Re: Science of cycling still largely mysterious

Am Thu, 22 May 2025 15:31:55 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:

On 5/22/2025 3:15 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

 
What I try to avoid are long stretches of rough surfaces and/or with
many potholes, because riding these ist grueling and serves no purpose,
when it comes to become and to stay fit. In addition, I like to visit
places. I'm still looking for parts of my region I haven't visited yet,
at least not by bike. I wouldn't be able to continue that on bad roads
or gravel.

On a couple tours, I or we have found ourselves on roads being readied
for repaving - ones that have had the pavement "scarfed" or ground off
by a sort of impact grinding. It produces a very rough surface that's
the worst I know for pavement roughness. It's very unpleasant even in a
car. But when I came across it on the bike, I had no alternative but to
continue.

Two weeks ago, doing one of my standard trips around the region, I found
myself in a similar situation, the upper part of road between two small
villages about 30 km away from my home was removed before repaving, a
standard practice to remove potholes too many to thread a pieca at a
time. It was still closed to cars, but barriers had be removed to allow
light vehicles like bicycles to continue - there wasn't any roadwork
going on on saturday and there aren't useable alternatives for people on
bicycles, either.

<https://www.mystrobl.de/ws/pic/fahrrad/20250510/hilberath20250510.jpg>

I didn't find it difficult to handle. I'm currently using 28 mm tubeless
tires with 3.8 bar in front and 4.0 bar on the rear (Conti GP 5000 S
TR).  After leaving the road to the left, I heard an adult explaining
how to ride a bike on this surface: shift down, hold the handlebars and
ride straight.  Turning around, I noticed a family on bikes riding by. I
couldn't resist taking a photo of this nice situation.

>
Around here, I find most gravel roads to be reasonably rideable, unless
the gravel is fresh, new and thick.

Reasonable rideable is something that I could and perhaps would ride
when I don't have a choice, but prefer to avoid, when I have a
reasonable alternative.

I try to ride where the car tires
have compacted it best.
>
But I do prefer smooth pavement, by far.

I think we agree on that. :)

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