Disclaimer: Perhaps this post would be better situated in another forum, but there always seems to be quite a bit of scientific / engineering based discussions here in the downhill forums, so Ill place this here until a moderator sees otherwise (your call guys!). Im sitting here recovering from knee surgery number five (in the past 16 months
grrr
.), and thought Id post up some info that Ive been meaning to for some time now. As a further disclaimer, Im hoping that I am being somewhat coherent, you know, given the various pain meds Im on.
For all of you tech geeks out there interested in the scientific aspects of all things cycling, a pretty cool book on the subject is Bicycling Science, by David Gordon Wilson, with contributions by Jim Papadopoulos, 3rd edition, 2004. Its published by the MIT Press, and the author is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former editor of the journal Human Power, while the contributor is a PhD graduate of said university; pretty good base credentials Id imagine. That said, the book does at times weigh rather heavily on the technical side, so readers possessing an engineering education / background will certainly have an advantage over other readers, but its not so overwhelmingly technical so as to be useless to non-technical readers.
This book covers some topics many of you may find very interesting, and spends time discussing Human Power (Section I), Some Bicycle Physics (Section II), and finishes up with Human-Powered Vehicles and Machines (Section III). This book is decently sized in scope with about 476 total pages. Also, let me state that many sections of this book are geared more to road bikes / riding, but regardless, the science is still applicable to our interests as well.
The parts I found most interesting related to 1) human power generation (torque, power, and speed) and 2) pretty much the entire section on Bicycle Physics: they offer some great technical insight without the industry / manufacturer marketing twists (hint hint). There are some areas which an inquisitive mind will likely find both enlightening and questionable.
To summarize, I think its a valuable resource to all folks interested the science of bicycles and bicycle riders. How often do we bicyclist come across good, published scientific information? Also, theres great value in the sheer amount of references being cited in one book
Also, please note that this post is not intended to be spam of any sort I got the book as a gift several years ago and all I'm trying to do is share information on a subject where technical materials specific to bicycling are few and far between!
For all of you tech geeks out there interested in the scientific aspects of all things cycling, a pretty cool book on the subject is Bicycling Science, by David Gordon Wilson, with contributions by Jim Papadopoulos, 3rd edition, 2004. Its published by the MIT Press, and the author is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former editor of the journal Human Power, while the contributor is a PhD graduate of said university; pretty good base credentials Id imagine. That said, the book does at times weigh rather heavily on the technical side, so readers possessing an engineering education / background will certainly have an advantage over other readers, but its not so overwhelmingly technical so as to be useless to non-technical readers.
This book covers some topics many of you may find very interesting, and spends time discussing Human Power (Section I), Some Bicycle Physics (Section II), and finishes up with Human-Powered Vehicles and Machines (Section III). This book is decently sized in scope with about 476 total pages. Also, let me state that many sections of this book are geared more to road bikes / riding, but regardless, the science is still applicable to our interests as well.
The parts I found most interesting related to 1) human power generation (torque, power, and speed) and 2) pretty much the entire section on Bicycle Physics: they offer some great technical insight without the industry / manufacturer marketing twists (hint hint). There are some areas which an inquisitive mind will likely find both enlightening and questionable.
To summarize, I think its a valuable resource to all folks interested the science of bicycles and bicycle riders. How often do we bicyclist come across good, published scientific information? Also, theres great value in the sheer amount of references being cited in one book
Also, please note that this post is not intended to be spam of any sort I got the book as a gift several years ago and all I'm trying to do is share information on a subject where technical materials specific to bicycling are few and far between!
