Old 08-31-07 | 05:58 AM
  #170  
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NealH
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Joined: May 2003
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From: Triangle, NC

Bikes: S-Works Tarmac

A tacking sailboat can move to windward but, it derives it's power from the wind energy that the skipper did not create. Assuming there is no wind, a rolling bicycle derives it's power only from the skipper, or gravity if going downhill. In any event, a wheel does not add power. It might be able to extract power someway from wind energy under a peculiar set of conditions much the way an airfoil does when the wind is askew but, for normal riding on flat surfaces with no pre-existing wind the wheel does not add energy.
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