High COG = Bad
I thought I'd post this because there was some discussion about a high COG actually being a good thing.
I remember reading an article in Cycle World that explained this. It was a full page long with lots of formulas and technical information, but on the next page was a very simple and easy to understand explanation. Here it is in a nut shell. Stand in front of your bike and mentally draw a line vertically starting at a point where the tires contact the ground. Are you drawing? Good. Now stop the line at the same height as the handlebars. This is your lever arm. Now imagine this lever arm weighs 800 lbs. Now imagine that 795 of those 800 lbs. are 1/2” off the ground. This is a very low COG. Now reach out and grab the handlebars, I mean the top of the lever arm, and jerk it as fast as you can right to left. Are you jerking? I knew that you where. Fast, easy and requires very little effort. You can STOP jerking now.
Now imagine that 795 lbs. is ½” from the top of the lever arm. A very high COG. Now jerk that! A good doctor might be able to pop that back into place.
The point of the article was, all other things being equal; a bike with a lower COG will handle better than a bike with a higher COG.
Now to really stir the pot; when do you think your COG is lower: standing on the pegs or sitting on the seat?
I thought I'd post this because there was some discussion about a high COG actually being a good thing.
I remember reading an article in Cycle World that explained this. It was a full page long with lots of formulas and technical information, but on the next page was a very simple and easy to understand explanation. Here it is in a nut shell. Stand in front of your bike and mentally draw a line vertically starting at a point where the tires contact the ground. Are you drawing? Good. Now stop the line at the same height as the handlebars. This is your lever arm. Now imagine this lever arm weighs 800 lbs. Now imagine that 795 of those 800 lbs. are 1/2” off the ground. This is a very low COG. Now reach out and grab the handlebars, I mean the top of the lever arm, and jerk it as fast as you can right to left. Are you jerking? I knew that you where. Fast, easy and requires very little effort. You can STOP jerking now.
Now imagine that 795 lbs. is ½” from the top of the lever arm. A very high COG. Now jerk that! A good doctor might be able to pop that back into place.
The point of the article was, all other things being equal; a bike with a lower COG will handle better than a bike with a higher COG.
Now to really stir the pot; when do you think your COG is lower: standing on the pegs or sitting on the seat?