Tophat Fiddle
Member
Okay, so--today was the first time I took my Q45 off the protected bike trails and areas in the park and out into actual traffic with actual, well, crazy people driving.
Generally, I found that I could maintain control of myself while riding right on the edge of the road, stopping at stop signs and red lights, turning here and there, and generally navigating the city streets. It's Saturday, so it's not terribly trafficky, but the areas of town like the Plaza District and Midtown had lots of traffic and pedestrians on narrowish roads.
No photos--I was busy following the traffic laws and making sure I saw what everyone was doing and they saw me--but below is the Garmin report from my watch.
I think in terms of controlling the bicycle and being able to watch everything around me while I'm doing it, I'm 85% of the way there. I've only had this bike 10ish days, so I expect some more improvement.
Near the end of my little jaunt today, I found myself facing one of the very few pretty steep hills in downtown Oklahoma City. I had resigned myself to walking up it, but instead, I did shift all the way down and just focused on pumping one stroke at a time. I found that by positioning my foot such that the instep was on the pedal as opposed to the ball of my foot, I was able to pedal all the way up the hill.
The concern I found myself having while I was doing this is--there's no way I can break the chain, is there? I was putting a huge amount of force on the pedal, and if that chain breaks, then all that force is going to push forward with nothing except my foot on the other pedal to counterbalance it. I believe that there's no other component that the chain feeds that force to other than the sprocket on the drive wheel, which I would think is much less suseptible to breaking from overtorque.
Am I going to send the bike back? Nope. Am I maybe going to get something, maybe a flag or flashing light or "slow vehicle" triangle or such, to put on the back of it? Yes, yes, and yes.
Generally, I found that I could maintain control of myself while riding right on the edge of the road, stopping at stop signs and red lights, turning here and there, and generally navigating the city streets. It's Saturday, so it's not terribly trafficky, but the areas of town like the Plaza District and Midtown had lots of traffic and pedestrians on narrowish roads.
No photos--I was busy following the traffic laws and making sure I saw what everyone was doing and they saw me--but below is the Garmin report from my watch.
I think in terms of controlling the bicycle and being able to watch everything around me while I'm doing it, I'm 85% of the way there. I've only had this bike 10ish days, so I expect some more improvement.
Near the end of my little jaunt today, I found myself facing one of the very few pretty steep hills in downtown Oklahoma City. I had resigned myself to walking up it, but instead, I did shift all the way down and just focused on pumping one stroke at a time. I found that by positioning my foot such that the instep was on the pedal as opposed to the ball of my foot, I was able to pedal all the way up the hill.
The concern I found myself having while I was doing this is--there's no way I can break the chain, is there? I was putting a huge amount of force on the pedal, and if that chain breaks, then all that force is going to push forward with nothing except my foot on the other pedal to counterbalance it. I believe that there's no other component that the chain feeds that force to other than the sprocket on the drive wheel, which I would think is much less suseptible to breaking from overtorque.
Am I going to send the bike back? Nope. Am I maybe going to get something, maybe a flag or flashing light or "slow vehicle" triangle or such, to put on the back of it? Yes, yes, and yes.
