Yes that is all very well that a lighter rider can ride up hills faster than a heavy rider assuming they ( the lighter rider) have a higher power to weight ratio. This article is a masterpiece. That first photo. This keeps the bike’s weight more centered because the front tire is closer in toward the rider. So Rider B wins by 30 seconds. An acceleration value (m/s^2) is needed. Determining Ideal Bike Weight. You guys are thorough bike nerds. About Us On level ground it takes just as much energy to maintain a top speed on a 30 pound bike as it does a 25 pound bike. Each piece of equipment has unique weight and aerodynamic (CdA) values, making them perform in ways that mirror outdoor physics. Mass times speed is (kg)*(m/s), which does not produce Watts. So, at 90kg (rider + bike), and with the assumptions made above5, I need to produce roughly an extra 52W of power for every percentage point the gradient increases by, in order to maintain 20km/h. I did once experiment, there was steep long hill that I could not manage with bike I had then, all racks, fenders etc. When you're hours into a ride and you're climbing a steep hill, it may feel like the weight of the bike underneath you is seriously slowing you down. If the total ascent is 4000m, and the weight of the bike and rider is 90kg (I wish! ), then a total of 4000 x 9.8 x 90 = 3,528,000 Joules needs to be found just to lift the weight up that distance. The scenery is truly amazing. Granted, that with this gearing and what is definitely a heavy bike, you won’t be traveling very quickly. If an athlete can lose weight without compromising power output, there is almost always an increase in performance, regardless of the course profile. Weight and speed. I need a help from anyone using this bike tool. I appreciate the extent of research you’ve done for this. I will add that I dropped 5lbs off the bike for a total weight loss of 25-30 lbs. W = (kg*m^2)/(s^3). Oral History Project Thanks! Build Your Endurance Base. Interesting stuff. I usually find Strava’s estimates, which are based on their power estimates, to be substantially over the real energy expenditure (especially for bunch rides); Garmin Connect, which I believe uses the Firstbeat algorithm, comes closer. Climbing dirt and gravel where speeds are far less than on paved roads, the 3.4 AR wheelset’s combination of light weight and stiffness provided the feeling of turbo-boost responsiveness. Most other expressions found while googling have an extra g product with similar values for the coefficient as you have here. Hope you didn’t get rained on. Its a good bike, but I feel I have to over-accentuate my attempts to weight the front end to corner the way I'd like. Just finished going over the North Cascades Highway in Washington state. Total energy expended? As can aerodynamics. Starting in October Ted did twice a week endurance rides. While not skinny his weight won’t hold him back. Thanks so much for your great analysis Matt. Now the maths here is an approximation that works rather well until you hit super steep roads (that just don’t exist). google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2062310126166513"; I’m curious how much more energy hill climbing burns as opposed to flat routes. His initial rides were 2:30 – 3:30 (40 to 55 miles with 30 to 50 feet per mile of climbing.) One of the coolest things about the hill climb season is that there is no weight limit on the bike you can use. I’m too tired from my bike ride up a 10 mile hill at the moment to be certain your formula could be used to get the answer to the problem I pose. i find this stuff really interesting. That would mean it becomes more easy to climb at 1.500m vs. sea level. We test how much difference 5 kilos makes on a 5km climb.Subscribe to GCN: http://gcn.eu/SubscribeToGCNGet exclusive GCN gear in the GCN store! For those without a power meter, the estimation is based on heart rate. Rider weight is far more important in the bigger picture because riders far outweigh their bikes. The Oltre XR4 aero road bike has a claimed frame weight of 980g and a fork weight of 370g, a total of 1,350g. Lighter weight often coincides with reduced durability. The bike should now be leaning toward the unweighted foot and your body should be in a straight line above the weighted foot. Average Weight Per Type of Bike. bike speed – headwind or + tailwind), v = speed of the bike through the air (i.e. The Effects of Weight. For example, a 5% hill has, Riding on heavier, wider tyres and/or riding on rough roads will increase the rolling resistance coefficient, meaning you’ll have to produce more power than you would on a smoother road, with thin tyres, for a given speed. Rolling resistance coefficient = 0.005, frontal area = 0.6m², air density = 1.226kg/m³. Save me building one. A: Not as much as you probably think. ... As the weighted foot finishes its stroke, transfer your weight to the other foot. It’s worth noting here that the 1 in 20 probably isn’t the best hill to use as an example as there are two significant gradient changes: from the first section into the false-flat, and from the false-flat into the final section of the climb. But this example should make it clear that the lighter you are the better suited you are to climbing, assuming