Originally Posted by ramius
Thanks for the information, which is obviously well thought out and good, but perhaps I did not state clearly enough what the problem was: the difference between a smooth surface and a really horrendous one. I can easily see that wind drag would be by far the biggest factor riding on pavement, hard pack, or a similar roadway. But I think it just as obvious that riding, say, on a sandy beach with tires sinking up in the sand or through deep mud would require a great deal more energy even at a speed so low as to make wind drag minimal. I was just wondering if anyone had a way of quantifying it easily- which I know would be difficult, if not impossible, to do.
Was thinking of it more as an interesting mind exercise than expecting to be able to come up with perfect numbers, although it would be nice to get those as close as possible, also.
Checking out the links offered, thanks to all for the replies.
R.
I dunno--but you'd have to calculte the surface area beneath your tires, as well as the force required to lift your rims out of the gook if they are buried (the weight of the material above your tires).
The rolling resistance function (whatever that may be) given the area beneath your tires + the force required to "un-bury" your tires as you go. Since we are dealing with tubular sections of circular bodies, there are going to be lots of sines and cosines and sh*t. Who needs that? Just go and ride your bike and eat total in the morning.