Thanks. The gearing on the Trek 1000 and Trek 1000WSD is exactly the same, so if only the wheel sizes were different, the two bikes in exactly the same gears would be traveling at slightly different speeds. The WSD bike would be traveling just a little bit slower given the same RPM, etc.
Correct. It's also likely that the rider on the WSD bike would not only be going slower, but also putting out less power (working at an easier pace).
*If* the rider with 650 wheels wants to keep up, (s)he just shifts into a gear about 7 or 8 percent bigger. That cancels the difference in wheel size. Then the two riders are going about the same speed.
(If the riders were the same size, I'd say they're also putting out about the same power, but for the same speed, smaller riders don't require as much power as bigger riders.)
Thanks. The gearing on the Trek 1000 and Trek 1000WSD is exactly the same, so if only the wheel sizes were different, the two bikes in exactly the same gears would be traveling at slightly different speeds. The WSD bike would be traveling just a little bit slower given the same RPM, etc.
Correct. It's also likely that the rider on the WSD bike would not only be going slower, but also putting out less power (working at an easier pace).
*If* the rider with 650 wheels wants to keep up, (s)he just shifts into a gear about 7 or 8 percent bigger. That cancels the difference in wheel size. Then the two riders are going about the same speed.
(If the riders were the same size, I'd say they're also putting out about the same power, but for the same speed, smaller riders don't require as much power as bigger riders.)
Right, I understand. It is all these other factors that tend to cancel out any advantage the larger rider might have. All this makes sense.
