D
Doug Goncz
Guest
Hello all. I haven't been by here in a while.
There was a bicycle science newsletter in the early 80's that had a graph of pedaling power and
efficiency, with points along a "breaking wave" shaped curve, labeled every 10 rpm of pedaling pace.
The peak efficiency on the graph was about 90, the peak power, about 120.
I have read in Marks' Standard Mechanical Handbook for Mechanical Engineers that the peak efficiency
occurs at half maximum effort and one quarter maximum pace. Could this be a misprint? Or does it
make sense to pedal slower and harder. Do most people pedal lighter and faster to avoid the feeling
of leg stress, transferring the load to the heart and lungs?
Can you provide, please, a link to a graph in *.pdf or a web page, showing more recent results for
pace, power, and efficiency?
Sorry I couldn't find an exercise or bicycle ergonomics newsgroup. Any particular group you could
recommend for this search?
Yours,
Doug Goncz, Replikon Research, Seven Corners, VA (truncate pee dot mil antispam for mail)
http://users.aol.com/DGoncz http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=DGoncz "Function, Funding, Form,
Fit, and Finish"
There was a bicycle science newsletter in the early 80's that had a graph of pedaling power and
efficiency, with points along a "breaking wave" shaped curve, labeled every 10 rpm of pedaling pace.
The peak efficiency on the graph was about 90, the peak power, about 120.
I have read in Marks' Standard Mechanical Handbook for Mechanical Engineers that the peak efficiency
occurs at half maximum effort and one quarter maximum pace. Could this be a misprint? Or does it
make sense to pedal slower and harder. Do most people pedal lighter and faster to avoid the feeling
of leg stress, transferring the load to the heart and lungs?
Can you provide, please, a link to a graph in *.pdf or a web page, showing more recent results for
pace, power, and efficiency?
Sorry I couldn't find an exercise or bicycle ergonomics newsgroup. Any particular group you could
recommend for this search?
Yours,
Doug Goncz, Replikon Research, Seven Corners, VA (truncate pee dot mil antispam for mail)
http://users.aol.com/DGoncz http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=DGoncz "Function, Funding, Form,
Fit, and Finish"