Anne presents a concise thought exercise, pertinent to the original post. While I agree that subtle differences in weight can make significant differences in speed and/or time, I'll gladly haul the cookies.
dougP On Aug 4, 2:01 pm, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 12:51 AM, charlie <charles_v...@hotmail.com> 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 rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
