Originally Posted by
Anarchy4ever
Am I understanding this right?
1. rocking the bike does help generate more speed, but it is less efficent.
2. It is less efficent for two reasons,
A. your using additional arm muscles to generate the back and forth movement. which means your wasting energy, because this back and forth movement has no down force. and it is the down force that propels the bike.
B. the side to side motion generates ALOT of friction on the tires. this i because you are riding the bike on an angle. If you dont beleve me try holding your bike sideways for a few seconds the next time you ride, and see if you dont eithier start slowing down, or even here the tires rubbing against the ground. This friction creates alot of drag, thus reducing your overall gain even further.
3. Personally, I have been able to sprint at very high speeds, without rocking my bike. I still use alot of arms to keep the bike stable while standing. but I am concentrating all my power too my legs.
I am still pretty new to road bikes so can someone please correct me if I am wrong.
Curious what your idea of sprinting at a high speed is, especially since you are new to this?
Regarding your points above, it is incorrect that using your arm muscles is wasting energy because the motion
is going into force at the pedals; by pulling up on the bars you can generate more force on the pedal than you would otherwise be able to with just your legs. It is also incorrect that the bike being at an angle is generating extra friction on the tires, at least not a substatial amount. When you are doing that the bike will slow down probably because you are no longer pedaling, or no longer pedaling with as much force. If you had a power meter and you held your power constant I think you would find that your speed would not be
substantially different (I'm not claiming necessarily that it would make no difference).
Edit: I don't mean that the side to side movement is not wasting
any energy, I just mean that it is not an entirely wasted movement, as it is used to allow the legs to drive the pedals with more force than otherwise possible.