(Epic sound)
- [Narrator] In this video,
we're going to show you
how fast you can go around the corner,
on a bike,
before your tires lose grip.
As you're going to see though,
they are no GCN in the sunglasses here,
and it turns out,
that losing it
is harder than we thought
but, ah well, you'll see.
- Of course, every corner out on
the open road is different
but we thought on an actual race track,
Castle Combe here in UK
we'd be able to find out exactly
how far you can push things.
We're gonna ride this corner,
again and again
and faster and faster and faster
eventually, we're gonna slide out
on the tarmac.
- Yeah, now Dan and I between us,
we've got a fair bit of experience
or riding road bikes.
And so we have a pretty good idea
about just how far we can push it, safely.
And so it's slightly unnerving thing
that we got to go to that point
and then beyond it.
- It is, I don't know if I want to actually do this.
Who is doing it? Your idea.
- Rock paper scissors?
- Yes, go on. - Okay
One, two, should we just ask James?
- Hank, would love to do this.
- I think he would.
(guitar sound)
We've just thought you'd really want to do this
and get your teeth stuck into another challenge.
I'd think you're the perfect man for the job anyway,
cause I've watched some of your, career
and you're really good at pushing the limits
and often sort of going beyond the limits, weren't you?
You spent a lot of time off the bike
and not much on it.
- Yeah, but I thought that was finished.
I got into presenting while to not fall off.
You know what I mean.
- Yeah, but it's a big opportunity,
I think this video is gonna go down really well.
A bit like you.
- But I crashed at Red Hook,
like can we not use that?
- You'll be fine mate, honestly
you'll be fine, come on.
- We're not gonna wait till this dried up?
Well, wait another five minutes.
- The premise is really quite simple one.
We decide that James should use our
cheap bike for this
because quite frankly,
it'll be a bit criminal to use a
Trek Madone for this kamikaze mission.
We haven't changed much,
but we have changed the bar tapes
some fresh white stuff
because the previous bar tape was
I have to say,
offensive to the eyes.
And we've also changed the tyres.
These are the brand new
Continental GP5000s
- So that he's going almost as fast as possible
before he does finally lose grip, harsh.
Right, now this is going to be
corner of choice,
cheeky little right hand there
with a nice downhill entry.
His pace is going to be
controlled by a motorbike each time.
Partly, for control,
and then also partly to give
our cameraman an excellent place to film from.
- Come join GCN they said,
it'll be fun they said.
On Red Hook and now this.
Is that all they think of, bloody stuntman.
Alright, come on James.
Come on!
- You think he's gonna be okay Dan?
- Yeah he was chatting to
one of the girls in the office the other day.
Says he's also a professional stuntman.
- Oh really? That's lucky.
Be quicker mate!
(upbeat music)
What up mate?
- Alright guys, nailed it no?
- Almost, yeah we're getting there aren't we.
- Yeah yeah we're...
feels like we are getting close.
- A little bit a little more
then you'll be off with ya.
- [Man In Red] Boom!
- What? Can I not get some like
protective clothing?
Do ya know what I mean.
- I reckon you can yeah, if you want to.
- Have you got any?
- Be a good idea wouldn't it? - I mean its...
- Add to the scars you already got.
- No, it's quite scary.
- You're gonna have a long around it though.
You have to push it quite a way.
- Yeah - Yeah, go and get
yourself changed.
- It's harder than I thought.
- You'll be alright mate, commitment.
- Yeah, thanks guys, thanks.
- Rule number one of GCN presenters.
(zipping sound) - Whoa!
- Alright guys, think I'm ready.
- You look ready. - Aw yeah!
- Suited and booted.
- [Man In Red] Okay mate, 100% commitment.
And uh, well, off you go!
- Good luck mate
- Cheers guys - Good lad.
- Watch yourself mate.
(impending music)
- The speed is starting to ramp up now
but before we take it up another notch,
let's consider the reason
why James actually hasn't crashed already
with a quick physics lesson.
So, when you turn a corner,
you generate a centripetal force.
That's the same force you feel
if you were to swing a weight
on a string except in this case,
there isn't a string
pulling James round the corner of course.
The centripetal force is actually
generated by the grip of his tires
and him steering around the corner.
Now, to counter the apparent
centrifugal force,
effectively pushing James out
he's having to lean the bike over.
The faster he goes, the greater the force
and the more he's got to lean the bike.
However it gets to a point
where the centripetal force,
is actually too great
for what's called the
coefficient of friction
at the tyres
and that is the point of which
he's going to lose grip
and then,
we'll see what happens won't we.
(intense music)
- Well that was an entertaining day,
I've enjoyed watching James
try to fall off a bike.
Eventually he did manage it,
but I think what we've learnt
above everything else is that
actually if the conditions are perfect,
you got a dry tarmac, smooth tarmac
and good tyres,
you can bang that bike over it
a blooming long way can't ya. - Yeah, yeah
to try pretty hard to fall off don't we?
- I think we could all say quite
a lot of confidence from that
and our daily cornering.
Of course, if any of those factors change,
you'd need to factor that into
the speed you approach a corner.
- Absolutely, the weather of course,
the fact that wet tarmac
has considerably less grip
than dry tarmac
as does rough roads or loose roads
and then of course,
your tyre choice as well.
It's absolutely fundamental
various different things affect
the level of grip you get.
So for example,
wider tyres will tend to be able to generate
more friction or more grip because
there is a greater area of rubber
basically in contact with the road.
Same to with lowering your tyre pressure
that puts more rubber in contact
with the road where you
therefore get more grip.
Then finally, your choice of tyre itself
the actual rubber compound that's
in contact with the tarmac.
- In this case of course,
it was the Continental GP5000
which have just come out
and for their compound,
where there's fine balance them
between getting low rolling resistance
but enough grip.
Cause you can't have a much harder compound
in a bicycle tyre
and it'll probably last longer
and it might have low rolling resistance
but it won't have is enough friction on the floor.
- Now, so in conclusion to all of this
and I think its fair to say isn't it
that this skill of cornering,
the art of cornering
as she comes down
to being able to make those
instantaneous decisions
based upon the speed that you've got.
The road underneath you,
both the look of it
and the feel of it,
and then being familiar
with the equipment that you're using.
- From that point of view,
we're talking about skills,
fairer place James is on his way back now.
- Yeah mate
- Unbelievable stuff mate - You alright?
- You were flying through there.
Have you hurt yourself?
- Nah, I'm go-
what I'm amazed about is how far
you can lean the bike.
- Yeah, we've just been saying exactly the same thing.
- It's actually hard to crash.
- Yeah well, you didn't make it look hard
in your pro career, ironically.
But today, you struggled.
- Yeah, fair play mate.
Fair play.
- Alright?
- Alright mate, that was...
- Giving me leathers back?
- Oh yeah
I should probably leave the crashing to you.
- Yeah, maybe.
(solemn music)