Bicycling and hypermiling

[basjoos]

Spending a lot of hours in the saddle of a bicycle (especially doing long-distance riding) is a good way to get a good grounding in the forces that influence the effort needed to travel forward. Like a hypermiling car, a bicycle is a low energy input machine. But with a bicycle, you are the power plant, so you get direct feedback via your aching legs, pounding heart, and gasping lungs exactly how much effort it takes to maintain your current speed. The effects of headwinds, tailwinds, and drafting are much more noticable on a bike than when driving a car. Even little things like the effect of the pavement smoothness on rolling resistance become very evident after doing 100+ miles on a ride. I found that keeping my wheels on the painted white stripe along the edge of the road rather than riding on the rougher unpainted asphalt made a noticable difference in the degree of tireness toward the end of the trip. And driving with load is the normal way of climbing a hill on a bike. I rode thousands of miles on my bike in high school before I ever got a driver's licence and did a lot of long-distance riding while at college. So when I started driving, I naturally transferred all of the techniques I had long used whele bike riding over to my driving. On my bike, I would accelerate up to cruising speed fairly quickly, cruise at the selected power output level, spend as much time in coasting mode as possible on the downhills, and let the velocity coast down to zero when I needed to stop. All of these are techniques I use when hypermiling a car and when I am in extreme hypermiling mode, I am monitoring a lot of the factors (minute changes in grade, wind direction, pavement moveness, etc.) that I would keep tabs on while riding a bike.

[kickflipjr]

I just started biking two years ago (serious biking). I live in a hilly
area and I have noticed how much it helps when i get some speed up before the hill. On a bike the more efficient you are the less tired you are at the end of the ride.

Oh this summer Me and my dad are going to ride across iowa.

http://www.ragbrai.org/index.html

^
the website is junk. But there is some info on there.

[ma4t]

Q: What do hypermilers and cyclists have in common?
A: Getting rid of the spare tire.

I just started cycling, too. It really helped me notice different places around town where I can coast. It's harder to realize at first when you're driving because it's so easy just to hit the gas. Not so easy when you have to pedal.

By the way, a good forum for cycling is: http://www.bikeforums.net/

m

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Going through loose sand is the equivalent of something like a 2-10% grade, and lets not talk about going uphill in loose sand.

[GasSavers_James]

I am biking to work every other day, partially to get exercise, partially to save gas, and wear and tear. The ride is great going down.....800ft vertical down a dirt road and then several miles into town and out the other side on pavement. On the way home though, first gear is all that is manageable (on the bike). The dirt and gravel surface seems to take a bit of extra energy to overcome.

I have heard that on looser dirt surfaces, a tire with a lower psi has a lower rolling resistance. makes sense i guess cause there is more flotation.

[Lug_Nut]

The commute is farther on the bicycle than in the car. One (or both) of the trip odometers is off by about 10%. The car reads about 9.5 miles each way. The bike computer reads almost 10.5 for the same route. Anyway, I cut the commute fuel by 20% this first week. My intent is to cut 40 to 60%.
It's 42 minutes going in and 52 minutes climbing up and out. I'm glad I set aside the 12 to 17 straight cog set in favor of a 13 to 23 wide ratio set. I hope to get back a large portion of my former fitness and to cut that commute time significantly. A 10 mile ride used to take me 25 minutes. That wasn't fast, but now I'm "half ast!"
It's amazing how 20 years non use affects the bicycle, because it can't possibly be the rider, can it?
Crap! I'll turn 48 next week!

[jiggersplat]

i have to agree. learning to ride efficiently can teach you a lot about how to drive efficiently. and never was i so convinced as to the benefits of drafting until i started riding (bicycle and motorcyle). some people argue that drafting is not safe, but you don't have to be nearly as close to the vehicle in front of you as you think to get the benefits of slipstreaming.