Small wheel handling question: easier to wash out at high speeds?
So I got my bike friday rebuilt to be more in line with how I ride- 451 wheels with 1.125 primo comets, drop bars, etc.
Riding home last night, coming down a wet constant radius circular bike bridge (like a freeway off ramp), my front end washed out and I went down pretty hard, face first. Ouch. Nothing permanent- teeth are fine, bike isn't even scratched.
I've got a couple theories as to why I wiped out, thought I'd see if the esteemed forumites here could tell me if I'm right.
1: front tire was grossly under inflated. I saw it was low, thought about pumping it up, didn't. My guess here is that small wheels are a lot more sensative to low pressure than big ones.
2: Don't know the bike well enough to be riding it as hard as I was. I was pushing a bike I was very unfamiliar with, with very unique handling characteristics, a lot harder than I should have, especially given the conditions (hard rain just an hour before, roads very wet).
3: Just plain took the corner too fast. With the weird gearing you get with small wheels, I was pushing a 42/11 through the corner. On a traditional road bike, I might have slowed it down a bit. Plus, no speedometer on the Friday, so no idea how fast I was going. Figure between 17 and 20 mph when I went down.
4: all of the above.
If anyone has any thoughts about this, I'd love to hear it, even if they are "you're an idiot." Are there special concerns with smaller wheels- is there less traction in the wet or is this just a simple case of washout due to under inflation?
Obviously, my concern is that I'd not like to repeat this. Figure next time I'm not going to get so lucky.