Cornering

[Inthecup]

Quote from an above link "knobby tires cannot achieve lean angles of smooth tires and offer no cornering advantage on pavement"

I would have thought the complete opposite!

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Quote from an above link "knobby tires cannot achieve lean angles of smooth tires and offer no cornering advantage on pavement"

I would have thought the complete opposite!

The blocks deform and due to the blocks there is less contact area

 

[Biker Joe]

One of the most important things to remember whilst cornering is to remember to relax.
Tensing up will cause you to pull the bike to the outside, losing control, and forcing yourself to brake to regain control.
If you tense up while cornering, you tend to push your center of gravity away from the corner or toward your outside. This causes you to pull hard to the outside and can easily cause you to crash. So, practice cornering until you learn to instinctively relax while cornering.
If you are tensed up going into a corner everything else will go out the window.

 

[Fab Foodie]

One of the most important things to remember whilst cornering is to remember to relax.
Tensing up will cause you to pull the bike to the outside, losing control, and forcing yourself to brake to regain control.
If you tense up while cornering, you tend to push your center of gravity away from the corner or toward your outside. This causes you to pull hard to the outside and can easily cause you to crash. So, practice cornering until you learn to instinctively relax while cornering.
If you are tensed up going into a corner everything else will go out the window.

This is so true!
Tensing-up is also THE major cause of shimmy when descending too.
in fact, I'd say that relaxing is very important in all areas of bike riding, climbing, descending and pootling.

 

[Inthecup]

One of the most important things to remember whilst cornering is to remember to relax.
Tensing up will cause you to pull the bike to the outside, losing control, and forcing yourself to brake to regain control.
If you tense up while cornering, you tend to push your center of gravity away from the corner or toward your outside. This causes you to pull hard to the outside and can easily cause you to crash. So, practice cornering until you learn to instinctively relax while cornering.
If you are tensed up going into a corner everything else will go out the window.

Good advice. I nearly ended up on the wrong side of the road going round a bend at speed on a country road. In fact I was only a few inches off the white centre lines! There was a car behind but couldn't pass due to the blind bend. Thank god nothing was coming the other way and the driver was giving me space. Was a harsh novice lesson!

The point being I was quite aware of the car behind and thus quite tense.

 

[themosquitoking]

Rule #64

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Gravel is my only real fear when cornering on fast descents, which leads me to slow down at the wrong times making the corners more work than they needed to be. In Suffolk we just plain don't have the types of hills that are fast and long in Suffolk so I don't get the practice.

I've only just had the looking at the exit theory explained to me, I'm looking forward to getting the chance to try it.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

That Sheldon article includes the fabulous phrase 'blow-off pressure'.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Gravel is my only real fear when cornering on fast descents, which leads me to slow down at the wrong times making the corners more work than they needed to be. In Suffolk we just plain don't have the types of hills that are fast and long in Suffolk so I don't get the practice.

I've only just had the looking at the exit theory explained to me, I'm looking forward to getting the chance to try it.

This^^^^

In my experience road tyres are way inferior to fat knobblies on gritty terrain ie the rubbish that piles up at every bend and lane centre where I live.

 

[Biker Joe]

I love the buzz you get from taking downhill corners at speed. I must admit though, now I'm getting on a bit, I take more care now.

 

[MikeW-71]

Hell yeah, I must take my camera with me on my favourite route next time, it has a 1 mile descent that reaches 13% and a few nice bends

Here's the CycleChat Ecosse group at play on the Isle of Arran this year. From 2:22 is the 50mph descent at the north of the island. Fastest I've ever been on a bike.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4u9lLBFZ3s

 

[Inthecup]

I know it's probably been done on another thread but can someone explain the gradient percentage to a simpleton?

 

[ColinJ]

I know it's probably been done on another thread but can someone explain the gradient percentage to a simpleton?

(Altitude change/distance travelled) x 100%.

So if you gain 100 metres in 1 km that is an average of (100 / 1000) x 100% = 10 %.

If you descend 50 metres in 250 metres that is an average of (-50 / 250) x 100% = -20%.

Strictly speaking, gradient should be calculated as (change in altitude / horizontal distance travelled) x 100%, but it isn't practical to measure through the soil and rock of hillsides, so the distance along the road is used instead. For a climb calculated this way as 20%, the error is only 0.41% (i.e. the true gradient is 20.41%).

 

[Inthecup]

(Altitude change/distance travelled) x 100%.

So if you gain 100 metres in 1 km that is an average of (100 / 1000) x 100% = 10 %.

If you descend 50 metres in 250 metres that is an average of (-50 / 250) x 100% = -20%.

Strictly speaking, gradient should be calculated as (change in altitude / horizontal distance travelled) x 100%, but it isn't practical to measure through the soil and rock of hillsides, so the distance along the road is used instead. For a climb calculated this way as 20%, the error is only 0.41% (i.e. the true gradient is 20.41%).

Cheers. Why can't they just measure it in degrees!

 

[ColinJ]

Cheers. Why can't they just measure it in degrees!

They could, but they don't!

The gradient is actually the tangent of the angle between the road and the horizontal, but it is normally calculated as the sine of the angle for reasons mentioned above. For small angles, the sine of an angle isn't much different to the tangent, but for big angles, the difference becomes large.