a fixed power output. KOM: A Guide to Power to weight … Required fields are marked *. Posted 6 years ago. So what’s the plan to crack 17 minutes on the 1 in 20? At a sustained output of 200W (200 Joules/sec) it would need 4.9 hours just to provide that energy. If there is a head wind, this number will be greater than 1.0. Cheers. That said, the Tron bike is still one of the fastest on flat/mixed routes. Ted is 61 years old, 6’ 1” tall and weighs 167 lbs. Weight training” by riding a heavier bike is classic. The gradient is just shy of 10%. This issue of power-to-weight ratios deserves an article (or several) of its own, but we can see from the above that there are three main ways you can improve your climbing speed: If you’d like to have a play around with some numbers yourself, without having to worry about formulas, variables and coefficients, I’d highly recommend the Bike Calculator website and the excellent and free Bike Calculator app for iDevices. A typical masters C-grade rider might be able to sustain 300W for an hour, but above this “functional threshold power”, his endurance will drop off quickly. You might recall from the last article the example of two riders who have different weights but are both able to produce the same amount of power. The best climbing bikes in 2020, as rated by our team of expert testers. The good news is that losing five pounds is a fairly attainable goal for most people that will translate to some gains—plus, your cycling kit will fit a bit better. Let’s use arguably the most well-known climb in Melbourne, the 1 in 20, as an example. I was guessing the other way i.e. Downhill performance is composed and impressive, especially considering its short, 115mm of rear-wheel travel. The ideal weight for a bicycle is 15 pounds, since that is the lowest amount allowed in competition. A truly rewarding article Matt. What’s faster, a bike that’s two pounds lighter or a ten-watt increase in threshold power? But, in order to lose weight, you need to know how to approach your biking workouts the right way. There’s a missing acceleration component (m/s^2). As can aerodynamics. I am writing a thesis about sloping down with a bicycle and I need the minimum slope gradient that the bike stay running in the constant velocity.. no accelerations.. without the cyclist force… When climbing it is not all about weight, but also power transfer. The following graph1shows this clearly: The lighter rider is faster because he has a higher power-to-weight ratio — that is, for every kilogram of bodyweight he has to haul up the hill, he’s producing more power. We highlight some easy steps you can take that will help you to be more efficient on the climbs. The weight of your bike and gear is MORE important the less you weigh, or the less power you can sustain. This is why really good climbers are generally skinnier or smaller than average riders. We can estimate that a well-maintained bike has a drivetrain efficiency of roughly 95% though, so: So, at 90kg (me + my bike), on a hill of 5% gradient, with no wind and on a decent road surface, I need to produce roughly 139W of power to travel at 10km/h. You can see that the power required to overcome the rolling resistance at the increased speed is still tiny (2W), but the wind resistance has increased dramatically4 (63W). More than that, any bike frame on the list above can beat the Tron up the Alpe, using any wheelset on our list of top climbing wheelsets. Now imagine if the same rider, with the same functional threshold, managed to lose 5kg. I love it. Less time at the pie shop for me now…. The values I need are: You’ll recall that the formula looks like this: So plugging in the various values we get: P = (0.005 x 90 x 2.78) + (0.5 x 0.6 x 2.78 x 2.78² x 1.226) + (9.8 x 0.05 x 90 x 2.78). Normally we have the option of bikes that have their frames made of steel or aluminium and they weigh from anywhere between 25lbs and 35lbs and even 40lbs. Thanks too to Julian Del Beato, Jeremy Austin,and Marcus Nyeholt for their feedback and suggestions. It’s this dedication of yours that rewarded you with some huge PBs recently. Training & Coaching 2. For this calculation we’ll also need the average gradient of the 1 in 20 which is more or less 4% (not 5% as the climb’s name would suggest). Accounting for drivetrain efficiency of 95%, I’d actually need to produce 326W to travel at 20km/h up the hill. (6.8/22.9) x 60 = 17.8 minutes = 17 minutes 48 seconds. People have been trying to shave off the weight of every bicycle part, hoping to increase its speed and efficiency. Comix It's a simple fact that the less weight needing to be powered up a climb will result in a faster climbing speed. mass * g. This would mean multiplying the rolling resistance by 9.8 . google_ad_width = 300; Most would go for a mountain bike at 28 to 29 pounds. google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2062310126166513"; This distributes weight toward the front end increasing grip. Climbing is easier with a lighter bike, and easier with lower gearing. Some trip data of yours and Wades for endurance trips we can see online as Strava reports however they cannot be compared with Garmin reports. How does kg*(m/s) = Watts? 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