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Bicycling Science, Third Edition
Released this April, David Gordon Wilson's updated Bicycling Science fills the gap between, on the one hand, shop manuals and training guides, and on the other the contemporary literature on human powered vehicles. Wilson, Professor Emeritus at MIT, navigates physics and physiology to produce a hefty source of insight.
Wilson splits his book into three broad sections -- the biology of human power generation, the physics of turning complicated muscle motions into linear velocity, and radical redesigns of the standard diamond bicycle frame.
The first section explains, among other things, the role of oxygen uptake and distribution, and gives empirical and theoretical backing to some, but not all, of the conventional wisdom surrounding cycling. The curious will find a detailed explanation of why high pedal cadence allows for long-term, low-intensity, high-efficiency power generation. Modifications to the standard choices -- from elliptical chain-wheels to hand-powered cranks -- are analyzed critically.
The second section might be jokingly termed "extreme high school physics." Wilson explains how people intuitively balance and steer on two wheels, and the design of braking systems to avoid flip-over. He gets down-and-dirty in the metallurgical literature to explain the role of metal fatigue in frame failure, and into fluid dynamics to discuss air drag in laminar and turbulent air flows.
Wilson manages to give a sense of how the different demands physics makes on all aspects of bike design cohere into the more-or-less efficient system that we recognize today as the road and mountain bike. Wilson is an innovator, but he has a healthy respect for current designs along with a good deal of skepticism for passing fads such as that for ultralight components.
The final section covers Wilson's love: the radical redesigns of human powered vehicles to enable people to not only cover vast distances or reach high speeds, but also to swim, submarine, fly and even hover or flap on the power -- between 100 and 700 W -- the "NASA standard" man or woman can provide on timescales between hours and seconds.
The text occasionally jumps into a wider historical and social context to provide lighter relief, such as the diagrams that compare cycling's efficiency to other modes of of transportation (cyclists handily undercut a fully loaded diesel commuter train for calories expended per rider.) Wilson is not amused by those who would compare cyclists to dolphins or hawks in terms of efficiency, distance, or speed -- too bad. A brief rant against cars near the end is the exception to the rule of Wilson's professional, honest style.
Bicycling Science can be used as a handbook for the armchair designer of human powered vehicles. Or, if you prefer, as a way to answer the nagging science questions that arise after a thoughtful bike ride. Perhaps its most inspiring use, however, is as a bed-table compendium of stand-alone investigations into what engineers have come up with on a device that has been perfected, again and again, for decades longer than the internal combustion engine.
You can purchase the Bicycling Science, Third Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I have to say they've changed a lot about the book, more than is noted above. It's more accuruate now, but it's kind of unnerving how many incorrect explanations of fluid dynamics and quantum mechanics slipped by last time.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
Forget bikes! Real geeks use the Segway!
Or in my case, watching the hands-on tinkering of the guy up the street at the bicycle shop. Seriously, after fiddling with the guts of the insides of various PCs all day, the last thing I want to do is rip the back tire off my bike and fix a flat (which is something I currently need to do).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Just wait until they motorize these bicycles. Imagine the possibilities of riding a bicycle without a helmet at 90 mph. They could form entire gangs of people riding these motorized bicycles.
And geeks could look down on them for using a higher-tech solution than their regular bicycles. Ironic how they see nothing wrong with a Linux Users group, but as soon as it's a Motorcycle Users Group, they're some kind of lower life form.
Boy, I can't pass that up. If the windows NT server next to me were a bicycle, it would be nice and shiney, have one gear (slow), and the wheels would fly off every now and then for no apparent reason, with the random luckiness that it attracts meteorites(i.e. worms and virii) from the sky. But hey I can upgrade to the new even shiner M$ bicycle, which has pretty much all of the features mentioned above, except it is faster because it would be running on brand new hardware (but mostly just attracts meteorites faster too).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
But the bicycle from a broad design perspective has not changed much since its invention, save from a departure from amusingly large front (or is it back) wheels. So it seems to me that the bicycle is far from optimised in terms of muscle use. I've seen various contraptions over the years that I suppose attempt to imrove on this. One that I saw just a few days ago appeared to be powered like a rowing machine. Another more popular variation on the cycle has the rider sit much lower to the ground. But I believe this one only serves to have the rider in a more upright position. So does this book point out the "best" design for the cycle?
