Triumphrat

andrewp

so, this has been bugging me for a while... me and my riding buddies can't seem to agree on what exactly would have happened.

i was riding down a busy street a few months ago, speed limit-ish. suddenly this idiot at a bus stop lost control of his basketball and it rolls in front of me just as i was about to pass. it missed my front tire by inches and i actually knocked it with my wheel to the side as i passed. what do you think would have happened if i happened to hit it straight on?

a) b-ball would have bounced forward out of the way as it hit my tire. bike and me is fine, i go punch the kid in the face.

b) b-ball would have caused me to catch massive air as my tire gripped and rolled over it, causing me to crash, i go punch the kid in the face repeatedly until the police show up.

now remember, this is not a beach ball or a balloon with no weight or grip. this is a regulation size/weight basketball.

saphena

I'd guess (a) but I think the more important question is: do you think you would have scored?

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andrewb

Fowl...er FOUL:

andrewp

hehe yeah that was my guess too.

raproe

When I was a kid my brother had exactly the same thing happen to him while we were on bicycles. Granted, a Schwinn isn't a Triumph, but he hit it head on, crashed, and broke his collar bone.

Rich

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"....by its very nature, a single-tracker is in unstable equilibrium, i.e., it cannot, when stationary, stand up by itself."

gavinmccarthy

My two cents...
I reckon if you hit it dead center, you'd have gone a tumblin'. Anywhere off centre and the ball would have been knocked away.

HiDesert

If the tire has a better grip on the ball than the ball has on the street, the tire will kick the ball out of the way. If the basketball has a better (or equivalent) grip on the street than your tire has on the basketball, then the tire will ride up the ball. My money's on (a), but we can easily arrange the experiment. Youtube, here we come!

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ChurnDog

I want to see the mythbusters on this one. All I can picture is a spectacular accident. But If I had to bet money, I'd go with option (a)

raproe

Not necessarily. With this friction option, if the MC wheel hits the ball "close enough" to the ball's centerline it can grab the ball and slightly ride up on the ball while the ball spins backwards. The bike will then slide off one side of the ball either a) kicking the ball out of the way or b) causing the bike to high side when the wheel falls off the ball and hits the street with the forks turned at some funny angle. At least on a Schwinn I know it can cause a high side. Mythbusters can try it on a MC.

Rich

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"....by its very nature, a single-tracker is in unstable equilibrium, i.e., it cannot, when stationary, stand up by itself."

HiDesert

I can pick up the front end of a bicycle to spin the tire. I've never seen anyone do that with a motorcycle. It's going to take a lot more force to lift the front end of a motorcycle so it can climb the ball. The ball has much less inertia; if it's got less grip on the road than the tire has on the ball, the ball will start to rotate under much less force than it takes to start the bike rotating (which is what's really happening if the motorcycle's front wheel climbs the ball - the motorcycle is rotating around the rear axle).

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