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Cycling in Waterloo Region - Printable Version

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RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - creative - 10-05-2017

So I went online to see what I could find about clipless efficiency. Wow! A lot of angry people arguing for and against. So I went for a ride this morning to see if in fact I am pulling up at any time. Note that I ride an aluminum frame full suspension cross country mountain bike with clipless pedals. My rides these days consist of mostly packed gravel, fairly hilly and windy trails. This morning a I rode the Grand River trail behind Bingemans. I observed that whenever I was riding of flat trails that I was not using any upward pulling action. I did notice that when climbing inclines and speeding up after slowing down for a curve, that I do use a pulling up action as also pushing down. This is by no means a scientific study but only my own personal observations.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 10-05-2017

Totally going to get an Omafiets with clipless pedals Big Grin


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - jamincan - 10-05-2017

I suggest adding TT bars for improved aerodynamics. Tongue


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 10-16-2017

Almost punched out someone's passenger side window today!

Was biking along Frederick, heading East, just before Edna. Cars had backed up in the left-turn lane so cars in the straight-through lane were crowding into the bike lane. Right next to me, a car decides it doesn't want to wait and almost drives right into me. I have never felt so much rage! I brought my fist up and stopped myself at the last second, but man. I was ready to seriously blow that window right out!

I figure 1 bad experience in 17 months of cycling is pretty good though, all told.

Just felt like venting.

Was a really nice evening for a ride, although my lungs are not ready for this cold weather. Sad


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - creative - 10-16-2017

Not Suggesting that anyone should do this but years ago I had someone cut me off on purpose. I raced up to the next stop light beside him and opened the palm of my hand as wide as I could and slapped the passenger door. No damage but makes one hell of a noise inside the car. Scared the hell out of the guy.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Coke6pk - 10-18-2017

I just watched a YouTube video the other day of a woman who was almost hit by a van, then when she was complaining to them they were trying to smack her and were in general taunting her.  She caught up when they parked and ripped off the passenger mirror and tossed it before speeding off.

The whole thing was filmed by a dash cam, and the driver when he pulled up alongside the van said "You totally deserved that".  Was a fun watch!

Coke

I would go find a link, but YouTube is like a vacuum, and I have other things to do today! Smile


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 10-18-2017

I've seen that video, too!

I (stupidly) crashed yesterday on the Schneider Creek Greenway/in Homer Watson Park.  I had left really early for work (6am?) and it was still pitch black out.  I hadn't ever gone through the forested MUT's that early before, and didn't realize just how pitch black it was.  I was overriding my headlight (dumb dumb dumb) and thought someone was chasing me (realizing later it was the leaves crunching under my wheels, behind me).  Laid my bike down at a good ~30 km/h on a sharp curve I forgot about until the last minute and smashed my head (helmet) and jaw off the pavement.  I reluctantly let my coworkers take me to the hospital to get checked out when they realized I wasn't following what they were saying and I couldn't read anything on my computer screen. Smile  Moderate concussion, they tell me.

So, learn from my stupidity:  Don't override your headlights, don't get freaked out in the dark woods, and be careful on wet leaves!  I was looking for an excuse to get a better/newer helmet (maybe one with MiPS?), anyway!


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - chutten - 10-18-2017

What does "override your headlights" mean? Going fast enough your light isn't illuminating where you need to look?


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 10-18-2017

Yeah, exactly. It’s a term I remembered from Young Driver’s when I took their course in the late 90’s - driving too fast for what is illuminated ahead of you. The idea is that you moderate your seed so you can always stop if you see something. If your stopping time exceeds that boundary ahead of you, you’re “overdriving”. If visibility decreases (snow/rain) because your lighting is occluded, you slow down.

In this case, my fear of crackling leaves behind me exceeded my headlight illumination boundary. Smile


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Viewfromthe42 - 10-18-2017

I remember that same term from Young Driver's in early 00s. Also applies to going around sharp corners (though physics should play the biggest role there, at night lights wind up reducing safe distance) and cresting a hill.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - rangersfan - 11-24-2017

Apparently the bike shaped bike racks in Downtown were removed to allow for easier snow clearing for the winter, this decision has been reversed.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/bike-racks-downtown-kitchener-return-winter-1.4414388


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - nms - 11-24-2017

I wonder whether they were intended to withstand winter weather in the first place. Hopefully they have a plan for long-term maintenance.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 11-28-2017

I've been reading "The Dancing Chain" by Frank Berto over the past few weeks, and while it focuses mainly on the evolution of the derailleur, it gives an excellent overview of the history of the bicycle.

In the late 1800's, the most common type of bicycle was the Pennyfarthing. You know it - the one with the giant front wheel, and tiny rear wheel, with fixed pedals up front. They were sized based on the diameter of the front wheel. This determined a couple of things, given the selected circumference: how fast you would comfortably ride, and how much effort you'd have to put in to do so. If you lived in a hilly area, you might prefer to take it a little slower because it is easier to pedal up steep inclines with a smaller wheel. Or, if it was flat and smooth, you might be fine on a 60" and zip along as fast as you could go.

When the chain-driven "safety bicycle" (looking much closer to today's bikes) was introduced toward the end of the 1800's, people were so familiar with this method of sizing that manufacturers came up with an equivalent direct-drive number by factoring in the ratio between the front chainring and rear sprocket. A bike with 20" wheels but a 30t chain ring up front and 10t chain ring down back would result in a 3:1 ratio, and would end up being a 60" equivalent bike.

I think this is absolutely fantastic, and I love the fact that it's a dead-simple way to assign a single number or value to the relationship between effort and speed. It's impossibly difficult to do today when buying a bike - you need to know the diameter of the tires, the chain ratios, and work it all out to figure out if it makes sense for you or not.

So, long story short, this got me thinking about my own bikes, and I was curious what their equivalent sizes would be, in 1800's terms. So, here it is:

   


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 11-28-2017

That 120" wheel is pretty massive!


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - jamincan - 11-29-2017

A few thing Iain:

700c wheels are almost certainly lower diameter than 700mm, you can find some rough estimates online, but it will vary depending on the wheel and tire.

Also, are you normally pedaling at 60 rpm? I'd strongly encourage you to pick the cadence up to closer to 90 rpm. Your heart rate will tend to increase slightly, but you will put much less load on your muscles for the same speed, which means you will be able to rely more on the slow-twitch aerobic muscle fibers and greatly increase your endurance at higher power.