HomoFaber:
Zetorpilot:
Very nice! I wonder what that bendy-bus is like to drive on black ice?!Lot’s of “fun”, especially when it goes uphill, stalls, slides back and jack-knives… and you don’t have to be at the wheel of it, it’s enough to be behind one. Regular occurence in any country that sees temps below freezing point.
Actually they seem to cope surprisingly well during winter. What still today, even after observing those back-engine bendy-buses for six winters, surprises me is how easily they seem to be able to pull out of an ice covered bus stop or from a set of traffic lights, even when on an incline. Yes, it often isn’t just as smooth as in summer, but odd thing is that usually the drivers don’t seem to be even a careful with the amount of throttle they’re giving (often it seems like throttle has only two positions, full and idle, despite the weather ). If there happens to be a wheel spin when leaving lights, traction control pretty much takes care of it. When it’s really slippery they also rely on torque converter and let it pull the bus away from the worst spot at idle revs before getting enough traction to apply more throttle.
Of course it’s true they don’t behave on a snow like they do in the summer. When riding as a passenger on the back of a bendy-bus it’s not uncommon to feel some side-way sliding when going around a corner Also when riding on them I’ve been on couple occasions almost certain it wouldn’t be able to pull out of the bus stop (at least by going forward), but somehow torque converter made it possible by pushing bus forward at idle revs little by little until there were better traction. Of course it also matters very much what kind of tyres are on drive axle (they do not use studded tyres, only enough sipes on tyre tread).