bloaker
Sincerely A Dick
- Nov 14, 2011
- 3,643
- 5,770
Taken out of context of the Decending thread.
I figured a whole thread could be dedicated to this....
I feel this is a downfall of most cyclist I rode with back home.
Diminishing/Constant/ and Expanding radius corners all allow for different speeds.
Diminishing corners have a late apex, and it is exaggerated on a downhill.
Constant radius corners are the most predictable allowing you to spit the middle.
And Expanding radius corners have an early apex and allow you to get the bike turned well before you see any 'danger' that might make you apprehensive.
In all corners, if you guess wrong then you lose momentum - and if you loose a couple kph at the top of the hill, it equals much more by the bottom.
While I do not race, many friends I rode with back in VA did - and with just casual observation, my friends that are Cat3 are much smoother in a corner than my friends that are Cat5. I think it truly comes down to looking through a corner and understanding the apex allowing you to carry the maximum corner speed. Corner speed = exit speed. And on a downhill, you will accelerate after a corner, so every kph you have at the exit significantly increases your top speed further down.
With speed comes the desire to turn in early - Early apex pushes you out wide on exit. Scary through when your option is a cliff or a mountain on the outside of the road.
Late apex allows you to square off the corner, but requires you to scrub speed. - if you are hella string, maybe this could be an advantage, but truth be told, you probably just blew the corner.
Obviously the sweet spot is in the middle - and in a racing situation, if in a pack, you have little choice.
Playing video games (my choice was MotoGP3) can help you recognize these subtle differences.
My fear - even as a non racer is the camber of the road. If a road pitches off camber as you are in a corner, the bike may not go where you thought it was going to go.
---
As for the best tire pressures on Handling vs speed... I defer as I truly do not have an intimate enough relationship with my bicycle to tell the difference in 5lbs of air pressure.
---
I opened the can of worms.... discuss!
I figured a whole thread could be dedicated to this....
Perhaps tangential to the topic, but I am interested in discussion of cornering and braking techniques when descending.
I feel this is a downfall of most cyclist I rode with back home.
Diminishing/Constant/ and Expanding radius corners all allow for different speeds.
Diminishing corners have a late apex, and it is exaggerated on a downhill.
Constant radius corners are the most predictable allowing you to spit the middle.
And Expanding radius corners have an early apex and allow you to get the bike turned well before you see any 'danger' that might make you apprehensive.
In all corners, if you guess wrong then you lose momentum - and if you loose a couple kph at the top of the hill, it equals much more by the bottom.
While I do not race, many friends I rode with back in VA did - and with just casual observation, my friends that are Cat3 are much smoother in a corner than my friends that are Cat5. I think it truly comes down to looking through a corner and understanding the apex allowing you to carry the maximum corner speed. Corner speed = exit speed. And on a downhill, you will accelerate after a corner, so every kph you have at the exit significantly increases your top speed further down.
With speed comes the desire to turn in early - Early apex pushes you out wide on exit. Scary through when your option is a cliff or a mountain on the outside of the road.
Late apex allows you to square off the corner, but requires you to scrub speed. - if you are hella string, maybe this could be an advantage, but truth be told, you probably just blew the corner.
Obviously the sweet spot is in the middle - and in a racing situation, if in a pack, you have little choice.
Playing video games (my choice was MotoGP3) can help you recognize these subtle differences.
My fear - even as a non racer is the camber of the road. If a road pitches off camber as you are in a corner, the bike may not go where you thought it was going to go.
---
As for the best tire pressures on Handling vs speed... I defer as I truly do not have an intimate enough relationship with my bicycle to tell the difference in 5lbs of air pressure.
---
I opened the can of worms.... discuss!