Re: RE: Re: Riding through the years.

On 1/12/2025 1:49 PM, cyclintom wrote:

On Mon Jan 6 13:26:07 2025 Radey Shouman  wrote:

>
On the other hand, a Sherlockian villain would likely put them on
backwards, just to confuse the issue.  I doubt that performance would be
much reduced.

    It is very easy to tell the direction that a bicycle is going from it's tread prints in snow or mud. The rear tire crossing the front tracks leaves a ridge on either side. In this manner you can tell which direction the front tire was going. There is no need for directional tread on the tires.

Yes, the rear does always follow the front, as Mr Doyle wrote in the original. That does not, as later critics noted, tell the observer anything about direction.
To deduce direction, one looks at the wheel arc paths, which are asymmetric before and after a turn and also when climbing or descending.
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971