controlled by traffic lights before?

OK, but what's a numpty?

Donga

A downmarket drongo

dave said:

True Tim. Anytime you want me to demonstrate this on the Kat (a very
long wheel base bike notoriously not prone to this behaviour) jump on
the back and I shall demonstrate

On most things its even easier

Dave

I concur, you haven't done a real o [censored] stop until you've done one with the back wheel in the air.

On the road bike under breaking it is also very easily to deliberately, its nice to know where the line is!

NUMPTY
I thought you were making it up, but here's the good oil:
Definitions of numpty on the Web:

a stupid person.(mainly used in Scotland)
www.angelfire.com/retro/seany/2001Words.html

PiledHigher said:

dave said:

True Tim. Anytime you want me to demonstrate this on the Kat (a very
long wheel base bike notoriously not prone to this behaviour) jump on
the back and I shall demonstrate

On most things its even easier

Dave

I concur, you haven't done a real o [censored] stop until you've done one
with the back wheel in the air.

On the road bike under breaking it is also very easily to deliberately,
its nice to know where the line is!

When I did the bike course out at Atwood, One of the instructors did a
front wheel locked stop at 100 kph to 0 with the front wheel locked the
whole time. It was to demonstrate that it is possible to survive a
front wheel lock up. Very impressive. Aparently they felt it well
worth the cost of a tire. But we were not allowed to emulate it. They
obviously felt it was not worth the cost of fixing a dozen k100 TIC´s

The same instructor did several 120 to 0 stops with the back wheel a
good metre from the ground. Oddly the stop distances were shorter 🙂

Dave