Re: Sharp Cornering Bike?

Ted Bennett said:

Quoted message said:

Dear Ted,

Er, in your haste to pick your nit, you snipped this:

"And tire inflation is about as close as pavement bicycles
get to suspension."

Drat! Itchy trigger finger.

Quoted message said:

But I've gotten excited myself before I finished posts, so I
really shouldn't complain.

And I do like your point about the rider's legs acting as
suspension, although a lot of cornering pictures show the
rider pretty much with his outside leg down and stiff--much
of the time, the magic is more potential than actual.

However, the original poster was asking what difference a
particular bike would make in cornering, so he's probably
going to rule your leg-suspension point out, even though I
like it.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Nicely put. I would encourage those afflicted with the stiff-leg
syndrome to try to relax more on the bike by putting the pedals fore and
aft. Works in corners well, at least for the ones you coast through.

I agree with "Jim Beam" that various bikes will handle differently, for
many interesting reasons. Whether those differences make any real
difference in the fastest time through the turn (one testable aspect of
handling), is open to question.

Ted

Dear Ted,

If there are indeed real differences in cornering speed due
to the equipment, I suspect that the rider will be mistaken
about which combination is the fastest because we usually
confuse sensation and duration.

It's notorious how often seasoned car and motorcycle racers
are mistaken about the speed effects of equipment changes.
The differences are usually so tiny that the mechanics have
to show them the stopwatches before any intelligent
decisions can be made.

As Lennard Zinn pointed out in his explanation of how
increased tire pressure can paradoxically lead to greater
rolling resistance by increased bouncing, a rougher (or
squirrellier) ride is easily confused with going faster.

Unfortunately, bicycles are extremely sensitive to even
slight wind changes and have dreadfully feeble, variable
engines, so our cornering speeds are likely to remain
unmeasured in any useful way.

If anyone knows of some tests to the contrary, I'd love to
be embarrassed by them. There are raw tire-friction tests,
but I don't know of any link to someone going through the
same twisty pylons (like Consumer Reports) on numerous
different bicycles. Single-track vehicles don't lend
themselves to this sort of thing, the rider being so
variable and so important.

Carl Fogel

Quoted message said:

If anyone knows of some tests to the contrary, I'd love to
be embarrassed by them. There are raw tire-friction tests,
but I don't know of any link to someone going through the
same twisty pylons (like Consumer Reports) on numerous
different bicycles. Single-track vehicles don't lend
themselves to this sort of thing, the rider being so
variable and so important.

One easy way to rule out engine performance is by doing it on a slope,
without pedalling. A way to rule out wind -- do it inside, there are
plenty of convention centers or sports arenas with enough room.

Then you are still left with rider skill, but this just requires
sufficient runs.

Jasper