41
votes
Why is a road bike faster than a city bike with the same effort? How much faster it can be?
Having made the change myself, I can confirm that shock absorbers are actually detrimental to city riding. You lose a lot of power, especially when trying to stand on the pedals for acceleration.
...
- 511
37
votes
Accepted
Is cycling behind a truck a bad practice?
It is really dangerous to follow a large vehicle closely. It is possible behind a directeur sportif in a passenger car which is smaller: you can see through it, and the driver is a cyclist who knows ...
- 17.4k
29
votes
What aspects contribute most to me being slow on this bike?
For riding on the flat on a sealed road, bike weight isn't that important. It just takes you longer to get to your steady-state speed.
Tyre air pressure - for a MTB on the road I'd aim for 40-50 PSI ...
- 131k
27
votes
Accepted
How much easier is it to go fast on a road bike and why?
Aerodynamics are very important in cycling, and the faster you go, the bigger a factor aerodynamic drag becomes, because it increases with the square cube of your speed, but other sources of drag (...
- 30.4k
27
votes
Accepted
What aspects contribute most to me being slow on this bike?
Since no-one else posted this as an answer (Vladimir touched on it in comments) i'm going to add it. Please don't take this the wrong way, its not designed to be insulting.
Simply put, you are slow ...
- 18.5k
22
votes
How much easier is it to go fast on a road bike and why?
Try a quick poke of your values into http://bikecalculator.com/
Assuming you're doing 165W, weigh 80 kg, riding a 15 kg bike with knobbly MTB tyres, and using a "bar-tops" position returns ...
- 131k
19
votes
Accepted
Can you ride a bicycle at 90 km/h on a flat road?
In my younger foolish years I actually did this exact scenario, except at a slightly lower speed 85 kph (speed limit was 80 km/hr), but for a distance of nearly 10 km (between two suburbs). In my ...
- 30.8k
18
votes
More Speed Needed - Hybrid Bike
You can certainly buy more speed with either new components or a new bike, but it wouldn't be my recommended course of action.
In terms of buying speed, aerodynamics and rolling resistance are the two ...
- 18.5k
17
votes
For fitness's sake, is it better to ride with low cadence in high gear or higher cadence in medium gear?
In terms of losing weight immediately, the obvious answer is to use whatever gear combo allows you to produce the greatest energy output. For most people this will likely be a hair lower than the "...
- 54k
17
votes
What aspects contribute most to me being slow on this bike?
You are a cyclist if you’re riding a bike and enjoying yourself.
Who is averaging 30km/hr ? You can’t hope to compete with road bikes on that bike. 15km/hour is not a bad average for a 26” bike with ...
- 6,284
16
votes
Relationship between speed and cadence?
Speed is determined only by gearing, of which crank, cassette, wheel, and tire are components
Any 2 bikes using, say, 42t cranks with a rear 32t cog and 25c tires on 700c wheels at 90rpm will be ...
- 161
16
votes
Why is a road bike faster than a city bike with the same effort? How much faster it can be?
Some representative values from http://bikecalculator.com/veloUS.html. It's a road-bike calculator, so it's not quite accurate. I simulated a hybrid/city bike by having the rider on a 30-lb road ...
- 10.8k
14
votes
Why is a road bike faster than a city bike with the same effort? How much faster it can be?
Let's assume you are talking about speed on a non-inclined surface for a given level of effort. (When we talk about how 'fast' a bicycle is we can also mean how well it accelerates from a standstill ...
- 75.9k
14
votes
Accepted
How much faster would I go with a better road bike?
That's really hard to answer. Every year, bike makers come out with claims that this year's model is N% more aerodynamic than last year's, etc. Although they don't always give hard specs on CdA.
Also, ...
- 30.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Fastest way to get faster up hill
Unfortunately, there is a fairly straight forward reason why you actually need to ride hills in order to get faster at them: crank inertial load.
We have two main types of skeletal muscles. (Skeletal ...
- 30.8k
13
votes
Can you ride a bicycle at 90 km/h on a flat road?
It's all in the air resistance. Flat out is not much more than 50km/h for me on a deserted road. Even 10 metres behind a bus it's much easier (but you still have time to react to braking). I actually ...
- 62.4k
13
votes
Biking Target Speeds
I agree with Criggie's answer, but there's another way to look at it. Speed is mostly a function of power output. And you can quantify a cyclist's fitness in terms of their power-to-weight ratio, that ...
- 30.4k
12
votes
Fastest possible drivetrain?
The gearing does not make you faster. It only allows you to pedal at an optimal cadence. Sort of like selecting the right gear in your car. Shifting to the highest gear does not make your car ...
- 17.4k
12
votes
How much faster would I go with a better road bike?
I maintain the bikes for an elite rider who funds his career by coaching while he finds a team.
The main thing holding you back on a bike is aerodynamics. The faster you go, the more true this becomes....
- 15.8k
11
votes
105 Shimano 10 speed shifters - compatibility with 11 speed rear derailleur
This is to do with the different pull ratios employed by the different systems.
In your case 10 vs 11 speed Shimano.
http://blog.artscyclery.com/science-behind-the-magic/science-behind-the-magic-...
- 3,063
11
votes
Is it worth upgrading to 28mm tyres from 25 for a 250 mile ride?
If you're going to change anything before the big event, change it now and allow time for any problems to arise, then be sorted out before the event.
Generally, a 28mm tyre is said to give lower ...
- 13k
11
votes
Relationship between speed and cadence?
The mechanical factors which translate pedaling rate to overall speed are:
Gear ratio
Size of wheels
The weight of the rider is not relevant for this question.
The weight of the rider would be ...
- 875
11
votes
Is it possible to accurately measure airspeed on a bike, and is it useful?
There are devices designed for bicycles that measure airspeed. And older example is the iBike, but there are others. The iBike is intended to be used as a stand-alone power meter, and makes ...
- 14.2k
11
votes
Accepted
How important is to have many gears on a e-bike?
It sounds like you are trying to choose between two specific ebikes. If you come from a bike riding background and intend to use the ebike in a similar context as you did a traditional bicycle, I ...
- 2,696
10
votes
Why is my new front wheel not spinning?
The most likely problem is that the brakes are rubbing. If you pick up the front of the bike, hold your head near the brakes and spin the wheel you shouldn't hear any noise from the brakes. If you ...
- 5,631
10
votes
Does going faster always result in more calories burnt
All other things being equal, yes. The increase in effort more than makes up for the decrease in ride time.
Consider two scenarios where one rides 20 km: first at 25 km/h, second at 30 km/h. In the ...
- 30.4k
10
votes
Does going faster always result in more calories burnt
Speaking purely in calories and power, this is just a small elaboration on Adam's answer: the power required to maintain a certain speed against aerodynamic drag is proportionate to the cube of that ...
- 36k
10
votes
Accepted
How does biking speed correlate with the required effort?
The simplest physical model gives that the energy is proportional to the square of the speed but in that model maintaining a constant speed requires zero energy.
This is a slight misstatement. If you ...
- 36k
9
votes
Do I need a Road Bike to go fast?
The short answer is that:
Yes a well sorted road bike can increase your speed, if it is done right;
That said, you can optimize a CX bike to be very similar in speed to a dedicated road bike; and
...
- 30.8k
9
votes
Accepted
For fitness's sake, is it better to ride with low cadence in high gear or higher cadence in medium gear?
All things being equal, aerobic exercise is probably best for losing weight (after all, the only way to lose weight is to breathe CO2 out your nose). If you use too high a gear, you might be less ...
- 875
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible