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Hit gravel, broke leg
I've gone over sideways four times in the 10 years that I've had my
Lightning Stealth. When an SWB's front wheel slides out, you go down fast. Ususally I just get road rash on the forearm that hits the street. The most recent time I did this, was going in a straight line at about 12 mph, rode into a small patch of gravel. Went down, landed badly and broke a leg. Am re-evaluating my choice of bikes. Is an SWB any more likely than some other kind of 2-wheel bent (or a wedgie) to lose control on a patch of gravel in the street? Opinions? Experiences? Ron |
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Ron Teplitz wrote:
I've gone over sideways four times in the 10 years that I've had my Lightning Stealth. When an SWB's front wheel slides out, you go down fast. Ususally I just get road rash on the forearm that hits the street. The most recent time I did this, was going in a straight line at about 12 mph, rode into a small patch of gravel. Went down, landed badly and broke a leg. Am re-evaluating my choice of bikes. Is an SWB any more likely than some other kind of 2-wheel bent (or a wedgie) to lose control on a patch of gravel in the street? Opinions? Experiences? Ron I have a LWB Tour Easy, a CLWB BikeE and a SWB Vision. They all can go down fast, but the SWB seems to go down the fastest. The most serious injury I got on a bike was a broken wrist when my Vision went down at about 25 mph. Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove "Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live." Mark Twain |
#3
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Ron Teplitz wrote:
I've gone over sideways four times in the 10 years that I've had my Lightning Stealth. When an SWB's front wheel slides out, you go down fast. Ususally I just get road rash on the forearm that hits the street. The most recent time I did this, was going in a straight line at about 12 mph, rode into a small patch of gravel. Went down, landed badly and broke a leg. Am re-evaluating my choice of bikes. Is an SWB any more likely than some other kind of 2-wheel bent (or a wedgie) to lose control on a patch of gravel in the street? Opinions? Experiences? Ron The only bike I've ever crashed at speed is my 622/451 SWB, and it was while going straight on a dry road. I probably lost control when I wasn't paying full attention and maybe hit a pot hole or a road seam on the edge. My other bikes have been either DFs, a 406/349 CLWB and a dual-571 SWB. I wouldn't say that this means a big/small SWB is more likely to go down when the front wheel is purturbed though. Out of curiosity, what was it about this particular crash that led to your broken leg vs. your usual road rash? Did you unclip and your leg got caught under the bike? Leg suck? -- I do not accept unsolicited commercial e-mail. Remove NO_UCE for legitimate replies. |
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Victor Kan wrote:
Ron Teplitz wrote: I've gone over sideways four times in the 10 years that I've had my Lightning Stealth. When an SWB's front wheel slides out, you go down fast. Ususally I just get road rash on the forearm that hits the street. The most recent time I did this, was going in a straight line at about 12 mph, rode into a small patch of gravel. Went down, landed badly and broke a leg. Am re-evaluating my choice of bikes. Is an SWB any more likely than some other kind of 2-wheel bent (or a wedgie) to lose control on a patch of gravel in the street? Opinions? Experiences? Ron The only bike I've ever crashed at speed is my 622/451 SWB, and it was while going straight on a dry road. I probably lost control when I wasn't paying full attention and maybe hit a pot hole or a road seam on the edge. My other bikes have been either DFs, a 406/349 CLWB and a dual-571 SWB. I wouldn't say that this means a big/small SWB is more likely to go down when the front wheel is purturbed though. Out of curiosity, what was it about this particular crash that led to your broken leg vs. your usual road rash? Did you unclip and your leg got caught under the bike? Leg suck? Victor, Can't say much about why the outcome of this fall was worse. No leg suck. Every other time I went to the left and put my forearm on the street. This last time I went to the right and landed on the sidewalk. Perhaps I could slide better on asphalt than on brushed concrete and hence received lighter injury. Ron |
#5
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Is an SWB any more likely than some other kind of 2-wheel bent (or a wedgie) to lose control on a patch of gravel in the street? Opinions? Experiences? I think it is a matter of weight distribution. LWB bikes are relatively lightly loaded on the front end and so the front will slide around more easily. SWBs tend to have more weight on the front wheel so they tend to be less likely to slide around. The back wheel will slide, and if starting hard on a unstable surface, you can easily spin the rear wheel. My SWB bike has never had a front wheel slide problem that I can recall. On unstable surfaces like gravel, just about any bike is liable to be a problem, unless it has fat tires. |
#7
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"Buck" wrote in message
