How SLOW can you go?

[James Hodson]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 17:17:53 +0100, "Wild Wind" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I think we get far too many posts in the
>'speed merchant' vein in this group.
>
>So this is a strike back for the pootlers in
>this group - what is the SLOWEST sustained speed
>that you can manage on your bike?

Circa 1975 - the same time as my magnificent off the speedo ride
mentioned in another thread - I won a downhill slow bicycle race (no
foot planting or weaving allowed. So, pretty damn slow.

James

 

[JohnB]

James Hodson wrote:

> >So this is a strike back for the pootlers in
> >this group - what is the SLOWEST sustained speed
> >that you can manage on your bike?
>
> Circa 1975 - the same time as my magnificent off the speedo ride
> mentioned in another thread - I won a downhill slow bicycle race (no
> foot planting or weaving allowed. So, pretty damn slow.

As part of the cycle training courses I run, I always include a slow
bike race - its an excellent exercise for bike control.
It breeds cheats though ;-)

John B

 

[Mark]

Wild Wind wrote:
> I think we get far too many posts in the
> 'speed merchant' vein in this group.
>
> So this is a strike back for the pootlers in
> this group - what is the SLOWEST sustained speed
> that you can manage on your bike?
>
> In my local park today, I was able to attain a
> chilled-out 1mph for all of 1 minute before I
> began to wobble and gravity took charge.
>
> Anyone been able to go slower than that?

I went so slow that the computer thought I'd stopped. <1MPH.
--
Mark

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Wild Wind
('[email protected]') wrote:

>
> "Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> "Lardychap" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> > I can track stand my fixer. Does taht count?
>>
>> If you can cycle *backwards* on the fixer, then that would be a
>> negative speed, and hence win.
>
> OK, I'll clarify - when I ask "how slow can you go",
> I mean the lowest speed that you are able to sustain
> for at least one minute in a given direction, where
> the speed is greater than zero, i.e. not equal to or
> less than zero.
>
> So track standing or reverse riding do NOT count.

Yebbut, if you can track stand you can cycle arbitrarily slowly. No
matter how slow you're going its easier than track standing. I can
certainly cycle at under a yard a minute or 60 yards an hour, and can
probably do that for several hours (I've never tried).

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; my other religion is Emacs

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

In news:[email protected],
Simon Brooke <[email protected]> typed:
> in message <[email protected]>, Wild Wind
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
>>
>> "Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>> "Lardychap" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>> news:[email protected]...
>>>
>>>> I can track stand my fixer. Does taht count?
>>>
>>> If you can cycle *backwards* on the fixer, then that would be a
>>> negative speed, and hence win.
>>
>> OK, I'll clarify - when I ask "how slow can you go",
>> I mean the lowest speed that you are able to sustain
>> for at least one minute in a given direction, where
>> the speed is greater than zero, i.e. not equal to or
>> less than zero.
>>
>> So track standing or reverse riding do NOT count.
>
> Yebbut, if you can track stand you can cycle arbitrarily slowly. No
> matter how slow you're going its easier than track standing. I can
> certainly cycle at under a yard a minute or 60 yards an hour, and can
> probably do that for several hours (I've never tried).

So the real question is: Who gets BORED least easily?

A

 

[Steph Peters]

"Clive George" <[email protected]> of wrote:
>Not that slow, but you may have noticed that we have some pretty high top
>speeds on a tandem - well, we have to climb the hill on the other side! We
>can now climb at under 3mph...

I have a very very low gear on my tourer. I can climb on my single bike at
3mph, to the considerable amusement of walkers who are going faster. But
I'd rather be on the bike, so I'm happy.
--
...the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom respectable.
No virtuous man--that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense--has ever painted a
picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing,
or a book worth reading...
Henry Louis Mencken
Steph Peters delete invalid from [email protected]lid
Tatting, lace & stitching page <http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/index.htm>

 

[MartinM]

Simon Brooke <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> in message <[email protected]>, Wild Wind
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
> >
> > "Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> >> "Lardychap" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >> news:[email protected]...
> >>
> >> > I can track stand my fixer. Does taht count?
> >>
> >> If you can cycle *backwards* on the fixer, then that would be a
> >> negative speed, and hence win.
> >
> > OK, I'll clarify - when I ask "how slow can you go",
> > I mean the lowest speed that you are able to sustain
> > for at least one minute in a given direction, where
> > the speed is greater than zero, i.e. not equal to or
> > less than zero.

Hey there's an easier way, buy a H*****ds cordless computer, it reads
0 most of the time ;-)

 

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 21:22:41 GMT someone who may be JohnB
<[email protected]> wrote this:-

>As part of the cycle training courses I run, I always include a slow
>bike race - its an excellent exercise for bike control.
>It breeds cheats though ;-)

One of the advantages of a well thought out small wheeled bike (like
a Brompton) is that it is easier to ride slowly. Thus their riders
can ride at pedestrian speeds quite easily with far less danger of
falling over than the same rider would on a large wheeled bike. They
are also less intimidating in areas of high pedestrian activity.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.

