tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35788819.post4412984833105070599..comments2023-10-12T00:18:31.629+11:00Comments on Alex's Cycle Blog: Aero for slower ridersAlex Simmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00698332397074026424noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35788819.post-21432574688495126152013-06-18T07:20:07.427+10:002013-06-18T07:20:07.427+10:00As stated in my original comment, your point that ...As stated in my original comment, your point that aero improvements are good for all riders, both fast ans slow is well made.<br /><br />I mention the different perspective of time vs speed not because to the 1 hour or 24 hour record times but rather for many riders that compare average speeds on their routes. This is a common method of comparing rides for recreational cyclists.<br /><br />Possibly the best point for those riders to take away is that it is more rewarding to compare rides using elapsed time rather than average speed. For slower riders a reduction in time of one minute is a smaller increase in speed than a one minute reduction in time for the faster rider and therefore he can see small improvements more readily by comparing time rather than average speed.<br />Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05396247970731412236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35788819.post-41576608607540032062013-06-15T18:50:44.959+10:002013-06-15T18:50:44.959+10:00@cshansen73
Not sure I really understand your poin...@cshansen73<br />Not sure I really understand your point. Over a fixed distance, a speed increase is exactly the same thing as a time decrease. They are equally relevant.<br /><br />Sure, the 350W rider gains a speed increase of 1.45km/h, and the 150W rider gains a speed increase of 1.00km/h. But that's because the relative improvement over their respective starting speed is about the same, which is my main point.<br /><br />IOW if you make a 10% improvement in your CdA, then you can expect to improve speed by a little over 3%, no matter how powerful you are.<br /><br />But this is missing the real point, which is that *all* riders can see a time/speed benefit from an aero improvement, it is not only the domain of the most powerful, and you don't need to be doing 40km/h (or whatever) before gaining a worthwhile improvement in speed. <br /><br />Such lines of reasoning are fallacious.Alex Simmonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00698332397074026424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35788819.post-16801662140104662552013-06-15T18:35:54.708+10:002013-06-15T18:35:54.708+10:00@ unknown:
No, this does not skews things at all ...@ unknown: <br />No, this does not skews things at all since time to complete a fixed distance comprises the majority of such events. The only exceptions are the hour record and the 12 and 24 hour records, which represent a very small minority of such events, and are dominated by individual time trials and triathlons.Alex Simmonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00698332397074026424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35788819.post-79750958680550828752013-06-15T11:49:43.073+10:002013-06-15T11:49:43.073+10:00From the data supplied, going from 31km/h to 32km/...From the data supplied, going from 31km/h to 32km/h is barely significant, going from 42.75 km/h to 44.25 km/h is a significant increase. Speed increase is much more relevant than the time decrease cshansen73https://www.blogger.com/profile/01583075369306092506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35788819.post-86861558279308078482013-06-15T02:27:56.671+10:002013-06-15T02:27:56.671+10:00While I see your point in terms of time saved over...While I see your point in terms of time saved over a fixed distance. The use of a fixed distance for the test skews the result toward the slower rider. His test is over a longer time period than the more powerful rider so he has more time to benefit from the decrease in resistance.<br /><br />When looking at the speed benefit in terms of kph, the slower rider gains only 68% of the speed increase compared to the more powerful rider. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05396247970731412236noreply@blogger.com