Off road traction
tgotb
Posts: 4,714
Since getting a CX bike, and discovering that I can do the first 4 miles of my commute entirely off road :-) I have been rediscovering my long lost off-road bike handling skills. Now, I know that pedalling hard increases traction in muddy conditions; in particular, I know that I'm far more likely to make it round a slippery bend if I put the power down. But what I've never understood is why. Can anyone enlighten me?
Pannier, 120rpm.
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Comments
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From first principles I would have said no - putting the power down on a slippery bend would be a bad thing. Putting your outside pedal down and all your weight on that foot would be far more effective at getting you around safely.
The pedalling force is in line with the bike and the cornering forces are perpendicular(ish).
The only argument is that somehow the treads under force on your knobblies are additionally compressing mud into a more solid footing with your power stroke - but this would be minimal.
As I said though, this is just from first principles....happy to be educated.FCN 5 belt driven fixie for city bits
CAADX 105 beastie for bumpy bits
Litespeed L3 for Strava bits
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.0 -
For a car or motorcycle I think it has to do with weight transfer. Accelerate to load up the back end. I wouldn't have thought you'd get enough power down on a push bike for that to be an issue. I don't mean to put you down saying that. Moving around would have more of an effect on weight transfer.TGOTB wrote:Since getting a CX bike, and discovering that I can do the first 4 miles of my commute entirely off road :-) I have been rediscovering my long lost off-road bike handling skills. Now, I know that pedalling hard increases traction in muddy conditions; in particular, I know that I'm far more likely to make it round a slippery bend if I put the power down. But what I've never understood is why. Can anyone enlighten me?
I'm too much of a big girls blouse to have much experience in the real world.0 -
Intellectually I'd tend to agree with you (hence my query). In the real world, it is all too evident that pedalling hard helps to anchor the back end. I'm sure I remember reading it somewhere when I was a kid too.SimonAH wrote:From first principles I would have said no - putting the power down on a slippery bend would be a bad thing. Putting your outside pedal down and all your weight on that foot would be far more effective at getting you around safely.
The pedalling force is in line with the bike and the cornering forces are perpendicular(ish).
The only argument is that somehow the treads under force on your knobblies are additionally compressing mud into a more solid footing with your power stroke - but this would be minimal.
As I said though, this is just from first principles....happy to be educated.
On a motorbike I might theorise that it's putting more weight onto the back wheel, but I doubt that even the awesome power of my legs is sufficient to make a difference...Pannier, 120rpm.0 -
It will be weight transfure be that by body movment or application of power.
Richmound park's tasmin trail is rather gravelly track very little mud, if anything more slippy once dry. with marathonplus 25mm when wet it's sticky than slippery.
On the MTB I love the mud, and have full mud spikes which are a hoot, for clattering down muddy/rooty trails. heavy going but just got to use those gears.
on the whole offroad, being smooth is the key.0
