21 ms·

I wonder if there's a non-trivial amount of air resistance due to the wheel spokes whirling around at whatever RPM is necessary to attain 200mph? In the real wo

I wonder if there's a non-trivial amount of air resistance due to the wheel spokes whirling around at whatever RPM is necessary to attain 200mph? In the real world, it's negligible, but at that high RPM it seems like it must account for something.

denimnerd 8y ago
likely done on disc wheels so no spokes
bacon_waffle 8y ago
Yes, as the sibling says they'd be using disc wheels. I'm a bit surprised that for the OP's speed record they weren't - maybe they were more worried about crosswind wrecking the effort, versus absolute efficiency. With rollers (what I'd think the "treadmill" discussed above actually is), and a normal road bicycle, you can feel, or at least hear, the resistance just from the spokes in a spoked wheel when you really get get them spinning "real world" fast. On fancier road race wheels, the spokes are "bladed" for this reason - their cross section is flattened to minimise aerodynamic drag. Remember that when you're riding a bike in normal conditions, the top of the wheel is hitting the oncoming air at up to twice the speed of the bike. Though, there's also a substantial amount of appearance/marketing/armchair-engineering around...
smileysteve 8y ago
> I wonder if there's a non-trivial amount of air resistance due to the wheel spokes Even amateur cyclists often use "aero wheels" that no longer have spokes. They make a difference in the wind or at 20mph.