Can confirm. Last week, I got home from a ride, stopped in front of the garage, couldn’t unclip, and promptly fell over. It turned out one of the bolts fell out from the cleat during the ride, so the cleat just rotated, instead of unclipping. D’oh. Fortunately, I mostly landed in grass, though I did scrape my ankle a bit.
Over engineering problem
How so?
Cleats are a solution in search of a problem. Nothing changes if you remove them.
Tell me you’ve never cycled seriously without telling me you’ve never cycled seriously.
I commute 14km to work every other day and can confirm there is no difference.
Although placebos have been confirmed to help even though you know you are using a placebo so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
There’s a huge difference, because I occasionally ride other bikes without them. My feet slip off the pedals without the cleats. I wouldn’t ride seriously without them.
I’ve been riding for 20+ years and never had this issue. I’ve tried cleats. Tried it for a year before I eventually switched back to a good set of pedals + a good set of shoes. Admittedly about half of my riding is mountain biking though, so that might be part of my bias.
Riding in a road race or crit, or even a time trial, is very different from a commute ride.
But even on commutes it’s really good, depending on how often you expect to be stopping at lights. It’s great in rainy weather where my flats often slip off the pedal, or climbing up the many hills on my commute that necessitate getting out of the saddle.
The idea behind clips is that you can pull up on the rising pedal instead of just following momentum from the other foot pushing down. It does work, but isn’t really necessary for commuter biking.
I got a used bike that had a hybrid pedal with a clip on one side and flats on the other. While the clip (heavy) side usually landed down, it didn’t always and it was weird to pedal with it. I just ride around on my bike, so I replaced them with cheap flat pedals and it’s fine. I also converted it to an e-bike, and I don’t need the extra pedal power.
Yeah, I can relate to this…
It’s the central pedal force
my bike doesn’t have a central pedal. how does it stay up right?
Magnets
Magnetic aliens
Does it have a central fugue? Classical physics teachers don’t want to talk about that but if you look back to the Baroque interpretation it was all the rage.
Aliens.
first, and less importantly, your wheels are gyroscopes
second, and much more importantly, at speed you use your steering to compensate for imbalance. You lean a little right? slight steering to the right compensates. When standing still, steering is no longer an option (duh)
.
It has as the sole cause. But when you have a couple big spinny bits, there is going to be some gyroscopic effect, and it does help keep it upright. It just can’t on its own, it provides a small assist.
Actually, the gyroscopic effect (specifically precession) has more to do with making the steering go the right way than keeping the bike upright directly.
Wait til anon hears about launch loops or space elevators
How long does it take to go up the space elevator?
What floor are you getting off at?
Not getting off in an elevator, that would be gross.
Hey, it’s okay if you can’t finish, that’s normal.
B-16
About tree fiddy then
If you’ve forgotten high school physics (like me), this is a legitimately strange phenomenon.
But pedaling on a treadmill make you fall over.
What the hell?
Does it? I bet some weirdo on YouTube has done this.
you’re absolutely right. I searched it before making that comment and there’s one random dude who did exactly that, he even wondered himself if anyone has ever done that.
And pedaling in space makes you balance!
How the hell?
No, you’d start spinning
They’re called rollers, and they’re pretty easy to ride on.
I wouldn’t say easy… But yeah, you don’t just fall over.
Is it possible for the bike to fall off the rollers, sending everything crashing into the nearest wall?
No, if you fall off the rollers, your wheels just stop. Bicycle wheels don’t have anywhere near enough mass for their momentum alone to move your body.
I have heard that it is VERY hard to get started and then very quickly becomes thoughtlessly easy
Same principle as a gyroscope: a turning wheel will tend to stay perpendicular or parallel to the direction of the gravity vector because if it starts tilting away from such orientation there’s a force that pushes it back.
Also works better with bigger wheels (if I remember it correctly the effect is related to spinning momentum).
I was pretty surprised when learning Physics and they show us how to derive the formula for that (which I totally forgot since that was over 3 decades ago).
Edit: Actually the gyroscopic effetc is just a part of it. See this article
Actually, it’s the bike’s geometry rather than a gyroscopic effect. Try rolling a bike backwards rather than forward - it’ll topple quickly
Freestyle BMX riders go in reverse all the time and they don’t fall over.
A BMX bike without a rider will roll along happily. We called it “ghost riding” when I was a kid.
Yeah, you’re mostly right: Why bycicles stay upright.
There’s some gyroscopic effect, but per that article it’s not the main reason.
Yep. And it is an easy one to test. Just immobilize the bike’s steering and see how well you can get it to balance.
Gyroscopic effect is not even significant. Lock your steering and you will fall over no matter how fast your wheels are spinning. (Which can happen with a badly pitted headset)
Fuckin magnets
How do they work?
Tide comes in, tide comes out, You can’t explain that.
The dumber a civilization is, the more sense God makes.
This pretty accurately describes conservatives.
For those that don’t know: Bill O’Reilly Doesn’t Understand How Tides Work
Think of this as you inch forward until the green light with a motorcycle behind you. Just stop. Riding at 2 mph is misery.
Get a lighter bike, mate. Scooter goes brrrr! But also, yes. Please god, the misery of traffic jams must stop. Let me lane split!
I got a tenere 700 coming from a rebel 500, both relatively light bikes but the tenere is so tall it’s hard to waddle. I’d honestly love a scooter just for commuting and errands.
I live in a state where splitting is illegal but I can get away with filtering at stoplights. :)
I’m mostly joshing ya. My scooter weighs all of 150 wet, but I have a sport tourer that’s somewhere around 700. It sucks to maneuver that thing. I wish the feds would do something about lane splitting. Once upon a time they were able to get us on HOV lanes.
Vy two
A Veritasium video about the topic, if someone is actually interested: https://youtu.be/9cNmUNHSBac
Real talk, science doesn’t have the answer to this yet.
Dynamic stability
Momentum + Gyroscopic effect
Steering keeps you upright in the same way a broom handle balanced on your hand is kept up by moving you hand around
Gyroscopic effects are negligable
There is a word for what you’re describing, it’s called “momentum”.
More specifically, the force vectors for gravity and forward motion combine angles in a ratio of their magnitude and the bike becomes less likely to topple than go forward (in the assumption the horizontal force is the greater of the two values), or in other words as long as it has forward momentum.
I don’t get it when people (usually chavs) can just sit back with their hands in their pockets - when I try it my handlebars twist out to one side instantly.
Most bikes are stable and a cyclist can weight shift to turn gently without touching the handlebars
Mine is a recumbent that steers with long handlebars. The handlebars prevent the bike from balancing itself.
Yours might have barely stable geometry, or badly placed weight on the handlebars
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