cyberknight
As long as I breathe, I attack.
- Location
- Land of confusion
dont go to the pub 1st
🤣dont go to the pub 1st
Interesting analogy. Are you an engineer?Think about trolley wheels in a supermarket cart. For a wheel to line up with the direction of travel, the contact point with the ground must be allowed to lie behind the axis in vertical direction that the wheel can swivel about. The farther the contact pot from the axis, the easier it is for the wheel to align with the direction of travel. For a bicycle, the swivel axis is the steering axis. A folding bike must fold small, so all distances are shrunk, including that distance needed for stability, hence the typical squirrely behavior of folding bikes.
Interesting analogy. Are you an engineer?
I think there is still debate about castor action
https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/2877/balancing-act-why-dont-bikes-just-fall-over
Of course notdont go to the pub 1st
I appreciate your reply. The best thing I can do is keep riding, and hopefully, as you say, I will get used to it. Yes, you are right in saying that there are more pluses than minuses.There's a lot of lore about small wheels, instability or not but even when I had my first small wheeled folder (20") it didn't take long to get used to it.
I had a Dahon Vitesse HG7 at one time and it felt stable enough once you learned to look at a point ahead in the direction you were going rather than concentrating on the front wheel, something that you can apply to any bike. The main concern I had on the Vitesse was the handlebar height adjuster which had to be tightened more than you might expect after unfolding it to avoid it loosening while you were riding, or giving a rather flexy feel to the steering. Perhaps current Dahons use a different system -I hope so.
My Viking Safari and my Brompton both have one piece stems and neither have any problems with stability despite the Brompton having even tinier wheels. It didn't take long to get used to the Brompton, probably because I'd previously been used to 20" wheels.
The small wheel thing is something that is a problem only if you become fixated on it -it's just a bike after all, but has the advantage of fast manouevrability and acceleration, ease of getting on and off etc. but has a downside that you need to be more careful of road surface irregularities and pot holes. More plus points than minuses, I think, depending where you live. The more you ride, the more natural it will feel until it will be just another type of bicycle that you can ride, without having to think about it.
I found it fun to weave in and out of the white lines in the middle of the road after 4 pints, so I avoid drinking that much
I found it fun to weave in and out of the white lines in the middle of the road after 4 pints, so I avoid drinking that much now.
I found it fun to weave in and out of the white lines in the middle of the road after 4 pints, so I avoid drinking that much now.