Sunday 31 January 2010

Slip sliding away

There's a great clip over at Copenhagenize showing lots of cyclists losing it on an icy patch and going down. Just the sort of thing WRX drivers would salivate over.

Had my own version of this last time it rained. We don't get ice down this way - never gets cold enough - but we do have concreters that love to lay the smoothest bit of concrete you've ever laid eyes on. They must buff it until it shines like marble.

Which is great if you like smoothe, shiny concrete, but not so great when you want some grip in the wet. Then I prefer concrete that has been bagged shortly after laying.

The difference with my little slide is that it was a power slide. Yes, hard to believe that I could put out enough power to have the rear break out, but I amazed myself and did just that. It was an uphill section with a right angled bend, and as I put down the juice to go up and around the corner, out went the back of the bike.

It whipped out so sharply, one shoe clip popped out of the pedal and that essentially self corrected the problem. With no more power going down, the wheel stopped spinning and I was able to stay upright and get the bike back on track.

It reminded me of when we used to do broggies as kids in the gravel. Great fun with a bike with a back-pedal brake on the rear wheel. Get some speed up, hit the gravel and then stand on that pedal and see where the ride takes you. Safety Nazis don't like kids doing that these days, as the dust kicked up during the broggy is seen as an environmental hazard. And it scares the lizards.

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