Burning rubber

I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but they
were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not wearing long
robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/fs

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

wrote:
I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but they
were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not wearing long
robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/fs

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl, it didn't work for me. I'm guessing you're talking about this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNB7xT3rNE

--
Phil

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:38:48 -0500, "Phil, Non-Squid"
wrote:

wrote:
I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but they
were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not wearing long
robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/fs

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl, it didn't work for me. I'm guessing you're talking about this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNB7xT3rNE

Dear Phil,

Aaargh!

You're right. The /fs on the bad link seems to be a goof, possibly for
full-size. This seems to work:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl Fogel writes:

I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but
they were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not
wearing long robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/

Cheers,

I suppose this picture is as mystifying to observers as the
penny-farthing downhill where the tire flew off and the guy crashed.

This video is not a motorcycle and no person I can imagine can spin a
rear wheel as this rider does without a lubricant. If you watch
carefully you will notice that the road appears frosty and that the
rear wheel is throwing the icy debris around. That isn't white rubber
smoke as with a motorcycle. This would not be possible on solid ice
nor merely a wet road. I doubt this could even be done on smooth
concrete strewn with sand although that might work.

It takes just enough traction to be able to ride, yet slippery enough
that when leaned forward, the wheel can be made to spin. I wonder how
often this condition arises so that someone can make a video of it.

Jobst Brandt

wrote:
Carl Fogel writes:

I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but
they were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not
wearing long robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/

Cheers,

I suppose this picture is as mystifying to observers as the
penny-farthing downhill where the tire flew off and the guy crashed.

This video is not a motorcycle and no person I can imagine can spin a
rear wheel as this rider does without a lubricant. If you watch
carefully you will notice that the road appears frosty and that the
rear wheel is throwing the icy debris around. That isn't white rubber
smoke as with a motorcycle. This would not be possible on solid ice
nor merely a wet road. I doubt this could even be done on smooth
concrete strewn with sand although that might work.

It takes just enough traction to be able to ride, yet slippery enough
that when leaned forward, the wheel can be made to spin. I wonder how
often this condition arises so that someone can make a video of it.

It is conceivable but not likely that some types of tarmac topped with
simple water (the spray in the video) would be that slippery. Oily
tarmac
with water could easily be that slippery. Notice that the rider
is leaning forward to take weight off the rear wheel.

The surface is really secondary to the infotainment value of
the kid's skill on the bike. That's a pretty sweeeet move for a kid
in Dubai (?), not an easy one either. Not the most elegant-looking
thing, unlikely to cause widespread swooning among Dubai's
teenyboppers in its current form, but impressive.

Robert

On 17 Jan 2007 02:04:29 GMT, may have
said:

Carl Fogel writes:

I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but
they were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not
wearing long robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/

Cheers,

I suppose this picture is as mystifying to observers as the
penny-farthing downhill where the tire flew off and the guy crashed.

This video is not a motorcycle and no person I can imagine can spin a
rear wheel as this rider does without a lubricant. If you watch
carefully you will notice that the road appears frosty and that the
rear wheel is throwing the icy debris around. That isn't white rubber
smoke as with a motorcycle. This would not be possible on solid ice
nor merely a wet road. I doubt this could even be done on smooth
concrete strewn with sand although that might work.

It takes just enough traction to be able to ride, yet slippery enough
that when leaned forward, the wheel can be made to spin. I wonder how
often this condition arises so that someone can make a video of it.

It's just water.

It works, as you mostly got right, only because of the extreme weight
transfer forward (greatly unloading the rear wheel) and the fact that
the front wheel still gets enough grip on the asphalt surface to
prevent forward motion from taking over. On smooth concrete, this
wouldn't work. With a bike that had a much longer top tube, the rider
probably couldn't lean far enough forward to make the rear wheel load
light enough to come close to losing traction. The trick is to stay
just short of falling over forwards.

Long ago, when I was a lot lighter and younger, I performed a similar
stunt in the faculty parking lot of my junior high after a sudden,
intense rain shower; that's how I know that it can work. I don't
think I'd be willing to try it now, even for serious money.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Phil, Non-Squid wrote:
wrote:
I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but they
were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not wearing long
robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/fs

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl, it didn't work for me. I'm guessing you're talking about this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNB7xT3rNE


crazy video.
reading the viewer comments reminded me of this:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/youtube.png

wrote:
Carl Fogel writes:

I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but
they were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not
wearing long robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/

Cheers,

I suppose this picture is as mystifying to observers as the
penny-farthing downhill where the tire flew off and the guy crashed.

This video is not a motorcycle and no person I can imagine can spin a
rear wheel as this rider does without a lubricant. If you watch
carefully you will notice that the road appears frosty and that the
rear wheel is throwing the icy debris around. That isn't white rubber
smoke as with a motorcycle. This would not be possible on solid ice
nor merely a wet road. I doubt this could even be done on smooth
concrete strewn with sand although that might work.

It takes just enough traction to be able to ride, yet slippery enough
that when leaned forward, the wheel can be made to spin. I wonder how
often this condition arises so that someone can make a video of it.

Jobst Brandt

Looks like sand to me. Supposedly the sand in the middle east is much
finer than the stuff we're used to, I'd imagine that a thin layer of it
might provide the right amount of traction.

wrote:
I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids, but they
were always balancing delicately, going straight, and not wearing long
robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/fs

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

I hope he doesn't strip his cog.

Joseph

Where's the hat rack writes:

I've seen videos of bicycle messengers doing rear-tire skids,
but they were always balancing delicately, going straight, and
not wearing long robes and sandals:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/drifting/

I suppose this picture is as mystifying to observers as the
penny-farthing downhill where the tire flew off and the guy
crashed.

This video is not a motorcycle and no person I can imagine can spin
a rear wheel as this rider does without a lubricant. If you watch
carefully you will notice that the road appears frosty and that the
rear wheel is throwing the icy debris around. That isn't white
rubber smoke as with a motorcycle. This would not be possible on
solid ice nor merely a wet road. I doubt this could even be done
on smooth concrete strewn with sand although that might work.

It takes just enough traction to be able to ride, yet slippery
enough that when leaned forward, the wheel can be made to spin. I
wonder how often this condition arises so that someone can make a
video of it.

It's just water.

It works, as you mostly got right, only because of the extreme
weight transfer forward (greatly unloading the rear wheel) and the
fact that the front wheel still gets enough grip on the asphalt
surface to prevent forward motion from taking over. On smooth
concrete, this wouldn't work. With a bike that had a much longer
top tube, the rider probably couldn't lean far enough forward to
make the rear wheel load light enough to come close to losing
traction. The trick is to stay just short of falling over forwards.

This is not water! There is no wetness on the bicycle, the rider or
spray coming off the tire as we know well from the stripe up ones back
without mud guard. As I mentioned, the faint white dust hovering over
the road (which seems to be conventionally rough tar-mac) is not water
not white rubber smoke usually accompanying motor vehicle "donuts".

Long ago, when I was a lot lighter and younger, I performed a
similar stunt in the faculty parking lot of my junior high after a
sudden, intense rain shower; that's how I know that it can work. I
don't think I'd be willing to try it now, even for serious money.

Oh pshaw! That is to much to believe without pictorial evidence
considering I've climbed steep streets (SF Filbert St. 31.5% grade),
leaning forward, in the rain, obviously without wheelspin.

http://tinyurl.com/2dywjd

Jobst Brandt