Originally Posted by
datlas
The whole "rotating weight" issue gets hotly debated and I don't know enough about physics to say who is right.
I tend to believe that weight is weight and it doesn't really matter where it is, but I do also know that lighter weight on the bike and wheels especially "feels" lighter....but probably doesn't make much of a difference.
It's certainly cheaper to lose weight off your body, and unless you look like Rasmussen (or PCAD's latest incarnation) makes more sense....but if you push weight loss too much you will be losing muscle mass and that is bad and certainly may slow you down in the end.
I hope that helps, but probably not.
only matters in acceleration.
doesn't make much of a difference when maintaining velocity.
The car guys know more about this stuff, and lightweight flywheel it highly desirable for performance cars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel
http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/flywhee...heel_works.htm
you might notice that the 'virtual weight lost' is an exponential decay type of chart, so the lightening of wheels only really matters at lower speeds. At higher speeds, when accelerating, there's less of an improvement, but it will be there.