Saturday, May 19, 2007

Frontal Area and Aerodynamics of Bicycles


Lots of folks like to debate endlessly about the speed of bicycles and how much aerodynamics, tires, drive-train losses, etc. effect speed. I've decided that there are things more interesting to me than this particular debate, so I'll leave those discussions for others. However, I did find this picture in this thread over on the Bent Rider Online message board here:

http://tinyurl.com/yqrtsd

I think this is a very cool picture so I'm posting it here. From left to right you have:
  • A rider on with his hands on the flat section of a bike with a conventional drop handlebar
  • A rider with his hands on the brake hoods
  • A rider with his hands on the drops
  • A rider using aerobars
  • A rider on a recumbent "high racer"
  • A rider on a recumbent "low racer"
I will say that back in the day, I had a very fun, very fast little low racer built by John Williams. I did get tired of being at about the tailpipe height of a Miata in traffic, however. Modern low-racers are even lower.

But it was a damn fast bike. Of course, I did have my most spectacular crash on that bike and it was such a chick magnet (really, women thought it was the cutest damn bike ever!) that Christine was really happy when I got rid of that bike.
at

6 comments:

  1. Dr. Logan11:59 AM

    What became of the van and it's driver?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kent Peterson12:04 PM

    I think he got a ticket for the U-turn. His insurance wound up paying for the ER trip.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jill Homer3:12 PM

    That is a cool picture. Have you ever seen those streamlined recumbants? I can't remember their exact name. Noncomformcycling.blogspot.com has posted pics of them before. They look like something you'd see out on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Very cool indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vik4:03 PM

    That picture is from the Volae website with a lowracer photoshopped in.

    http://www.volaerecumbents.com/2007/volae_aero.php

    If only the whole world was flats and downhills then recumbents would be king!...=-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:13 AM

    A four person recumbent team did win RAO (Race Across Oregon) a couple of yeas ago beating all the uprights. Last year reacumbents placed 2nd and 3rd in the 4 person, and I think they placed 2nd in the 2 person as well. RAO is the hardest RAAM qualifier in the country with the most climbing. As with any bike, they can climb given the right engine.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:14 AM

    I read somewhere:
    "If you want to go fast you should not be on a bicyle"
    I can personally vouch for the fact that the smaller the frontal area of a bicycle (I can't vouch for recumbants), the more uncomfortable they become.

    ReplyDelete