In article <
[email protected]>,
Alex Rodriguez <
[email protected]> wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] says...
>
> >How is it that the fork legs on his bike were so weak that bones just
> >a few millimeters thick could snap them? Were the fork legs
> >partially cracked already? How could they handle normal use, such as
> >braking, if they were so fragile?
>
> On a fork that uses a caliper brake the braking force gets transmitter right
> by the fork crown, where most forks are pretty beefy. If the squirrel jumped
> near the center of the wheel, it could have hit one of the thin sections of
> the fork. Just a theory, no experiments to back it up.
>
> I once had a squirrel try to jump through my rear wheel during a race. He
> didn't make it all the way through, but someone who was behind me told me he
> flew about 20 feet into the air and then ran off when he hit the ground. I
> didn't crash or feel anything out of the ordinary.
If we're talking about the incident described on this page under the
title "Killer Squirrel stops cyclist dead in his tracks":
http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/squirrels.htm
Then I'm calling rider misperception.
It's possible a little bundle of squirrel skin and vertebrae could have
stopped the front wheel when they stuck in between wheel, brake, and
fork. But I am doubtful.
However, given a circumstance in which a rider was reaching for his
brakes, and then woke up after a few minutes of unconsciousness,
following an externally witnessed endo flip, I think it's reasonable to
guess at a most-likely scenario:
the rider made it to the brakes, overapplied them, and touched the sky.
Fork destruction came as part of the ensuing crash event.
Seriously, I can fully imagine many circumstances in which a fork broke
as part of a violent crash, no squirrel body necessary to destroy it
whatsoever. I can imagine very few circumstances in which a squirrel
could so firmly jam into a fork as to break both fork legs. The
explanations in this thread which I have read, if you'll pardon the
allusion, seem as creatively reasoned as coconut shells in Arthurian
England.
No disrespect meant to any rider who has hit a squirrel and been the
worse for it, but physics says unless you jam your front wheel pretty
decisively, 200 pounds of m and 30 km/h worth of v equals a lot more P
than a few ounces of squirrel is likely to muster.
I note that same squirrel-related web page has a story of a squirrel
which managed to demolish a car traveling at 80 mph. In that case, the
squirrel-impact-stops-vehicle scenario is several magnitudes less
likely, and poorly conceived driving is correctly blamed for the
problem, perhaps also because the squirrel wasn't actually hit.
This reminds me of an odd incident during a club ride a few months back:
as we rode around a tight left corner in a double paceline, another
rider and I, at the front of the line, came together (apparently
tire-to-tire at ground level, as incredible as that is) because I, on
the inside, took a wider line than the outside rider expected (oncoming
car in an undivided roadway). We spooked the hell out of the pack, but I
held my line without deviation (because I am heavy and react slowly in a
disaster) and the other rider rode it out, because he was very
experienced and has good bike-handling skills. I don't think either of
us touched our brakes during the incident, which helped.
--
Ryan Cousineau
[email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos
