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Old September 19th 05, 06:02 PM
Dave Vandervies
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Default Speed averages between trail riding and road riding

In article ,
Brian Walker wrote:

When I start at lights, I end up drag racing the cars next to me...and at
times win (at least until we get to the other side of the intersection)!


I've been doing this for as long as I've been riding a bike, and I'm
usually close to halfway through the intersection before any car gets
over the stop line. Most of the time we're about even leaving the
intersection, but if I'm riding hard or the car driver was slow leaving
the light I can often stay ahead past that too.

Two big things contribute to that:
-Faster pedal-to-wheel response time - on a bike it's as good as instant,
but with a car there's still getting the engine going and engaging the
drivetrain, so with the same light-to-foot response time you're moving
noticeably sooner than they are.
-Better acceleration from a standing start - the bike is lighter and
(if you remembered to downshift before you stopped) geared better for
standing starts, which means you can out-accelerate them until you start
getting close to your normal cruising speed. Of course, a car has more
power to draw on and a higher upper bound on speed, so it'll still be
accelerating well past the range where you have the advantage, but it
has to get there first.

It only gets better the more you do it, too. Yesterday in moderately
heavy traffic with a bit of a tailwind I managed to keep up with the car
in front of me (the third or fourth back from the light, if I remember
correctly) up into high-20s km/h (didn't note distance carefully, but I'd
guess around 200-300m past the intersection) after the light changed, and
actually had to hold back at first to keep a decent following distance.


dave

--
Dave Vandervies
If I have to protect my daughter after she grows up[0], then I didn't raise
her right. --Anthony de Boer in the scary devil monastery
[0] beyond the mutual-respect watching-each-other's-backs sense.
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