Optical Delusions

[Hull 697]

Last weekend the GF and I had an interesting experience.

We were taking a scenic ride, just tooling along a little too far apart to converse. Watching the scenry of course. After the ride we started to discuss it and noted that we both, along the same stretch, so it was not just me, had the same illusion/delusion/whathaveyou.

The bike just started slowing down. Should have been speeding up! The spin should have been getting lighter, not heavier. Tried shifting gears, listening for that awful flat noise, did I miss a headwind? Work the brakes slightly, heavily. Reverse spin a moment to clear imaginary problems?

Finally had to accept that regardless of what we thought we were seeing, it was really an incline, not downhill.

Wonder what causes that? And why are there always trees around?

 

[PhilO]

Hull 697 wrote:

> Finally had to accept that regardless of what we thought we were
> seeing, it was really an incline, not downhill.
>
> Wonder what causes that? And why are there always trees around?
>
No trees around Electric Brae:
http://www.eureka4you.com/magnetichillworldwide/Ayrshire-UK.htm
PhilO

 

[[email protected]]

Hull 697 wrote:
> Finally had to accept that regardless of what we thought we were
> seeing, it was really an incline, not downhill.
>
> Wonder what causes that? And why are there always trees around?

I have a similar spot on my regular commute, on a heavily-trafficed
city street. Approached from either direction it appears to be a
moderate grade climbing to the south. Southbound I'm much faster than
I should be - level ground speeds, easily. Northbound I'm much slower
than I should be - only about level ground speeds. Yet I am convinced
by what my eyes tell me that there is a grade. This "false grade"
angles upward (heading south) in a definite - though still moderate -
climb to the south, which "acts like it should". I have no idea why
the disparity between what my eyes tell me and what the engine tells me
on the first section.

 

[Edward Dolan]

"Hull 697" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Last weekend the GF and I had an interesting experience.
>
> We were taking a scenic ride, just tooling along a little too far apart
> to converse. Watching the scenry of course. After the ride we started
> to discuss it and noted that we both, along the same stretch, so it was
> not just me, had the same illusion/delusion/whathaveyou.
>
> The bike just started slowing down. Should have been speeding up! The
> spin should have been getting lighter, not heavier. Tried shifting
> gears, listening for that awful flat noise, did I miss a headwind?
> Work the brakes slightly, heavily. Reverse spin a moment to clear
> imaginary problems?
>
> Finally had to accept that regardless of what we thought we were
> seeing, it was really an incline, not downhill.
>
> Wonder what causes that? And why are there always trees around?

I had a similar experience like that in the center of Wyoming on the Tour
de Wyoming several years ago. Everyone commented on it. It was like we were
going downhill, but we were really going slightly up hill. I thought I had
entered the twilight zone. I think it comes from the fact that you are
taking your cues from the roadside and not from the road. But the bicycle
never lies. It knows when there is even the slightest of grades.

Mark Twain swore that the ground in front of his house in New York was
perfectly flat, but the bicycle proved him wrong. It turned out there was a
slight grade after all which only the bicycle could detect. I don't think
our eyes can detect very slight grades.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

 

[Hull 697]

No trees around Electric Brae:
http://www.eureka4you.com/magnetichillworldwide/Ayrshire-UK.htm
PhilO

Well, something else I missed when I lived in Scotland. I have, however, climbed Tap 'O Noth and had a bottle of Talisker before Seagrams bought (and ruined) that fine whiskey.

Thanks for the link, interesting.