Jack Dekker wrote:
On 28 jul, 12:56, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
snip
I think to be fair about this, you would have to pit a faired recumbent
against a faired upright in a largely mountainous terrain. Otherwise, you
are comparing apples to oranges and not getting to the heart of the
question, which is - can recumbents climb hills as well as uprights? I say
no.

Ed,
the going philosophy is that the size of the frontal area makes up
most of the aerodynamic advantage that a recumbent has. An upright
bike will possibly have a larger frontal area.
When you really want to compare the same rider should ride both
machines. In fact, the Chris Boardman and Greame Obree records are at
a high level and set at high altitude race tracks, these are not yet
broken by unfaired recumbent amateur riders.

Boardman and Obree were putting out ca 450W during their record rides.
By comparison, Sam Whittingham who has set the hour fully-faired record
on a couple of occasions had an average output of about 280W during his
runs, and Sam is considered one of the strongest recumbent racers.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken /
She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it’s labeled chicken.”