In article
<e374a2d9-81ca-4258-9e0a-466cb0df5cc1@w34g2000prm.googlegroups.com>,
Dan O <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Jun 19, 7:44 pm, "Carl Sundquist" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > "Dan O" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >
> > news:[email protected]...
> >
> > > On Jun 19, 12:22 pm, [email protected] wrote:
> > >> On Jun 18, 7:54 pm, Mike A Schwab <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > >> >http://picasaweb.google.com/dbiked/BrotherSBikeCrash?authkey=iOs1rM3MJzo
> >
> > > Since, thankfully, "... he's now ok" I can say it: Steel is real.
> >
> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the fork breaking somewhat reduce
> > pivoting of the bike/rider into downward force? In other words, if the fork
> > hadn't broken, would the inertial forces of the bike/rider have rotated
> > downward as the front wheel could no longer spin?
>
> You mean to suggest that you think it would've been worse with steel
> forks?!? Did you see the Life Flight pics or what?! How would you
> like to just lose the whole frickin' front end of your bike at speed?
Well, even I believe it's very likely the squirrel-body would have given
out first, but it would have been a rapid deceleration nonetheless.
Also, never underestimate the utter randomness of bike crashes. At
tonight's criterium race, two of my teammates collided and ended up
landing on the ground, off the side of the course, about two feet from
each other. One went home with a band-aid or two. The other went to the
hospital with a probable broken collarbone and collapsed lung. His bike
had a slightly bent rear rim and a big gash in the saddle.
> Why couldn't the wheel continue to spin? And even if you did get...
> um, an especially stout squirrel in the spokes, somehow managing to
> lock the wheel, wouldn't that just pitch you over the bars instead of
> smack into the ground?
Again, it depends. I think your instinct that the big mass in this
equation (to wit, the rider) would sorta want to not change its course
in space, it would definitely be influenced by the sudden stoppage of
the front wheel. Of more concern than the question of whether the rider
would be plunged into the ground head-first at a speed exceeding that
provided by the influence of gravity, would be that the rider would be
launched horizontally forward off the bike but quite possibly spinning,
meaning more random potential for injury.
A fork breaking always bad, but so is getting a squirrel stuck between
your spokes and your fork,
--
Ryan Cousineau
[email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."
