On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 12:51 AM, charlie <[email protected]> wrote:
> What I am talking about is minor weight differences (as the original > poster mentioned) like between a 23 pound bike and say a 29 pounder. > Those differences can't amount to much OK, let's say I compare my 23 pound bike with that same 23 pound bike, but with six pounds of... something... added. Food. Cookies, say. I and my twin will ride side by side, me on the unladen bike, OtherAnne on the bike with the cookies. -- OK, we're climbing our favorite hill, which usually takes us around 30 minutes. Say that I, with all of my bike clothes and everything, weigh 170 pounds. So I have a total of 193 pounds on the unladen bike, and OtherAnne has 199 pounds, about a three percent difference. Air resistance is negligible at climbing speed < 10 mph; speed is linear on total weight. I drop OtherAnne like a bad habit. She's over a minute behind; I can't even see her. By the time she finally makes it to the top, I start making references to having to use a calendar to time her. (Of course, I can't have a cookie while I'm waiting, because she is carrying them.) Where I live, cyclists climb a lot of long hills that take over half an hour, because the flats have traffic and stoplights. If I'm giving away over a minute on every hill to my friends with lighter bikes, that might not be vitally important, but it's not nothing, either. -- Anne Paulson My hovercraft is full of eels -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
