Ten watts is 2 percent of the 500-watt power requirement to maintain speed up a 10 percent grade. They are all very close to each other in terms of fitness, and they are also all very close to being the absolute best a human being can be.īeyond that, our result also makes intuitive sense: 3.21 pounds is just over 2 percent of the total weight of our 150-pound cyclist and 15-pound bike. Remember that professional athletes operate in an entirely different environment than the rest of us. If you’re having trouble telling what the difference is, save yourself the eyestrain, because there isn’t much - that’s the message.īut pro athletes use the lightest equipment they can, so there must be something to it, right? Refer to the second image, above, for a graph of the results. Everything is constant, except for the bike, so what we ought to see is a reduction in the power required to get up the hill. For each test, we’ll have her ride at 15 mph. The first bike weighs 15 pounds and the second bike will shave off the 3.21 pounds to weigh in at 11.79 pounds. Take a hypothetical rider and have her ride two bikes up a hill at the same speed. Is it worth it?Ī good approximate difference between an entry-level aluminum bike with a decent set of components and a top-of-the-line carbon model with some of the lightest components on the market is just shy of 3.25 pounds. But such upgrades could easily total $500 or more, which is also half a grand. Five grams here, 10 grams there, it all adds up, right? Pretty soon, you’re 500 grams lighter. That’s the allure of a carbon fiber bottle cage, an upgrade to carbon fiber cranks, handlebars, stem, carbon saddle rails, or wheel spokes. Riding up a hill, it may seem more important than ever to dump any and all extra mass we can from our bikes. In FASTER, I show the math that explains why just a degree or two of incline makes riding a bike feel so much harder. There are plenty of nice bikes on the road that are being ridden slowly.īut more insidious than inaccurate vocabulary is a simple overestimation of how much bike weight matters for most riding. Of all the equipment on your bike, your legs are the most critical component.
Even then the bike may not necessarily be fast. Physics holds a bike in place until you get on it and start pedaling.
There is no such thing as a “fast bike.” Bikes are neither fast nor slow. Learn more about the science of triathlon at. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!Įditor’s Note: This excerpt is adapted from the book FASTER: Demystifying the Science of Triathlon Speed by Jim Gourley and republished with permission from VeloPress.
0 kommentar(er)
