Please keep a look out Friday afternoon and we can make a group call based on the weather...in case we get rained out, here are some of what I planned on covering on Sunday in case we get rained-out. Remember to take everything with a grain of salt:
Riding formations/proper blocking: Assuming the road is free from debris, for all lanes, except for the inner most lane, the lead rider occupies the left 1/3 of the lane. The next rider follow ~2 seconds behind on the right 1/3 of the lane. The 3rd rider takes the left 1/3 of the lane, etc... The reason the lead take the left 1/3 of the lane is to force any car behind the rider to do a proper lane change to pass the rider. IF the rider is in the right 1/3 of the lane, a car from behind only need to get 2 wheels into an inner lane to pass the rider. However, if the lead rider is in the inner-most lane, then the lead rider occupies the right 1/3 of the lane (all subsequent riders stagger) to for any passing vehicles to do a full lane change to pass.
Challenges of group riding: Group riding is a lot of fun, but try not to be pushed to ride beyond your ability. If the pace is faster than you are comfortable, then you have 3 options: push harder (not recommended by me), arrange to meet at the next turn point, or wave goodbye and ride what you are comfortable with. Another thing to watch out is the tendency for you to follow the rider ahead of you with your eyes. This is a common mistake. If you look at the rider in front of you then you will follow his/her line. If they go down, you go down. Try your best to look at the space beside the rider infront of you so that if he/she goes down, your eyes are already at your escape route.
Hand signals: There are a lot of hand signals and different riders will use the same signal to mean different things. It is best to check if you are new to a group what signals they use and what they mean. Signals are meant to be passed up and down the chain. Typically the lead rider will call out most of the signals, but if you are in the middle of the pack and need to stop, hit your horn and high-beam and put up a signal. It will/should get passed back to the last person and front to the lead. Here are some of the ones I will use.
- One finger in the air: Single formation (twisties ahead, everybody rides their own line)
- Two fingers in the air: Double/staggered formation (city, highway, transition areas where speed limit is observed)
- Fist in air: Prepare to stop a the next safe area. I use this for rode-side stop, gas stop, drinks, stop, and bathroom stops since a stop is a stop. Other folks will use different signals to mean different types of stops
- Tapping my helmet: Police ahead. This is also sometimes use to alert riders I pass to let them know the law is ahead
- Waving forward (typically pointing behind me and sweep to in front of me): Pass me and take the lead
- Waving up (typically from waist height to head height): Speed up, tighten up the group
- Waving down (typically from chest height to seat height): Slow down, give me more space and slacken up the group
Road design: This is important not just for racing, but also everyday riding as properly solving a turn makes the rider safer and funner!
There are only really only 3 basic types of turns: constant radius, increasing radius, and descreasing radius.
A constant radius turn means the turn unfolds at a sonstant stead rate. This means, if you lock in the correct lean angle in the begining, you can maintain that lean angle through out the entire turn.
An increasing radius turn means as the turn unfolds, it widens out. This means, whatever lean angle you locked in at the begining, you CAN lean even more if you want to (i.e., go faster) towards the end.
A decreasing radius turn means as the turn unfolds, it get more narrow. This means, whatever lean angle you locked in at the begining, you NEED to lean even more towards the end. This is the type of turn that usually gets people.
Two other key road features are camber and slope. The road surface can also have neutral camber, positive camber, or negative camber. Neutral camber is a flat road. Positive camber is a road that is tilted into the turn. A negative camber is a road that is tilted away from the turn. The road can also be flat, uphill or downhill.
The interaction between turn types, camber and slope is where ridinge get fun and dangerous. Since people typically dislike decreasing radius turn I will only list these so you can be thinking as you are riding: A constant radius turn with a negative camber becomes a decreasing radius turn, a constant radius turn that is downhill becomes a decreasing radius turn. an increasing radius turn with extreme negative camber and/or extreme down-slope can become a decreasing radius turn. However, a decreasing radius turn can become a constant radius turn if it has enough up-slode or enought positive camber.
IMPORTANT: If the ride happens, we will ride the Bear Mountain loop. There is one turn where there is a constant radius turn with a strong slope. Depending on which direction you take it, it is either an increasing radius turn (uphill) or a decreasing radius turn (downhill). This is a great turn to understand road design. I will call this out in advance with a slow-down signal if we take it downhill.
