While riding to the Post Office

Ken wrote:
While I was on a leisurely ride to the post office this morning I was
thinking about the efficiency of the bicycle as compared to other
forms of
transportation for 1 person. It seems to me that it is far more
efficient
than say walking, running, horse back, horse drawn carriage or motor
vehicle. I can ride for hours, well at least a couple of hours, at a
relatively low speed and cover more distance than even the fastest
power
walker in the neighborhood. And then I got to thinking about just how
efficient it really is?

Try looking for Popular Science, circa 1972, when the bike shops sold
little signs for your seat rails that read I GET 1000 MILES TO THE
HAMBURGER.

Seriously, someone converted other modes to BTUs and figured out that
cycling is off the charts.

As in how much mechanical advantage is there in
riding a bicycle, I googled it and could not find any charts,
diagrams or
programs that one could use to calculate this. Does anyone know a
formula to
compute the mechanical advantage of the gearing of bicycle given the
number
of teeth on the front chainring and the number of teeth on the rear
cog?

Most efficient form of transportation, and that's before you factor in
the number of parking places needed per auto (one at each destination)
and highway wear 'n' tear.

HTH

--Karen M.
enjoys thinking

Ken wrote:
And then I got to thinking about just how efficient it really is?

From Wikipedia on 'bicycle', there is a reference to:

http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/1999/aug3099/30pedal.html

The authors ignored losses due to sound, friction between tires/ground,
air viscosity, .. etc., probably because these are bike- and/or
environment-specific factors. Would be interesting if they do a
similar efficiency study on Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, and DuraAce
components.

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 10:18:48 -0400, "Ken"
wrote in message
:

While I was on a leisurely ride to the post office this morning I was
thinking about the efficiency of the bicycle as compared to other forms of
transportation for 1 person. It seems to me that it is far more efficient
than say walking, running, horse back, horse drawn carriage or motor
vehicle.

I thought it was an open secret that the bicycle is the most efficient
form of transport on the planet?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

"Maggie" wrote in message
oups.com...

This kind of stuff is the cause of all the worlds problems. Do people
really care about this stuff? It's hard for me to even believe. This
is too much thinking. It may even cause brain damage. You should
preface these posts with MAY BE HAZERDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.
All good things,
Maggie


LOL! No, what really causes the world's probelms is politics... religion...
inequalities... poverty... lack of education... disease...

But discussions about bikes? Never.

Well, not unless some left-wing-commie-pinko-European doesn't admit that LA
is god ;-)

Cheers, helen s

Ken wrote:
I got to thinking about just how
efficient [a bicycle] really is?

This is posted in my office:

"Man 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. The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's
metabolic energy to the impedence of locomotion. Equipped with this
tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines, but all
animals as well." - Ivan Illich, _Energy and Equity_


- Frank Krygowski

The Wogster wrote:

Really they need to put that warning on televisions..... The worst
invention ever was the television.

Television isn't bad, just most of the content. I think TV can in fact
be very educational (Nova, TDC, etc..).

Want to do the whole family a
big favour, call the cable company and cancel it, the one or two
stations that come in kinda fuzzy will discourage TV use.

I think most people in the US can actually get ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN, and
Fox for free. We do.

Rich

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

I thought it was an open secret that the bicycle is the most efficient
form of transport on the planet?

Perhaps the most efficient form of PRACTICAL transport. I think
sailplanes beat bikes otherwise.

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 14:20:37 -0600, Rich wrote:

Perhaps the most efficient form of PRACTICAL transport. I think
sailplanes beat bikes otherwise.

You want practical -- how about sailing ships? Efficient freight carriers
for non-perishable goods. Energy input is only required for cooking the
crew's food.


Mike

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 21:05:19 +0100,
, "Just zis Guy, you
know?" wrote:

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 10:18:48 -0400, "Ken"
wrote in message
:

While I was on a leisurely ride to the post office this morning I was
thinking about the efficiency of the bicycle as compared to other forms of
transportation for 1 person. It seems to me that it is far more efficient
than say walking, running, horse back, horse drawn carriage or motor
vehicle.

I thought it was an open secret that the bicycle is the most efficient
form of transport on the planet?

Guy

"Man, unaided by any tool, gets around quite efficiently. He carries
one gram of his weight over a kilometre in ten minutes by expending
0.75 calories. Man on his feet is thermodynamically more efficient
than any motorised vehicle and most animals. For his weight, he
performs more work in locomotion than rats or oxen, less than horses
or sturgeon. At this rate of efficiency man settled the world and made
its history. At this rate peasant societies spend less than 5 per cent
and nomads less than 8 per cent of their respective social time
budgets outside the home or the encampment. Man on a bicycle can go
three or four times faster than the pedestrian, but uses five times
less energy in the process. He carries one gram of his weight over a
kilometre of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories. The
bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to
the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips
the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as
well."

- Ivan Illich
--
zk

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 14:20:37 -0600, Rich
wrote in message :

I thought it was an open secret that the bicycle is the most efficient
form of transport on the planet?

Perhaps the most efficient form of PRACTICAL transport. I think
sailplanes beat bikes otherwise.

OK, provided you have a convenient cliff to launch them from.
Otherwise the tow will have to be taken into account...

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound