Fell off

Brian Drury

Embarrassing. Painful. Big audience.

Daily route home. Dark, right hand turn under the railway bridge, usually
take this fast and wide (keeping left-ish) there were some cars in
conversation mode so kept right-ish. Bang, lots of slidy scrapy ouchy
bleedy.

Irritating as the nice new lycra top and bottom only arrived yesterday. Now
with custom ventilation.

Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not so
sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I blame the tyres?
This has never happened to me on slower tyres.

Second glass of wine now, feeling better but the 100mm of road rash on the
right hip is going to be a problem tomorrow.

Brian

Jon Senior

Brian Drury wrote:
> Embarrassing. Painful. Big audience.
>
> Daily route home. Dark, right hand turn under the railway bridge, usually
> take this fast and wide (keeping left-ish) there were some cars in
> conversation mode so kept right-ish. Bang, lots of slidy scrapy ouchy
> bleedy.
>
> Irritating as the nice new lycra top and bottom only arrived yesterday. Now
> with custom ventilation.
>
> Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not so
> sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
> instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I blame the tyres?
> This has never happened to me on slower tyres.
>
> Second glass of wine now, feeling better but the 100mm of road rash on the
> right hip is going to be a problem tomorrow.

Thankfully the two glasses have had no impact on your ability to
describe the incident! ;-) Hope you heal quickly, this seems to be a bad
period for accidents although as that's three the rest of us might be safe.

WRT tyres, the most confident set of tyres (As in, tyres I had most
confidence in) were the Hutchinson Carbon Comp ones that were fitted to
the Giant when I bought it. They wear down pretty quickly (And then
puncture like hell!), but I never felt them slip at all and I used to
take some pretty hairy corners on them. Not so sure about the Conti
Grand Prix ones I'm currently using. For some reason (I haven't come
off), I don't feel as confident on them.

Jon

Just zis Guy, you know?

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 22:47:36 -0000, "Brian Drury"
<briandotdruryatdsldotpipexdotcom> wrote in message
<41b8d606$0$16590$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>:

>Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not so
>sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
>instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I blame the tyres?

Dunno. I went very sideways yesterday on my Stelvios, and was getting
wheelspin pulling away form the lights, so maybe the roads are just
very slippery.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, anyway.

Guy
--
"then came ye chavves, theyre cartes girded wyth candels
blue, and theyre beastes wyth straynge horn-lyke thyngs
onn theyre arses that theyre fartes be herde from myles
around." Chaucer, the Sheppey Tales

Pete Biggs

Brian Drury wrote:
............
> Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant.
> Not so sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a
> seemingly instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I
> blame the tyres? This has never happened to me on slower tyres.

Bad luck, I know exactly what that experience feels like: horrible.

An instant slip can happen with any tyres on-road if the surface is
slippery enough or you lean far enough. I wonder if the tyres were
over-inflated? The pressure stated on the City Jet sidewall is a bit
high, I reckon, especially for the front. (Front should be softer than
the rear in any case). Otherwise I wouldn't blame the tyres, got to blame
yourself or the road--could have been an oil patch, for instance.

~PB

Ambrose Nankivell

In news:1102636505.22704.0@eunomia.uk.clara.net,
Jon Senior <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOT_co_DOT_uk> typed:
> Thankfully the two glasses have had no impact on your ability to
> describe the incident! ;-) Hope you heal quickly, this seems to be a
> bad period for accidents although as that's three the rest of us
> might be safe.

Hey, I thought you believed in science. I broke my scaphoid 6 weeks ago. Got
another 10 days in plaster, and I'm itching to get back on the bike. Came
off the Brompton but it's all my own stupid fault. May describe it in the
future.

A

Jeff A

Brian Drury wrote:
> Embarrassing. Painful. Big audience.
>
> Daily route home. Dark, right hand turn under the railway bridge,
> usually take this fast and wide (keeping left-ish) there were some
> cars in conversation mode so kept right-ish. Bang, lots of slidy
> scrapy ouchy bleedy.
>
> Irritating as the nice new lycra top and bottom only arrived
> yesterday. Now with custom ventilation.
>
> Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant.
> Not so sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a
> seemingly instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I
> blame the tyres? This has never happened to me on slower tyres.
>
> Second glass of wine now, feeling better but the 100mm of road rash
> on the right hip is going to be a problem tomorrow.
>
> Brian

I can't comment on the circumstances, but I hope you're OK. Gashes, rashes
hurt, but they heal.

Regards

Jeff

garryb59

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:05:30 +0000, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
<uce@ftc.gov> wrote:

>On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 22:47:36 -0000, "Brian Drury"
><briandotdruryatdsldotpipexdotcom> wrote in message
><41b8d606$0$16590$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>:
>
>>Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not so
>>sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
>>instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I blame the tyres?
>
>Dunno. I went very sideways yesterday on my Stelvios, and was getting
>wheelspin pulling away form the lights, so maybe the roads are just
>very slippery.

Thanks my thinking. I don't do a commute [bit difficult with ladders
and bags of plaster], but I will often do the short trip to the store
in the evenings, and I've noticed the conditions to be a bit dodgy of
late. It's kind of misty, damp, greasy.....facilitates am easy slid or
two. Go easy out there.

