Bike Forums - View Single Post - So, what will be the next useful major improvement in road bikes?

09-02-11 | 10:12 AM

#185

bud16415

Senior Member

Joined: Jul 2011

Posts: 1,141

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From: Erie Penna.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhyFi

Dude, look - at the top of a hill, you have potential energy. Same mass, same hill, same potential energy. Slippery bearings and clothing DO NOT CHANGE THIS, they simply minimize losses. Likewise, attaining a certain height on the next hill will require a specific amount of energy, whether you put that energy in on the downhill or whether you put it in on the uphill is your friggen choice.

Dude: In your own words you made my case. If you chose to put energy in on the downhill instead of the uphill it's my friggen choice. Assuming the downhill is before the uphill in terms of "time" am I not then storing that energy to be used later.

You are correct at the top of the hill potential energy in terms of gravity acting on me and my bike. To that potential energy being converted to kinetic energy as I start down I add additional energy thru increasing my speed thru peddling. Wind resistance, and rolling resistance consume some of the energy being released and the rest of that energy is consumed defeating gravity on the uphill. Nonetheless some of the energy is stored thru inertia and inertia is what the posted was suggesting when he said a flywheel. The wheels on your bike are flywheels and store small amounts of energy to smooth out the ripple of required energy. Even on level ground if I decide I want to surge and coast as a technique to get from point A to B I'm storing energy thru the inertia while surging and extracting it while coasting. Gearing is not a method of storing or producing energy in of itself and I never said it was, what I said it gives one the ability to travel at a optimum speed to store kinetic energy in the form of inertia.

If a machine is human powered and leaves on a round trip journey and during that trip it sees elevation changes and changes in wind and whatever else affects its progress. At no point along the trip any fuel is added except thru food to the human, Then IMHO any method the machine uses to become more efficient or conserve or store wasted energy should be considered fair game.

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