Kerbs

[jimboalee]

Fiat Automobiles, in their infinite wisdom, set the top gear ( 5th ) ratio of their 45 HP Uno model at 31.5 mph/1000 rpm.

I told the dear lady wife to use fourth in a thirty and don't touch top gear until the car is doing forty, and when you come to a hill in a 40 limit, change down.

3000 miles later the car needed a set of mainbearings and big-end shells.

At that time, I was a Driveability, Performance and Economy test driver at Jaguar cars.

Her best friend's hubby said "It's got gears, use them".

NO-ONE listens to Jimbo….

 

[g00se]

Bunny hopping is overated (IE, I can't do it, like wheelies...)

Forget mountain-bike style bunny hops. The best way to lift the front wheel off of the ground on a hybrid or road bike (or anything with rigid forks) is...

Coming up to the obstruction - lowish kerb, gaping road chasm, one of those annoying metal plates etc. Stand up on the pedals, slightly bend your arms and at about a metre from the spot, quickly push your weight into the front wheel at 45 degrees - roughly along the direction of your arms - straightening your arms in the process. The front wheel will lift up a couple of inches. No need to pull.

You've compressed the front forks and it's them decompressing that pushes you up off of the road. Try to lean back a bit after the push so you're not putting too much weight on the front whick would counter the lift - but you don't need to pull back. In fact, if you do pull and don't pull evenly, you can end up turning the front wheel a fraction which can make the bike head off in the wrong direction when it comes down.

Now, you could be clever and then 'scoop' up the rear wheel using pressure against the rearward facing pedal but I can't and don't bother - as you centre of gravity is now forward of the obstruction, you tend to pull the wheel over it (or that's what if feels like anyway).

 

[tyred]

NO-ONE listens to Jimbo….

Oh but we do. I now have melted tyres stuck to inside of my oven, my chain reeks of Mr Sheen and I have a drawer full of sprockets and freewheels and about three hundred pages of calculations while I worked out my ideal gear ratio.

 

[cyberknight]

Welcome to the forums.

I think maybe we can get a little passionate about things like pavement riding and jumping on and off kerbs as some of the chavvier cyclists can give us "proper" cyclist a bad name by riding into pedestrians, in front of cars and across red lights etc etc.

This tends in the mind of the public (ie daily mail writers) to mean we all do it and does not help the rest of the road users perception of cyclists.

Of course no one here would compare you to any of the above

Please feel free to shout abuse or virtually slap around the head of anyone that annoys you ,or bring cake !!!

 

[stevie_b]

This thread has been useful to me too. There's a cycle path near where I live that has a kerb in a particular place, right at the bottom of a mini valley. So, I build up speed coming down one side, then have to dismount, walk the bike over the kerb, then walk it up the hill on the other side. I was going to tery hopping it over, but even though I've got a mountain bike I want to preserve the roundness of the rims.

 

[Mike!]

Fiat Automobiles, in their infinite wisdom, set the top gear ( 5th ) ratio of their 45 HP Uno model at 31.5 mph/1000 rpm.

I told the dear lady wife to use fourth in a thirty and don't touch top gear until the car is doing forty, and when you come to a hill in a 40 limit, change down.

3000 miles later the car needed a set of mainbearings and big-end shells.

At that time, I was a Driveability, Performance and Economy test driver at Jaguar cars.

Her best friend's hubby said "It's got gears, use them".

NO-ONE listens to Jimbo….

The problem here is the word "FIAT"

 

[HJ]

Hallo and welcome Mrs Bear

You really shouldn't be riding on the pavements