BikeTechReview wrote:
DrAlexHarrison wrote:
Beautiful answer.
What are the UCI rules? I'm curious. I sometimes follow my wife in a UCI TT. ;)
2.4.023 The following vehicle shall follow at least 10 metres behind the rider, shall never overtake him nor draw up level with him. In the case of a breakdown, technical support may be rendered only with the rider and vehicle stationary and the following vehicle shall not hinder anyone else.
...what's the stopping distance of a car on dry pavement at 50kph?
-k
Thank you for doing the leg work finding that!
Stopping distance:
TLDR: I remember death gripping my brake levers when I saw the brake lights, and as the rear bumper approached my white knuckles, I remember thinking "damn... I didn't realize cars could stop
that much faster than bikes."
Full story: I was once young and dumb (I like to pretend that I'm old and wiser now. Humor me.) and I chased an old beater car and driver who took an aggressive swipe at my wife after she had crashed in the middle of the road and was slowly/gingerly pulling herself from the road. Chased for half a mile downhill and caught him as we hit a flat straight section. He slammed on the brakes. I might have scrubbed about 1/4 of my speed by the time his vehicle had come to a full stop. I jumped. The rear of the car ripped the bike out from under me, meanwhile I flew over the trunk onto the roof, sliding onto the hood and off the front of the car. I distinctly remember my awe at the physics of car tires and pavement and some expletives expressed in my brain towards the driver for using them against me. Amazing how fast thoughts can fly through ones brain in a single second!
Conclusion: I'm pretty sure that car stopping distance is shorter than cyclist stopping distance in virtually all cases. Only exception I can think of is if the cyclist hits a fixed object that fully stops their body-bike-system momentum. I don't think a crash with no fixed object would be problematic. Human bodies treat pavement like a slip'n'slide at 50kph.
Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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