Power to drive wheels

Quoted message said:

Hey,

Can anyone explain or point me to any source on the net, regarding the
power requirements of riding, particularly that needed to simply
overcome the inertia of the wheels from rest, that to get it moving,
and that to accelerate..and how much "rotational weight" counts in.
Some solid sources would be nice, I want to put this beast of a myth
to rest with a cycling friend and an LBS owner.... its almost
irritating now.

Ron

http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com

Carl does a great job of answering your question..but in a
nutshell..the energy required to accelerate a bike and rider from rest
is the mass of the bike and rider. Where the weight is doesn't really
matter. 180 pound rider with a 15 pound bike with the 'weight' of the
wheels at the hub or a 175 pound rider with a 20 pound bike with
conventional wheels..same energy to accelerate. The LBS owner ought to
stop reading wheel ads.

Quoted message said:

Hey,

Can anyone explain or point me to any source on the net, regarding the
power requirements of riding, particularly that needed to simply
overcome the inertia of the wheels from rest, that to get it moving,
and that to accelerate..and how much "rotational weight" counts in.
Some solid sources would be nice, I want to put this beast of a myth
to rest with a cycling friend and an LBS owner.... its almost
irritating now.

Ron

http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com

This Gent has done the work for you:

http://www.charles.whitaker.name/wheels.html

Joseph

Quoted message said:

Some solid sources would be nice, I want to put this beast of a myth
to rest with a cycling friend and an LBS owner.... its almost
irritating now.

Another myth that was floating around last year was that the rotating
weight really slows you down on a climb... since at a low cadence you
are constantly accelerating. But in reality you decelerate too, and a
higher rotating inertia actually helps since it reduces the
fluctuations in speed. Of course the higher weight is not good on a
climb, but if you had to put all your weight in the rims, that would
be the best place for it. In other words a 20lb bike with 4 lb rims
will be faster than a 20lb bike with 2lb rims.