Respect For A Folder

[BSRU]

Never had any experience of folders and very rarely see them in Swindon until yesterday.
Came up behind a guy a new looking folder at a set of lights, overtook him, pulled away on a small drag and continued to pull away when the road flattened out. I thought the folder was long gone, so on the next section of road, which is slight decline, 1% or so with a tailwind, easily maintained a fast cruising speed.
On slowing to a crawling speed to navigate the next junction, to my surprise the folder shots past using a different route, through a red light to join the shared path. Not bothered about the RLJ as the junction is very badly designed for cyclist's and the official route puts cyclists in a dangerous position. On checking the video from the rear camera I see the folder, once on the slight downhill maintains the distance between us. I also notice the front chain ring is huge, much bigger than my 48 on the hybrid.

I again meet the same folder this morning at the same junction but this time it's a completely different story as I'm on the road bike, half the weight of my hybrid and with no "drag parachute" mudguards. Needless to say, at 5 to 10 mph faster on the road bike, the folder was always disappearing into the distance at great speed.

So I will be on the look out for the folder in future when out on the hybrid, remembering the guy is fast.

 

[lilolee]

When I'm on my Mezzo, and I don't mind getting sweaty, then I can keep up with most things.

As you observed the one exception are road bikes, and even then it is fun messing with there minds by drafting them.

 

[BSRU]

When I'm on my Mezzo, and I don't mind getting sweaty, then I can keep up with most things.

As you observed the one exception are road bikes, and even then it is fun messing with there minds by drafting them.

It seems my FCN on my normal commuter is the same as the folder guy, 10 but on my road bike my FCN is 5.

I assume the guy's folder was highly geared as he seemed to grind abit when the lights changed. I will have to do some research about folders to discover the model he was riding and the gearing.

Swindon's is a good placed for fixed or highly geared bikes as it is basically flat, there is a hill but it is easy to avoid.

 

[Tynan]

never heard mudguards called drag parachutes before, not even by their fiercest critics

as long at the gearing is there it's all about how fast the pedals go round

are you congratulating yourself for scalping a folder on your road bike?

 

[Amanda P]

It's easy to underestimate a folder. They're usually pretty light - after all, they're designed to be carried.

The huge chainring is to compensate for the smaller wheels - and those small wheels are lighter than big ones, too, and accelerate and climb well.

 

[BSRU]

never heard mudguards called drag parachutes before, not even by their fiercest critics

as long at the gearing is there it's all about how fast the pedals go round

are you congratulating yourself for scalping a folder on your road bike?

I've always ridden with mudguards, nice big wide ones, I didn't realise how much difference they really made until I started riding a bike without them.

I'm congratulating myself on not being scalped by a folder, by a guy from my previous encounter I know is no slow coach. Being able to compare two bikes under the same conditions against the same rider also gives me a better indication of the difference to my speed, out of personal curiosity.

 

[fossyant]

Mudgards make no difference.

 

[BSRU]

Mudgards make no difference.

From limited scanning of the interweb, they make minimal difference, although the wider they are compared to the tyre being used and the bigger the gap between them and the tyre can increase the drag effect slightly but still minimal and probably still not noticeable.
As in my case where I have replaced the 38c tyres with 28c, therefore the difference in width and gap are much greater than when I had 38c's on.
When I replace my headset in a couple of weeks I could remove the front mudguard for a while and see how much rubbish I am really writing.

 

[Norm]

I also notice the front chain ring is huge, much bigger than my 48 on the hybrid.

Well, yes, but your wheels are twice the size.

All other things being equal, 48 teeth and a 700c wheel would (approx) need 70 teeth on a 20" wheel and 90 on a 16" wheel.

 

[BSRU]

Well, yes, but your wheels are twice the size.

All other things being equal, 48 teeth and a 700c wheel would (approx) need 70 teeth on a 20" wheel and 90 on a 16" wheel.

It was one of those things I never thought about before I saw it.

 

[jefmcg]

When I'm on my Mezzo, and I don't mind getting sweaty, then I can keep up with most things.

As you observed the one exception are road bikes, and even then it is fun messing with there minds by drafting them.

Really? Have you upgraded it? The mezzo is notoriously under geared. I'm not sure of my cadence, but my top speed on the flat is a little over 20mph. from http://www.mezzobikes.com/UK/d9specs.php

GEAR INCHES
Gear ratios for 54 x 11-26t are:

11t: 78.9 17t: 51.0
12t: 72.3 19t: 44.0
13t: 66.8 21t: 41.3
15t: 57.9 23t: 37.7
26t: 33.4

 

[fimm]

One of my bikes is a Brompton. Some people whizz past me effortlessly, but equally I can catch and pass slow moving hybrids/MTBs with little effort. As it happens, yesterday evening two women on road bikes stopped behind me in the ASL. I gave it a bit of effort when the lights changed, and it took them longer than I expected to come past me (their acceleration probably not helped by the need to engage SPDs). Once they did come past I couldn't have stayed with them.

 

[palinurus]

My Brompton (not the fastest folder around) got me to work in the same sort of time as my slicked-up MTB and my (adnittedly heavy) fixed commute bike.

Folders can be quick. I did a few time-trials on one once- a (flat-barred) Airnimal. Similar times to a regular road bike.

 

[zigzag]

it depends on an engine innit. strong guys (and girls) on a folder would scalp most commuters, even on road bikes and lycra. i rarely see someone going really fast on my commute, maybe once a month.. roadies look like they can go fast (and they can in theory), but they rarely do. two fastest guys on my commute ride old roberts tourer and edinburgh cycles hybrid - it's always exciting to meet them!

 

[Arch]

it depends on an engine innit.

As someone once said, It's not about the bike...