I kind of agree with you (see my edits), but it is harder to decelerate on a bike than in a car, especially going downhill - you run the risk of going over the handlebars.
Not really. While I'm sure you could grab the brakes hard enough to launch yourself over the bars, there is a LOT of braking power to be had before that point.
I ride close to 6000 miles/year, most road cycling, racing criteriums and road races. Going over the bars because I simply grabbed the front too hard isn't even the top-20 things I worry about.
I had something similar happen, while coming downhill a car popped out of no-where and instead of just breaking, i also turned sharply and flew over the handle bars, luckily on the good side! The way we react in a split second of panic is not the way expect we will usually react.
One question though, her IQ was 173? Einstein's was between 160-180.
How do people actually get to know their IQ? Are they so full of themselves that they go and get tested so they can know just how superior they are? Or is it something standard in some part of the world?
You can usually estimate based on other standardized tests for people who haven't taken (or publicly disclosed) an IQ test. It's possible that the 173 figure is based on her CPA exam results or SAT scores.
IQ is just another meaningless metric. I'm supposedly 183, but I'm still a moronic cracked-out buffoon who struggles to remember what he ate for lunch.
On a hill? I was going too fast down a hill on a road cycle. Had a car behind me, and a very slightly raised manhole was ahead.
I braked, and went flying hard over the handlebars. I am not sure if I was going over before the manhole or not, but the hill radically changed how the brakes worked for me.
I was not there when that happened to you and I might be wrong but I cannot imagine that happening under normal circumstances. I used to race and during many thousand kilometers on the road I encountered many risky situations (including a car appearing out of nowhere if front of me while I was going down the hill on multiple occasions) and I am afraid of many things while I am on a bike. But I have to say that going over handlebars because of braking is not one of them. If I could venture a guess I would say that something might be wrong with your bike - bad geometry (some cheap/old bikes are unstable), tyres not pressurized enough, really bad brakes (front one working, back one not working) - if I were you I would make sure that my bike is safe. By any chance did you have a heavy backpack on your back? Or maybe you just panicked and did something you really should not do... like braking really hard with only your front brake? Please check your bike anyway.
I can't be sure. It was a friend's bike, and I was used to mountain bikes, not racing bikes.
I may have been leaning forward, I may have jammed the wrong brake. The bike may have had any of the problems you list. That combined with the manhole + hill speed was probably what did it.
I now use the public bike system in Montreal, bixi. Very convenient, and they're built like tanks, so I feel confident it won't happen again.
It depends on your technique. If you have the technique down it isn't difficult to rapidly decelerate on hills. It's mainly just a matter of bracing yourself, keeping your centre of gravity back and modulating the brake.
If you're not prepared for it and slam the front brake on your weight will shift forwards and you'll have lift off.
Riding trails for so long I sometimes take for granted the instinctual awareness of center of gravity without which its impossible to become even an intermediate mountain biker. Getting your weight back makes all the difference going down hill.
The bigger problem on a road bike are the skinny tires and twitchy handling make it very easy to fishtail and topple over when braking at speed.
That's not my experience at all - cars stop a lot faster than both motorcyclists and certainly than plain cyclists (I cycle almost every day multiple times).
The thing is, in a car you can basically be unprepared, then mash the brakes when somethings wrong. It's possible that'll cause you to lose control, but in general an emergencey stop whether controlled or not will stop the vehicle very quickly without causing any direct injury.
By contrast, on a (motor)bike if you mash the brakes you'll slip or even tumble head over heels. You're not wearing a seatbelt; and furthermore your vehicle loses control a lot less gracefully.
If you're prepared, it's a different story since you can rearrange your center of mass, and get a good grip beforehand, but in an accident situation... a car stops much more quickly.
I'm going to show my lack of cycling knowledge here, but I really don't understand what you're saying. Why wouldn't one just use the rear break and set their body, like when one rides a bus and has to stand?
Well, the front brake has ~70% of the stopping power (both on bikes and cars), so while that will work (assuming you don't skid in the back), it won't be the fastest. You can get quite a bit of stopping out of your front brake without going over, you just have to be precise.
You also have to keep in mind road bikes don't have disc brakes so precision is not part of road bike brakes. Those are most likely caliper brakes, which actually lock up fairly quickly when pressure is applied to the brakes.
Modern road bike brakes are plenty powerful enough with adequate modulation.
The real limiting factor on road bikes is traction.
Disc brakes on road bikes might give a distinctive advantage, even with greater weight. Disc brake rims need not have a braking surface and thus can be lighter having less angular momentum.
You've got a lot more ability to shift your weight on a bike than on a car.
The only time my rear wheel has left the ground while braking is when I've tried to do it intentionally. And I've made plenty of hard stops in thousands of miles of riding.
In addition to the other explanations about braking power, the reason why you have little breaking power is that most of your weight is over the front tire -- especially going downhill. Locking the back wheel up, means it just skids across the road.
It might be easy to go into a skid and lose control. I guess it depends on road surface, and maybe it's not an issue for the pros, but I nearly got into an accident once trying to suddenly stop using rear brakes while going a bit downhill.
