Worst ride ever!

I've been struggling with a bad back all week. Last Sunday it locked up
as I was flushing the loo. By Thursday my back had loosened enough for
me to do some gentle dancing. On Friday I did a little bit of fencing,
but had to retire early. This morning, I awoke stiff (no, stoppit!)
but I felt I ought to take advantage of a rare break in the weather to
have a ride.

Common sense took over: most of my recent riding has been on the 26"
MUni with 170mm cranks. I fancied a ride on the 700c, but thout the
sudden change to the slightly larger wheel, and the, er... 102 mm
cranks might be too much. So I swapped the cranks for 110s, found my
kit (scattered widely about the house) and drove down to Trent Fields:

I walk the short distance to the field, and get a "Do you know you've
lost half your bike, mate?" I respond with the thinnest of thin
smiles.

Hmmmm. So, who forgot to lower the seat then? Cranks 8mm longer, so
seat should be 8mm lower. It makes more difference than you might
think...

So, freemounting is easy enough, but it feels like a stretch to reach
that bottom pedal. The skinny high pressure tyre and light weight make
the uni skittish. I get off to adjust the seat, and realise that
unlike every other unicycle in my fleet, this one needs an Allen key
(hex wrench) as it has no quick release. So much for form over
function.

I set off across the field, and lose traction in the mud, UPD-ing. The
impact of seat with ground knocks the seat out of alignment, and I have
to apply a firm blow with the heel of my hand to knock it straight. A
dog walker comments, "Heavy going?"

I walk to the riverside path and remount. I ride uncomfortably. The
seat is way too high. I must have had it exactly right before, or even
a touch high, for the extra 8mm to make that much difference. I stop
at a bench seat and search my tool kit. For years I carried an Allen
key and never used it. I must have rationalised my toolkit some time
because the Allen key is no longer there.

I reach a section of path covered with slimy wet autumnal leaves.
Randomly, I UPD. I realise that this is no fun. After less than half
a mile, I turn back.

It's about 15 minutes to get home, and allowing for time spent
adjusting the seat and a further round trip, the window of opportunity
for a ride today has gone.

I adjust the seat. It takes several goes, and I have to lower it
further than I expect. Eventually, I get it just right, and I find
myself idling comfortably, with either foot, and riding backwards as
well. That short time on 102s 9and a brief period with 89s) must have
done some good. I was never this confident on 110s before. The
dancefloor effect has worked.

Over-cocky, I lose concentration and fall off the back, landing on my
backside, jarring my bad back, and cutting my hand. I also jar my
wrist because I'm not wearing wristguards.

Back in the house, a thought strikes me. I find a ruler. The ""110s"
I'd put on were actually 125s. No wonder 8mm made so much difference.
It was 23 mm! I had been riding with my seat an inch too high.

How I laughed.


--
Mikefule

Did you hear about the computer programmer conspiracy theorist who put
10 and 10 together and made 101?
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Wow, That does sound like a harsh ride. Falling at the end was nasty
icing!

Stochastically, your next ride will be a better one.

Hope your back and wrist feels better. Sudden falls are jarring to the
body and ego! I haven't had one since July, so I'm due...


--
podzol
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podzol wrote:

Stochastically, your next ride will be a better one.

Hope your back and wrist feels better. Sudden falls are jarring to the
body and ego! I haven't had one since July, so I'm due...



Tut! "Stochastically" and the "gambler's fallacy" in one short post.


Thanks for the kind thoughts. It was a disappointing expedition, but I
can see the funny side. Too many cranks: that's the problem with my
spare parts bin and with the world in general.


--
Mikefule

Did you hear about the computer programmer conspiracy theorist who put
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Yes, I know about the gamblers fallacy.

But if you roll a 1 there is a 1 in 12 chance of your next roll being a
one and a 11 in 12 chance of it being greater than one. SO you are
likely to have a better ride next time. Right?

Beyond this. If you look at a distribution of ride quality, you might
get a Gaussian-like function. The probablilty of ending up in one of
the distribution tails is far less likely that ending up near the mean.
Correct? Each ride is most likely to fall within a standard deviation
of the mean, so your next ride (or any ride) will likely be better than
the one you had this morning that might be categorized as a "lower tail
ride.".

We have the first snow of the season this morning and it is lovely

"too many cranks" ...that's the problem with the people in my office!


--
podzol
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Re my post. Rolling using a D-12 not D-6. Must have been all those years
of D&D!


--
podzol
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Bummer! I've had annoying rides like that where nothing goes right -
usually seems to be when I've actually made the effort to drive
somewhere different rather than just being lazy and riding the tracks
around home. I had a pretty depressing ride in Haldon woods (near
Exeter) a few weeks ago - spent most of the time bogged down in slimey
mud then frightened the sh*t out of myself on a bit of MTB downhill
track.