 

[Phil Cook]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 18:36:32 +0100, Wild Wind wrote:

>"David Nutter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Wild Wind <[email protected]> said:
>> > In my local park today, I was able to attain a
>> > chilled-out 1mph for all of 1 minute before I
>> > began to wobble and gravity took charge.
>> >
>> > Anyone been able to go slower than that?
>>
>> Do trackstands count?
>
>I thought someone would mention that...
>
>...but no, they don't - see, I included the
>word 'go'

How about trackstands on a freewheel? Mine aren't perfect so I come
and go a bit. I seem to be able to keep them going long enough for the
lights to change, which can be an eternity in London.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

 

[Phil Cook]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 16:54:07 +0000 (UTC), davek wrote:

>Wild Wind wrote:
>> Anyone been able to go slower than that?
>
>Every time I reach a set of traffic lights on red I practise my
>trackstanding, and sometimes I even manage to see it through to green.
>And I've just about mastered unclipping quickly enough to avoid
>embarrassing falls. Most of the time.

The trick is to unclip the trailing pedal (which does least work in
the trackstand) when you first stop.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

 

[nitrogenmustard]

can anybody here do no handed trackstands?
ive held one out for aboot ten minutes once, and im trying to figure out how to put my feet up ont the front wheel and trackstand likt that (with no hands, of course)

-nitro

(P.S.-sorry-im not from the uk, but the other threads got kinda boring)

 

[Graeme]

Danny Colyer <[email protected]> wrote in news:cf0mmp$t65$1
@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk:

> "Hovering" means pedalling backwards and forwards as a means of
> essentially remaining one one spot.
>

I always thought that was "idling", bloody stupid name though. I've never
mastered it, but whenever I try there's nothing "idle" about it, it's hard
work!

Graeme

 

[Richard Corfield]

Going slow is really useful at traffic lights. We can sustain very slow on
the (upright) tandem to not have to unclip and stop at most lights. Trying
to work out the timing to get there just at the right time also helps. The
tandem's pedals are set to 90 degrees out of phase for smoother power, but
starting out is harder and getting two people to clip in (using toe clips)
is fiddly and requires us to coast for a bit.

One set of lights which spend a long time on red has railings along the
side, so we just stay clipped in and hang on to the railings.

NC wrote:
>
> Presumably we're not going to allow the darkside trike riders to say how
> comfortable it was....
>

Its very comfortable, and with Dual Drive, can go very slowly indeed. Useful
with a heavy trailer on hills. Now I have a trailer, I quite often take it
to the tip then on to the supermarket by the cycle lanes. Unloading at the
tip and loading at the supermarket is a common thing for people to do, and
I've been asked twice now after probably only 4 or 5 trips how I got from
one to the other so quickly. The cycle lane has no traffic lights to stop
at, and is a shorter route. The trike can also tow the trailer above its
recommended 15mph without worrying about being tipped over.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at ntlworld dot com
_/ _/ _/ _/
_/_/ _/ _/ Time is a one way street,
_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ Except in the Twilight Zone.

 

[Danny Colyer]

I wrote:
>>"Hovering" means pedalling backwards and forwards as a means of
>>essentially remaining one one spot.

Graeme wrote:
> I always thought that was "idling", bloody stupid name though. I've never
> mastered it, but whenever I try there's nothing "idle" about it, it's hard
> work!

"Idling" is the Merkin word for it, though with the explosion of US
dominated communication about unicycling on the intraweb over the last
10 years it's become common in the rest of the world too.

There was even a suggestion on rec.sport.unicycling recently that the
name "hovering" could be given to mean something similar to a
trackstand, which I immediately pointed out would be unnecessarily
confusing.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

 

[D.M. Procida]

Richard Corfield <[email protected]> wrote:

> The tandem's pedals are set to 90 degrees out of phase for smoother power

Doesn't this lead to hideous cornering incidents? Wouldn't 45 degrees
confer most of the benefits and very few of the disadvantages?

Daniele
--
Apple Juice Ltd
Chapter Arts Centre
Market Road www.apple-juice.co.uk
Cardiff CF5 1QE 029 2019 0140

 

[Richard Corfield]

D.M. Procida wrote:

>> The tandem's pedals are set to 90 degrees out of phase for smoother power
>
> Doesn't this lead to hideous cornering incidents? Wouldn't 45 degrees
> confer most of the benefits and very few of the disadvantages?

We've not noticed pedal strike, but don't corner the tandem that hard. Its
bigger, and harder to turn, and you don't want to lose the back wheel. I
wonder if the bottom bracket is higher on 700C models too.

Speed bumps take some thought, both in terms of avoiding hitting them, and
getting each rider's pedals into the best position to stand up on at the
right time to take the bump. We seem to have got used to it now.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at ntlworld dot com
_/ _/ _/ _/
_/_/ _/ _/ Time is a one way street,
_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ Except in the Twilight Zone.