... Have you cosidered a trike, you do not even have to unclip at junctions, and sliding can even be fun. Fun yes! I wouldn't give up my trikes for anything BUT they are not stable at high speed (at least not the one's I've had a chance to ride at high speed). I learned this the hard way. I was going down a hill that would have been nothing on a bike. The road was rough but nothing you would avoid. I was going 25 MPH by the time I decided that I didn't like the way the trike was handling. That is also the moment when I discovered that the effect of brake-steer is magnified at high speed. I ended up flipping the trike. A had a little road rash and the trike was fine (I was more concerned about the trike). I've been wondering if quads are more stable but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that two wheel vehicles actually do better at high speeds. The only times I every feel off of any of my recumbent bikes was when I was going up very steep hills and couldn't go fast enough to maintain my balance. This has never happened to me on a trike (obviously). Jeff |
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On 06/07/2005 13:57:52 "Jeff Grippe" wrote: "Buck" wrote in message ... Have you cosidered a trike, you do not even have to unclip at junctions, and sliding can even be fun. Fun yes! I wouldn't give up my trikes for anything BUT they are not stable at high speed (at least not the one's I've had a chance to ride at high speed). I learned this the hard way. I was going down a hill that would have been nothing on a bike. The road was rough but nothing you would avoid. I was going 25 MPH by the time I decided that I didn't like the way the trike was handling. That is also the moment when I discovered that the effect of brake-steer is magnified at high speed. I ended up flipping the trike. A had a little road rash and the trike was fine (I was more concerned about the trike). I've been wondering if quads are more stable but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that two wheel vehicles actually do better at high speeds. The only times I every feel off of any of my recumbent bikes was when I was going up very steep hills and couldn't go fast enough to maintain my balance. This has never happened to me on a trike (obviously). Jeff You should try the Catrike Speed, by the way this isn't a plug, well it is but only because I have such high regard for them. -- Buck I would rather be out on my Catrike www.catrike.co.uk |
#9
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Jeff Grippe wrote:
Fun yes! I wouldn't give up my trikes for anything BUT they are not stable at high speed (at least not the one's I've had a chance to ride at high speed). The Windcheetah used for the Lands End to John o'Groats distance record in the UK was clocked at around 70 mph on some of the big descents on the course (it was fully faired, btw). No reports of particular instability AFAIK. I learned this the hard way. I was going down a hill that would have been nothing on a bike. The road was rough but nothing you would avoid. I was going 25 MPH by the time I decided that I didn't like the way the trike was handling. That is also the moment when I discovered that the effect of brake-steer is magnified at high speed. Folk regularly do *much* more than that on trikes, so it clearly isn't intrinsic to trikes, period. Same thing with brake steer: it'll very much be implementation dependent. Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/ |
#10
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"Buck" wrote in message
... You should try the Catrike Speed, by the way this isn't a plug, well it is but only because I have such high regard for them. "Peter Clinch" wrote in message ... Jeff Grippe wrote: Fun yes! I wouldn't give up my trikes for anything BUT they are not stable at high speed (at least not the one's I've had a chance to ride at high speed). The Windcheetah used for the Lands End to John o'Groats distance record in the UK was clocked at around 70 mph on some of the big descents on the course (it was fully faired, btw). No reports of particular instability AFAIK. I did a test ride on the Catrike. There was something about the steering assembly that gave it a feel that I didn't like. On the same day I test rode the Greenspeed, WizWheelz (3.4 version), Hase, Trice, and Sun trikes. I have no idea how stable any of them are at high speeds because the 1 mile test ride that I took didn't really have any place where I could get up to high speeds. The Greenspeed was far and away my favorite. It was comfortable, rode well, and I really like the use of the internal gears (on the 81 speed version) to give you a low range that you could shift into while standing still. As for the WindCheetah, I own one (I have a "For Trade" posting in this NG). It has kind of the opposite problem. The steering is so sensitive that there is a control issue at high speed. Very little movement of the stick produces a great deal of turning. On my very first test ride in a parking lot I managed to do too tight a turn and have one wheel off the ground. The wheels are also very close to my chubby legs. I'm not (yet) comfortable with operating it above 25 MPH. It really is much more of a performance machine that I actually need. No nibbles on the trade offer so I'll probably put different size cogs on it and call it a keeper. There is virtually no brake steer, however. I will probably get more comfortable with it over time. Jeff |
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