Garry

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers

>Embarrassing. Painful. Big audience.

Oh dear. At least you are still in the land of the livcing, which is always a
plus in the case of a tumble. Get well soon.

Cheers, helen s


--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$

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Velvet

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 22:47:36 -0000, "Brian Drury"
> <briandotdruryatdsldotpipexdotcom> wrote in message
> <41b8d606$0$16590$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>:
>
>
>>Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not so
>>sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
>>instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I blame the tyres?
>
>
> Dunno. I went very sideways yesterday on my Stelvios, and was getting
> wheelspin pulling away form the lights, so maybe the roads are just
> very slippery.
>
> Best wishes for a speedy recovery, anyway.
>
> Guy
> --
> "then came ye chavves, theyre cartes girded wyth candels
> blue, and theyre beastes wyth straynge horn-lyke thyngs
> onn theyre arses that theyre fartes be herde from myles
> around." Chaucer, the Sheppey Tales

The roads are treacherous at the moment. They're very very greasy (even
more so than I remember being normal at this time of year). I'm not
cycling on them, but in the car it's all too easy to wheelspin on
pulling away, and even if it doesn't, I can feel the steering is
incredibly light some times when I'd not normally expect that.

It's quite possible the road was greasy from the salt/grit/winter gunk
that's covering everything in black crap at the moment, and you just hit
a small patch that was gunky *and* also slightly damp, which seems to
result in about as much traction as sheet ice :-\

Comiserations though, hope it all heals soon.

--


Velvet

Simon Mason

"Brian Drury" <briandotdruryatdsldotpipexdotcom> wrote in message
>
> Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not so
> sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
> instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal. Should I blame the tyres?
> This has never happened to me on slower tyres.

The roads are nearly always damp 24 hours a day at this time of year and
when combined with spilt fuel can be like ice. Your tyres were not to blame,
no tyre can get a grip on a smooth road that's damp and has diesel on it.
Cornering should be done very carefully, I try to keep my bike at 90 degrees
to the road at all times and steer carefully around bends. Get well soon.
--
Simon M.

Simon Brooke

in message <41b8d606$0$16590$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>, "Brian
Drury" <briandotdruryatdsldotpipexdotcom> ('') wrote:

> Embarrassing. Painful. Big audience.
>
> Daily route home. Dark, right hand turn under the railway bridge,
> usually take this fast and wide (keeping left-ish) there were some
> cars in conversation mode so kept right-ish. Bang, lots of slidy
> scrapy ouchy bleedy.
>
> Irritating as the nice new lycra top and bottom only arrived
> yesterday. Now with custom ventilation.
>
> Tyres are Schwalbe Jets, until now I thought these were brilliant. Not
> so sure now. There was no hint of losing traction, just a seemingly
> instantaneous transfer from slant to horizontal.

There usually isn't. I had this happen to me on a wet canted granite
slab four weeks ago; the last of the scabs are just disappearing now. I
knew my line was bad, but when the back wheel let go it just let go.
Mind you, muddy knobblies on wet granite don't have a lot of chance.
But thinking about previous occasions when I've overcooked a bend, you
only really get much warning on loose (e.g. gravel) surfaces, and even
then it's often not enough warning to correct things. Lesson: don't
overcook bends.

Mind you, of course, just how much lateral traction you can get out of a
particular bit of surface under particular conditions is a judgement
call, and that's part of what makes riding fast off road fun. On road
you tend to assume that there's always enough traction but particularly
at this time of year there's a lot of reasons why there may not be. Wet
surfaces, particularly if there's a water-oil emulsion (very common
near the gutter); wet leaves, and the slimy remains of wet leaves;
frost; ice.

> Should I blame the
> tyres? This has never happened to me on slower tyres.

No, blame the rider. You misjudged the surface and overcooked it. (Sh)it
happens.

--
simon@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'there are no solutions, only precipitates'

JohnB

Ambrose Nankivell wrote:

> Hey, I thought you believed in science. I broke my scaphoid 6 weeks ago. Got
> another 10 days in plaster, and I'm itching to get back on the bike. Came
> off the Brompton but it's all my own stupid fault. May describe it in the
> future.

You didn't forget to do teh frame hinge up did you?
Did that last year and was promptly deposited in an ungainly heap :-(

John B

JohnB

Brian Drury wrote:
>
> Embarrassing. Painful. Big audience.

Isn't it always the way.

> Second glass of wine now, feeling better but the 100mm of road rash on the
> right hip is going to be a problem tomorrow.

What tough luck - I hope you enjoyed more than just the two glasses.
Good luck with the healing.

John B

dkahn400

Simon Mason wrote:

> Cornering should be done very carefully, I try to keep my bike at
> 90 degrees to the road at all times and steer carefully around bends.

Does this mean that you lean your body into the curve, but try to keep
the bike upright? There's an alternative theory of laying the bike over
more but keeping your body upright. I think both methods give you only
the illusion of greater stability. I try to keep my body in the same
plane as the frame at all times when cornering. If the road surface is
suspect I simply reduce the lean angle by cornering more slowly.

Having said that I did come off last year on sheet ice at not much more
than walking pace. The kids had made a slide on the road and it was
difficult even to walk on it. When the wheel goes under those
conditions there's no recovering it.

--
Dave...