Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Today it's all about Speed
Today's ride was just a few laps around Mastline Dr. At one high spot the hill drops about 100ft over about 1/4 mile while turning left. I hit it hard and maxed out at 32mph! That's 5 mph faster than my best on my standard hybrid bike. If it were a straighter hill without the blind left turn, I think 35mph is achievable. The 32mph felt plenty fast enough for the conditions:) I'll need to head over to Harry Truman for higher speeds with it's hills more like 150ft and is straight!
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With my ST1 toe-in set near zero I've found it unnervingly twitchy, but controllable at over 30mph. Here in Montana's Flathead valley, the county roads have no shoulders, and in town where I hit that speed the traffic was running about three feet to my left while my right wheel was in the rain gutter all the way down, with the usual drain gratings, dumpsters and mail boxes sticking out over the curb. A less traveled hill gets me to 27mph, but with turns, and a sharp left at the bottom. That's where I discovered how positive my brakes are. As hard as I hit them, I was amazed I didn't nose-dive. I love my Stowaway. BTW, if you ever experience an intermittent creaking sound from the frame, re-tighten the hinge locking lever. Amazingly, the frame still felt solid with the lever hanging completely loose.
ReplyDeleteI had my toe-in set to near zero, maybe 1/16 in. At 45mph it felt stable and I would have let her go to 50-55mph if the hill had been big enough:) What slowed me down was rain, felt like needles, but I don't think there was much more speed anyway. The GX fairing may have helped stability. One of these days when my knees are back I'll do some A-B-A testing. I did forget the hinge lever one morning. I noticed because I though the frame was broke and flexing on a climb!
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