Friday, December 24, 2010

The EST for safer winter cycling

The EST is an advanced technological innovation for winter cycling. If you were cycling in the winter and the weather is cold, you could risk frost bites on your face because the wind chill effect makes it even colder. The obvious solution is to put more clothes and some kind of mask to protect your face from the cold. This is a hassle. And we all know that having to wear special gear like a helmet or a hiviz vest for cycling is not appealing to anyone.

The more advanced option is The EST. After years and years of scientific research, they came up with this innovation. Carefully designed in the laboratories of the tyre manufacturers, they make tyres which take full advantage of the special physical properties of the rubber: it is not elastic in cold. This means the EST tyres automatically increase the rolling resistance and thus force you to cycle slower when it is cold. And the colder it gets the harder cycling gets. A cyclist can have a good work-out while cycling almost at walking speed, with no wind chill effect at all! Awesome!

The red line is the risk of frostbites without EST. You can see how it rapidly increases. The EST compensates the effects of cold by decreasing the speed (blue line), so the risk stays at the same, low level no matter how cold it gets. 
The Energy Sucking Tyres increase the safety of cyclists by lowering their speeds when they are encumbered by many layers of clothing. For example, when cycling downhill to an underpass, the tyres suck energy so effectively that the bike can stop despite going downhill. Just think what could happen if a cyclist has so thick mittens in his hands that he can not use the brakes! Or the brake cables were frozen? The energy sucking tyres keep the bicyclist in control of his vehicle.

In fact, the Energy Sucking Tyres are even better than regular brakes. Just try braking on ice. As soon as the wheels lock, you are going to fall. But, don't worry. The Energy Sucking Tyres can function as ABS brakes! They will roll, but slow you down smoothly.

I'm sure whoever came up with this idea will be nominated for a Nobel price. It could be in the phycics category or in the medical category. Maybe even both!

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