Comfort on bikes

[esldude]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812017109

Saw this over on slowtwitch and thought it might be of interest to some here. No big surprises other than apparently wheel construction has little effect on vibrations transmitted into the bike from the road surface.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812016876

This one is about thermal comfort of cyclists.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812016189

This one is about wheel selection for use in crosswinds.

[Ken Robb]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812017109

Saw this over on slowtwitch and thought it might be of interest to some here. No big surprises other than apparently wheel construction has little effect on vibrations transmitted into the bike from the road surface.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812016876

This one is about thermal comfort of cyclists.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812016189

This one is about wheel selection for use in crosswinds.


I think it's funny that the writer of the article about wheels and comfort keeps referring to the wheel's "axel".

[monkeybanana86]

No big surprises other than apparently wheel construction has little effect on vibrations transmitted into the bike from the road surface.


At first I thought this didn't make sense since different even tire pressure values can definitely be felt. But I guess different "construction" doesn't vary as much as tire pressure. This is interesting. Everyone may put their soldering irons away now

I started reading that MIT bicycle science book from years ago and was happy to read an experiment where this professional cyclist's performance only went down by a small percentage when comparing his numbers from his prime days to numbers when he got older. I don't remember the specifics but this reminds me that I should finish the book.

[Chance]

No big surprises other than apparently wheel construction has little effect on vibrations transmitted into the bike from the road surface.

It must be relative. Most all wheels are relatively stiff compared to tires and how they vary by size and air pressure. Also, compared to old steel frames which were practically 100 percent stiff (in vertical direction) wheels made some difference. More so when old timers ran 120 PSI or more. Today with carbon frames, or metal frames with carbon seatstays, there is a lot more vertical movement so wheels become even less important by comparison.

All we need is for vibration at wheel axles not to reach bars and seat post. Can't be that hard to decouple, right?

[Mark McM]

No big surprises other than apparently wheel construction has little effect on vibrations transmitted into the bike from the road surface.

This doesn't surpise me a bit. The (radial) stiffness of wheels has been measured to be in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 lb/in - very stiff indeed. A 200 lb. shock load will only deflect the wheels by about 0.01 - 0.02 inches (not very much). In comparison, we know that shock loads in the same order of magnitude can pinch flat a tire, which requires a deflection of about 1", which means the tires can have several orders of magnitude more compliance than the wheels.

And then there's my own personal experience - I own and use a multitude of wheels, with rim depths from 13mm to 42mm and spoke counts from 12 to 36, and I can't tell a difference in road vibration or comfort between any of them.