Originally Posted by Maelochs

Actually, [MENTION=471203]seamuis[/MENTION] pretty much translated my post.

I am not a mathematician. I do understand that aero drag increases at a rate in multiples of speed, not directly, so that id you go twice as fast, the drag quadruples ... or some such. I thought it went by the square of the irate of increase ... but the basic principle is the same. if you go slowly, drag is relatively low. If you go a little faster, drag increases even more quickly. if you go way faster, drag balloons and gets to be huge.

Therefore ... if you are riding at 15 mph, the aero drag isn't huge, but if you are riding at 25 it is. if you are trying to get from 30 to 32 mph, the wattage increase is proportional to the increase in drag, which is Way more than the increase in drag going from 15 to 16 mph. (And yes, I see where [MENTION=54365]asgelle[/MENTION] claims it takes the same watt increase to go from 15-16 as from 30-32---but since the aero resistance is about three times as great or more, i don't see how that makes sense since you need power to overcome resistance and the resistance is not growing in a linear fashion... why would required wattage? Whatever.)