Jake writes:
> From: Jake Hodges <jake@codeworm.com>
> Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 09:34:30 -0700
> To: Kevin Stevens <autox@pursued-with.net>, autox <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
> Subject: Re: Sunday's course
>
> At 12:10 AM 8/4/2004 -0700, Kevin Stevens wrote:
>> Wouldn't any left-handed course without a crossover have exactly 180
>> degrees more left turn than right?
>
> Eh. Some corners are harder on tires than others.. If you have all gentle
> lefts with nasty rights in between, you could have more left-side wear
> regardless of the overall direction of the course, right?
Obviously "right" but, I don't think, from the experience of my numerous
tire wear measurements, that it happens very often. However, at the 7-18
Stockton Sac Cup event the clockwise course implied the expectation of
greater wear on the left side tires. My actual wear measurements,
surprisingly, showed, essentially, equal wear on both sides. Why? Well, upon
thinking things through and consistent with Jake's observation, among the
nine right and six left turns/transitions there were three "hard-on-tires"
left turns that helped explain the "equal" wear.
Also note that my turn/transition count implies a possible 270 degree
difference in the 9 vs 6 turns/transitions. I think, in addition to Kevin's
"exactly 180 degrees" comment, that variations in the direction of of the
start and/or finish (as was the case on the 7-18 course) can result in total
turning differences in a range of 0 to 360 degrees on courses without loops.
Finally, for future course designers, it seems to make some sense that if a
loop is incorporated in his/her course layout that doing the loop in the
opposite direction of the overall course direction might, generally, be
advisable in the interest of not having extreme differences in tire wear
such as that experienced by Paul.
Don
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