Anyone remember the train + bicycle guy?

Post #43,819 by Ashton 6/28/02 3:50:17 PM Reply	Anyone remember the train + bicycle guy? I saw pix of this eons ago. A caboose (?) was outfitted at rear with a kind of overhang shelter to the back. A section of track was setup with plywood? over the ties = smooth surface. Train 'led' the cyclist, who racked up some humongous top speed. And, considering acceleration time/distance - this must have been a Lot of plywood and labor.. (Obviously, geared for top speed w/o WIND reistance = an er small advantage.) 'Course on mootorcycles - drafting a big-rig is a similar game of Chicken. Amazing how little throttle needed! Does F really equal MA? Ashton need volunteers for next trial: in a vacuum
Post #43,863 by kmself 6/28/02 10:21:19 PM Reply	Tomato trucks Davis, in Yolo County, reeks of spoiled tomatoes in late summer. Succinctly, I've got a wind problem at speed. They've got an inertia problem at startup. I've drafted trucks up to 50 MPH from a standing stop. `-- Karsten M. Self [link\|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com\|kmself@ix.netcom.com] [link\|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/\|[link\|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/\|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]] What part of "gestalt" don't you understand? Keep software free. Oppose the CBDTPA. Kill S.2048 dead. [link\|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html\|[link\|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html\|http://www.eff.org/...a_alert.html]]`
Post #44,077 by drewk 7/1/02 9:07:23 AM Reply	I used to play that In high school, if I could find a suitably boxy truck to get behind, I would ride with traffic on a road that had a speed limit of 35, so of course most traffic was 40-45. Remembering when you were approaching the spot with the potholes (and frequently large chunks of asphalt freshly knocked out of them) was more than trivially important. Also used to do it on a '73 Yamaha RD350 on the Jersey Turnpike. That's a small two-stroke twin that was 13 years old at the time, and a stretch of highway where there are no shoulders to speak of and traffic does 85 with just over a car length of separation. While I could cruise at 85 with very little throttle, it didn't occur to me that I was riding an air-cooled bike way faster than it was designed to cruise, while starving it for fresh air. All this came into focus when the engine seized in the left lane with trucks in front, to the right and behind me. === Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #44,105 by Ashton 7/1/02 2:36:46 PM Reply	Ooooh.. Good ^h^h er Bad one.. And I'd have to admit too, that the now Obvious.. might not have entered My pretty-little head either :( (Though it did enter.. on a matter of lesser importance: not a great idea to be idling around town on one's multi-cylinder air cooled machine when it's >90\ufffd outside.) Folks smarter than either of us - bought a cyl. head temp gauge! I remember the RD-350: it was vastly too-fast for its Bad handling (a bad mix also with a ~16 yo newbie finding out the hard way about: short wheelbases and physics, at the same time). Helped my SO get a new -250; it handled surprisingly well. Both showed what the Japanese could extract from a 2-stroke: eat lots of 'things' for lunch.. Another lunacy: coasting! At top of a long wind-y downgrade. Kill engine, get: the Worst of both bicycling and [inert] motorcycling. Since it's a race, you have to keep sorta off the brakes yet still make the turns. I think.. it was a learning experience of a sort re. finding the very best line. For those who want to scare selves. Contrary to intuition (f=ma?) IIRC the lighter bikes usually won via ~ handling nearer to bicycles, further lean angles possible w/o power.. (not sure of that) A Survivor
Post #44,287 by CRConrad 7/2/02 6:33:43 PM Reply	Saw a pic somewhere sometime of a Porsche 911... ...probably a Turbo, with some humongous spoiler-contraption on the back, to provide wind-shadow to a bicyclist following the car. Probably set some speed record, back about 15-20 years ago. If you design your wind-shadow thingy correctly, couldn't you induce a vortex that actually sucks the bike along with the car (or train, truck, or whatever), without the need to tread the pedals at all -- just coasting along? Christian R. Conrad Microsoft is a true reflection of Bill Gates' personality - the sleaziest, most unethical, ugliest little rat's ass the world has seen unto this time. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=42971\|Andrew Grygus]

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