Weight Vs Power
There has been major corporate competition to lower the weight of racing bikes. wheels are available with comparatively lower friction bearings and other features to lower resistance, however in measured tests these components have almost no effect on cycling performance when riding on flat ground. The UCI sets a limit on the minimum weight of bicycles to be used in sanctioned races, to discourage making structures so thin that they become unsafe. For these reasons recent designs have concentrated on lowering wind resistance by using aerodynamically shaped tubing, flat spokes on the wheels, and handlebars that position the rider's torso and arms for minimal drag. These changes can impact performance dramatically, cutting minutes off a time trial. Less weight results in larger time savings on uphill terrain.
Read more about this topic: Bicycle Performance
Famous quotes containing the words weight and/or power:
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)