Originally Posted by
Richard_Rides
I would guess that a heavier rider carries more inertia and would not be penalized by wind gusts as much as the lighter rider...
Originally Posted by
Flatballer
Theoretically, yes. It should affect lighter riders more. They have less momentum and energy built up, so the wind becomes a larger percentage of their power output. Your body is heavier and allows you to "power" through the wind with your bulk.
Originally Posted by
NYJayhawk
There are a few things at work here, but in general terms, if you take a heavier object and get it going the same speed as a lighter object, the heavier object will go further because it has more momentum. So things like wind will have a bigger impact on the lighter object (throw a baseball as hard as you can and throw a similarly sized wad of paper the same way and see which one goes further).
For the record, on the flats, inertia and momentum aren't what's important. For a constant speed, acceleration is zero (by definition), and so you merely have to balance the propulsion and drag forces. The larger rider has more drag, but, as noted above, the larger rider tends to have even greater increase in power output.
The "larger rider has more momentum" rationale is incorrect because the ability of a heavy rider to "carry his momentum" is offset by the fact that it takes more energy to increase his speed through pedaling.
Up and down hills changes everything, of course, because changes in potential energy are proportional to mass.