In article <
[email protected]>,
Jasper Janssen <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 02:49:07 GMT, Michael Press <[email protected]> wrote:
> >In article <[email protected]>,
>
> >> Yeh, but getting to the 10 mph in that gear can be a pain. You can stand
> >> up for a few strokes, but in traffic that'll make you unpredictable and
> >> cause the other bicyclists around you to have to maintain a larger
> >> distance than they would otherwise need to.
> >
> >Does not have to be a pain; take it easy and you will be
> >up to speed in a surprisingly short time. You can
> >accelerate faster than you may think, even from a dead
> >stop.
>
> The problem is that until you are accelerated, it's hard to make a good
> straight line. When the light turns green at quite a few places here, it's
> a lot like a mass-start race where 90% of the riders will never do
> anything but go slow and are not so great at avoiding bumping in to
> people.
Someone may find it hard to go on a straight line; then
with practice will find it simple and easy. At one stage
when I would be riding on a quiet stretch I would simply
observe the line I took and sensed my balance, force of
hands on bars, muscle tension, and pressure on the saddle.
Eventually I could ride much straighter.
I am not used to bicycle mass starts so we are probably
approaching this from different places.
I find that all my stop and go traffic riding is on flat
terrain (relatively so, on the east side of the
San Francisco Bay). Picking a gear and staying in it is
practicable and a great help.
>
> >> Excuse me, are you saying that clipping in your feet (particularly having
> >> to clip in before you're even moving) will make it easier for you to do a
> >> standing start on a gear that's too high?
> >
> >I am not a strong rider, and I do this all the time. And I
> >often turn the cranks a couple times before clipping in
> >the second shoe. The first shoe is already in.
>
> Hmm, yeah, that could work.
Oh, and the gear is not `too high'. It is a relatively
high gear that I can get going without strain. When the
gear is too high, I downshift. I mentioned 50/18, and that
is on the high side of what I will run; sometimes it is
50/21, or 38/17, or ...
--
Michael Press