Maximizing Efficiency: The Impact of Wind Resistance on Cycling Speed

[Paulie Paulie]

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Hi All. Apologies in advance as this is my first post so still learning the rules but I have an issue that no one has this far been able to answer. It started one day when my brother and I where riding our bikes and we had a tail wind of day 20 kilometres per hour. We were also riding at a speed of 20 kph and I said to him stay low as this will take less energy to pedal. The question is, and this is theoretical, if a rider is riding at 20 kph, on level ground and has a tail wind also exactly that same at 20 kph, would laying down lower give you any type of gain in terms of providing you better wind resistance. I’m sure someone could word the question better than I can, and I understand there could be outside variables but if we could ignore those and simply look at the basic question of what I am trying to understand. I have had engineers argue this and no one has so far been able to resolve the question. I appreciate you help in advance. Cheers Paul

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to PF, Paul.

*1* As shown in the big giant stickie thread at the top of the Introductions forum, please do not post questions in the Introductions forum. It's just for simple introduction posts (hence the name).

*2* As for your question, leaning down to lower wind resistance only applies when there is actually a headwind (whether from real wind or your own induced headwind due to your speed). If the relative headwind is zero, just sit up in the most comfortable position for you. If there is a net tailwind, sit up straight like a sail.

Thread is locked. @Paulie Paulie -- If you have follow-on questions, please start a new thread in the Mechanical Engineering forum where we usually discuss aero questions. Thanks.