I haven't ridden any form of cycle since my crash last Monday - neck
took ages to stop hurting and the bruises on my arse didn't help much
either
Got a new helmet yesterday, so I should be back bi- and unicycling
tomorrow.

Rob


--
rob.northcott

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to
skydive twice
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podzol wrote:
Yes, I know about the gamblers fallacy.

But if you roll a 1 there is a 1 in 12 chance of your next roll being a
one and a 11 in 12 chance of it being greater than one. SO you are
likely to have a better ride next time. Right?
QUOTE]

Yes, but my jocular reference to the gambler's fallacy referred to your
equally jocular comment that you "were due" a fall because you hadn't
had one for a while.

Presumably the probability of having a fall on a given "standard ride"
is either a constant, or decreases slightly as you gain experience. It
doesn't beome more likely as the sequence of successfully fall-free
rides continues.

As for the dice - of course you meant 1D12, because you can't throw 1
on 2D6... although we had a regular D&D player at school who used to
roll his characters at home "to save time" and could pretty much roll
anything he wanted. A typical character had at least three eighteens
and max hit points.

As for the Gaussian stuff, you lose me there. I'm not a mathematician;
all of my understanding of probability being based on many years of rpg
design, and just general chats with a like-minded friend who is a
statistician. My knowledge of the gambler's fallacy comes from an
interest in logic, rather than statistics.


--
Mikefule

Did you hear about the computer programmer conspiracy theorist who put
10 and 10 together and made 101?
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Mikefule wrote:

podzol wrote:
As for the Gaussian stuff, you lose me there. I'm not a mathematician;
all of my understanding of probability being based on many years of rpg
design, and just general chats with a like-minded friend who is a
statistician. My knowledge of the gambler's fallacy comes from an
interest in logic, rather than statistics.




[image:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ath/gauds.gif]

That is a Gaussian curve. A guassian curve is basically a
representation of normal distribution. Normal distribution occurs a
lot in nature, ranging from people's sizes to the amount of leaves on
a plant. (Dice don't have normal distribution, they have binominal
distribution). The entire area (A) of the curve is 1, and the tallest
peak is the mean. The height of the curve at a given point is the
chance of that occuring. Now, as you can see, the further you get
away from the mean, the smaller the chance of this occuring. For
example, if dice had a normal distribution, the mean would be 3.5
((1+6)/2), now, 1 is far away from 3.5, so the chance of getting a 1
would be smaller as opposed to the chance of getting a 3 or a 4.
Luckily, dice don't have normal distribution. Would make those RPGs a
lot harder


--
Erant

Live free, prosper, and under my rule.
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Great write-up Mike. I can definately relate to your ride. I have been
riding my 24x3 Muni exclusively (whenever I have a chance to ride at
all) and decided to pull out my 700c uni for a quick jaunt. I had just
built a new KK frame and had ridden it a total of maybe 100
yards/meters. Being as I was pressed for time, I decided to do the
trail that runs between a few of the old Spanish Missions along the San
Antonio River as it was near my hpme. There was a slight drizzle and I
had also decided to try a different pair of shoes for this inaugural
outing. Within 1/2 mile I had my first UPD because I had left the
plastic pedals on instead of changing them to some quality pinned
pedals. Between a combination of drizzle, crappy pedals and shoes that
had no grip, I countinued to find my feet constantly slipping off the
pedals, resulting in more UPD's. I put up with this aggrevation for
almost 5 miles before finally giving up and turning around. Surprising,
on the return trip, the UPD's became fewer and far between ( I guess it
just took awhile to adjust to the shrter crank/ taller wheel/ slippery
pedal thing). When I finally made it back to the car, I pulled out my
trusty 24x3 Muni for a spin around the parking lot and couldn't hardly
ride it! I guess my body had become accustomed to the totally different
feel of the other uni. Finally after about 5-10 minutes the 24x3
started to feel normal again. I will not be getting back on the 700c
uni until I switch out the pedals for something with a more stable
platform


--
Krashin'Kenny

If you ain't crashing, you ain't going fast enough!!!!!!!!!!!
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Erant wrote:
Luckily, dice don't have normal distribution. Would make those RPGs a
lot harder



Thanks for clarifying. I was familiar with the normal distribution
curve, in a very general sense. I recall it from school as a "bell
curve" and later as "normal distribution". I didn't know the Gaussian
bit.

1 die has a uniform distribution.
2 dice would give a triangular "curve"
3 or more dice would give a bell curve. I don't know whether that
meets all the criteria for "Gaussian". Does it?

We did loads of stuff with 3 or more dice for this reason. It all
seems so long ago. Whither youth?


--
Mikefule

"Freedom cannot be won without sacrifice. If you set a high value on
her, everything else must be be valued at little."
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