Re: When is fat too fat?

On 3/24/2025 8:12 AM, zen cycle wrote:

On 3/24/2025 8:01 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

zen cycle <funkmasterxx@hotmail.com> wrote:

On 3/24/2025 7:43 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>
The speed benefits are usually explained by less energy transmitted to
the rider's flesh, where it is lost (and adds discomfort). In this
forum, I remember Jobst rather fiercely defending rolling drum data, and
saying that those energy losses should not be considered part of rolling
resistance.
>
That may be a semantic argument. It's clear those losses are real, and
they need to be considered _somewhere_.
>
>

I’d argue that speed shouldn’t be anyone’s sole concern.

>
For some, it is, with justification.
>
https://efprocycling.com/tips-recipes/this-is-how-wider-tyres-and- rims-can-make-you-faster/
>

>
Even for pro racers comfort ie other factors come into play, ie having a
wider tyres even if largely neutral in rolling resistance, not getting so
fatigued and so on.
>
And that’s road, let alone the Gravel races and so on

 My feeling is that if it makes them faster, they'll put up with the discomfort.

I'm sure a racer will try his best to put up with the discomfort. But in general, discomfort lessens a person's capabilities; and I think that's especially true of the discomfort that comes from having one's body vibrated excessively. It's enough of an issue that the U.S. Army has paid for research on how to reduce that sort of discomfort. From your link: "I think it’s very important to have a lot of comfort when you ride 170 kilometers average for 21 days.” (I think a reasonable amount of comfort is beneficial even on 50 mile rides.)
Also, in the efprocyclng link above, this statement seems not detailed enough to me: "Rolling resistance is mainly caused by the friction produced when a wheel rolls over the road."
That sounds like the classic and (I think) simplistic view, that the lost energy is absorbed entirely by the tire's rubber and fabric. I think more of what we call "rolling resistance" is energy transmitted into the body and then lost within the body.
--
- Frank Krygowski