In article <[email hidden]>,
Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> writes:
|>
|> > For decent braking, you need to be a distance behind the front wheel
|> > pro rata to your height. Simple physics.
|>
|> So how come people at least as tall as you ride about on
|> conventional folders without undue incident? "Simple physics"
|> /should/ apply to everyone, not just the people who've sat down and
|> done some calculations to prove what they're doing is impossible.
I AM surprised that YOU deny the relevance of physics to cycling :-)
But my observation is that the reason is typically either that they
ride very slowly, or they avoid braking even when they should. Some
doubtless avoid situations where braking is ever necessary, but I
have seen few of those situations.
The simple fact of the matter is that braking on a bicycle with good
all-weather brakes (or good rim ones in dry conditions) is limited
by the ratio of the composite centre of gravity height to its
distance behind the front wheel. Also, going down even quite slight
slopes makes the effect a lot worse, and some riders will come off if
they take ALL the weight of their rear wheel.
For a tall rider on a typical folder, the limit is likely to be
about g/2. I can stop at up to 3g/4 with my much higher position,
but I am MUCH further back from the front wheel.
For heaven's sake, this is all in Whitt - not that you should need
to look it up! And you can perfectly well measure the distances
with a take measure - you know roughly where your personal centre
of gravity is, I assume?
|> > > Once you change style (e.g. go recumbent)
|> >
|> > You sit on bike, turn pedals and go. ...
|> >
|> > That is NOT the experience of the majority of people who try them.
|>
|> You're jumping to the conclusion that it's all about balance, but
|> IME of seeing people try them (quite extensive, having one I'm
|> happy for folk to borrow) is that nerves and an over-used habit of
|> pulling on the handlebars account for most initial failures. ...
No, I am not. It is YOU who are jumping to conclusions. I know what
MY problem was, and I could ride the long wheelbase ones but it needed
a lot of concentration. However, I was and am making no judgement of
what OTHER PEOPLE'S reasons were - I am merely quoting what I was told
by the people running the recumbent company and course about THEIR
experience with running such courses.
And, if you read what YOU said again (quoted above), you were claiming
that people could ride them without any form of acclimatisation. Yet
you are now referring to "initial problems"!
WHATEVER the cause of their problems, the fact is that recumbent
tricycles really ARE no problem, and the majority of people do need a
little practice to get used to even long wheelbase ones (and a few
hours IS a little). Remember that riding a bicycle safely also needs
the ability to indicate while steering (and preferably while braking
gently, too), and the ability to turn fairly tight corners without
falling off.
Admittedly, traffic dangers excluded, falling off a recumbent isn't
a big deal :-)
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
