4 ms·
This was interesting: "By contrast, a person on a bicycle can go three or four times faster than a pedestrian, but uses five times less energy in the process.
by sponaugle 2y ago
This was interesting: "By contrast, a person on a bicycle can go three or four times faster than a pedestrian, but uses five times less energy in the process. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories. "
That sounds about right for a bike on a paved road, but I would assume over uneven ground the ratio of efficiency is less? Is a hiker on a trail that much less efficient than a mountain bike on the same trail? I would think that at higher slopes the efficency ratio goes down even more due to the mass of the bike?
- stevenwoo 2y agoThere's a small loss possible due to tires slipping a bit, also higher rolling resistance due to usually wider and less smooth tires. The grade needs to get steeper than 10% on pavement or off for the weight penalty of a bicycle to count against the rider versus the efficiency, depending upon the weight of the bicycle+rider. If you look at the times of guys in the Tour de France for climbs up mountains the fastest can do a four minute mile on the uphill parts, here's last years winner on a 10 mile climb https://www.bicycling.com/tour-de-france/a44465449/tour-de-france-2023-col-du-tourmalet-pogacars-strava/ https://www.bicycling.com/tour-de-france/a44465449/tour-de-f... For reference if a marathon runner could go that fast I believe they would run a 1:45 marathon - up a mountain. The top end cross country mountain bikes weigh about 6-10 pounds more than the bikes the road professionals are using.
- speedgoose 2y agoI haven’t done scientific experiments but I think a MTB is still quite efficient on average. But a lot less than a road bike without suspension nor grip on a flat road. When going uphill on difficult terrain with my mountain bike, I sometimes get passed by trail runners. If we continue on the same path, I pass them back on flat and downhill sections so it may be worth it. I can also bike quite a bit longer than I can trail run. Sometimes I have to push or carry the bike and the efficiency isn’t great for sure but a mountain bike isn’t that heavy and you can use it as support too. But it’s slower than a hiker going uphill.
- pastage 2y agoGood walking paths are always faster by bicycle. There is a 1000 km path through the woods of Stockholm it is not ment for cycling but I can still go at least 3x times the distance with no extra energy. This is with a normal bike.