• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Walking Commentary

Walking Commentary

Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • ManRom Completed
  • Chapbooks
  • Scarves

21: Rolling Resistance

October 3, 2023 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

21: Rolling Resistance - view of the countryside

This is an adventure not a science or engineering experiment but I keep on coming across unknowns.

For example, why did it cost 8 for a single espresso in Lausanne and only 3.60 for a doppio (double) in Pavia?

How do I gauge and control my calorie intake to match the energy needed to cycle?

Who knows these unknowns?

Another thing that’s been on my mind on this adventure has been rolling resistance. I won’t bore you with too many of my manic thoughts but frankly, rolling resistance has far more important consequences than tiring me out (sic).

It came to a head today when we cycled a segment of EuroVelo 5 that is NOT ready for prime time and is in fact, very dangerous. Sure, some of it’s only a proposed route but since there are no signs anywhere, cyclists are being put into hazard by the existence of EV5 maps.

Three complex issues factor into my rolling resistance thoughts. Smoother tyres have lower rolling resistance and require less pedal effort to propel a bike. Smooth roads ditto. Narrow tyres, ditto again. Cracked road surfaces increase resistance and very cracked roads offer additional pinching and trapping hazards for narrow tyres. Other road users don’t always know these things so when cyclists have to avoid the damaged edges of roads, they put themselves in harm’s way. Let’s not mention cobbles.

But here’s another thing. Electric vehicles are so heavy they are known to be damaging the roads. Less widely known, their tyres are wearing out faster due to the weight they carry, the torque they generate and the variability of road surfaces. Golfers know that a stimpmeter is used to measure the speed of putting surfaces, so called greenspeed. Why aren’t roads metered for rolling resistance and road builders required to meet specific rolling resistance standards? And if they are, and I’ve read 2017 documents suggesting such standards, why don’t the public see the labels on the roads? Noise, wet skid, lifespan and rolling resistances need to be labelled.

What’s your point, you say? Particulates is the point. I read a report in 2020 that suggests tyres are the micro-pollutants from hell. Just as sugar is the new nicotine, tyre particles may be the new exhaust fume. Worse, sugar and tyre particles may be even more deadly than the two health hazards I suggest they are replacing. More on sugar another day.

Back to the cycle. It was 30 centigrade this after afternoon as we cycled into a wind and climbed up 300 m from the Toro River to our B&B. We only covered 62 km today, saving our legs for tomorrow when we need to climb up another 750 metres before lunch else the heat will destroy us.

The better segments of the EuroVelo 5 cycle route will take us into Tuscany, up and across the Appenines through the Cisa pass. And on Aulla.

21: Rolling Resistance - all the gear
Via Francigena map
A wide country vista
Selfie with Canterbury and Roma signs

Filed Under: Rome2023 Tagged With: cycling, rome

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Recent Comments

  • Lia Mills on 39
  • Lia Mills on Symbionts
  • Simon Robinson on immaterial WITNESS
  • Lia Mills on immaterial WITNESS
  • Ann Marie Hourihane on Flight from Rome

Categories

  • Anchoritism
  • Chapbooks
  • Fake Memoir
  • ManRom2021
  • Rome2023

Tags

albert einstein bbc birds bird watching booklink bracket books ireland brian greene burma cancer chapbook colum mccann computing Covid-19 cycling dog dun laoghaire fabhappy flowers geology geophysics hans rosling ireland irish times issued lia mills london movies nobel prize pandemic PEN international photo photography photos photozines plants poetry popular rome simonscarves the uplift kit travel ungrievable volcano walking walkingcommentary

Recent Posts

  • 39
  • Symbionts
  • Éigse na Brídeoige 2023
  • Cook’s Book
  • immaterial WITNESS

Archives

  • June 2024 (1)
  • February 2024 (1)
  • January 2024 (1)
  • December 2023 (1)
  • November 2023 (1)
  • October 2023 (14)
  • September 2023 (20)
  • August 2023 (1)
  • July 2023 (1)
  • June 2023 (1)
  • May 2023 (1)
  • April 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (1)
  • February 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (2)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • August 2022 (1)
  • July 2022 (1)
  • June 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (1)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (2)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • May 2021 (9)
  • April 2021 (30)
  • March 2021 (31)
  • February 2021 (28)
  • January 2021 (31)
  • December 2020 (31)
  • November 2020 (30)
  • October 2020 (31)
  • September 2020 (30)
  • August 2020 (31)
  • July 2020 (31)
  • June 2020 (30)
  • May 2020 (31)
  • April 2020 (30)
  • March 2020 (31)

Footer

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • ManRom Completed
  • Chapbooks
  • Scarves

Subscribe

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Copyright © 2025 · Revolution Pro on Genesis Framework