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
I commute by bike. I have found that it is a great way to burn off the stress of the day. On my ride home, I can think about all the things that pissed my off that day (or in general) and get them out of mind by the time I get home. If I drive, I really notice a difference in how I feel when I get home. Plus it's good excerise as well as I can get a good laugh when I pass a gas station sell regular for $2.40 a gallon.
You'll fit in real good at the scientist loony bin in the "She Blinded me with Science" music video. If it looks out of place there (like a regular bike would), it is not "real geek".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Wilson is an innovator, but he has a healthy respect for current designs along with a good deal of skepticism for passing fads such as that for ultralight components.
Hardly a passing fad. People have been drilling their chainrings (and everything else) for as long as there have been hills to climb.
Every day I ride home to the top of my hill I'm glad to be hauling 17 pounds of bike versus 25.
Let's see...I've been a competitive cyclist for 15 years now and within 5 years, I'll be getting out of I.T. to open my own bike shop. I took up rock climbing about six months ago, and I'm horribly addicted. I went through a lot of hand-to-hand fighting training in the Army. And I definitely fit the definition of a geek. But from what I've noticed, geeks gravitate to sports that are gear intensive -- cycling and rock climbing both definitely fit the bill.
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Take a suitably wide piece of paper. Lay it down on a carpeted floor.
Sit on it, and rock your pelvis forward a little.
Notice the two major depressions? Those are your pelvic bones. That is what you want to contact the seat.
Mark circles on the paper where the depressions are, and take it to a bike shop. Compare it against several seats.
Buy one.
Further info here.
And I thought I had broken out of geekiness by riding a bike to work every day, and becoming an enthusiastic rock climber.
Thanks for destroying my illusions of normalcy, Slashdot!!!
My bicyles
Drill baby drill - on Mars
If I had mod points I'd mod you troll, but surely you must know that in many municipalities cycling on the sidewalk is illegal and cyclists are obligated to ride in the street.
Not only that, but on streets without bike lanes, the law often dictates that a cyclist ride in the middle of the lane.
-carl
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
The typical introverted geek usually keeps few close friends and is not highly social, and avoids unnecessary physical conflict. This same nature extends to choice of sport. Seclusive sports such as rock climbing, kayaking, bicycling are easy choices for people with this sort of personality, as they can be practiced alone, or with a close friend or two. When done together, these are often cooperative sports rather than competitive.
This is not to say that all geeks are this way, or that geeks that are are afraid of other sports, but that a noticable number of geeks find solitary sports more comfortable.
It doesn't require a laptop (too heavy anyway) but a PDA. I just bought a personal GPS receiver and am working on a program for my Pocket PC to give me audible directions while biking/driving using maps I build myself (tracing over aerial imagery).
I mean, unless you've kind of got a death wish. It's about the best way to get hit by a car -- they are far more likely to see you if you are on the road, but when some guy turns directly into you because he didn't see you on the sidewalk...
:)
Oh, and it's usually illegal.
Get a city map, pick some routes that are calmer (i.e., avoid industrial areas, find some back roads, get off the 4 lane commuting routes), and check them out on the weekends. Once you find a good route or two, try it to work. Set a goal of doing it twice a week 6 months a year. You'll never look back.
"Is there any sort of data to back up the claim that either rock climbing or bicycling is a popular among geeks?"
Anecdotal evidence makes poor statistics, but I climb (prefer outdoors) as does my wife (another geek) and many of our climbing partners are various incarnations of the Geek Genome as well.
I chalk it up (pardon the pun) to three things:
Footnote: It's the shorter climbs that'll kill you. Folks simply don't realize the danger. Without a helmet, a 10 ft fall headfirst onto jagged granite shatters your grape like a fragile egg. Damn shame more folks don't wear helmets when climbing outdoors
And finally, unlike Tribes 2 or your favorite Jumping Cartoon Character game (which I also like ;-) if you screw up on the rock, you stand a good chance of splattering your visceral goo in a very real and lasting way. Something about the stakes of Real Life Physics makes the reward of grokking the system all the more tangible and tasty.
* Riding in traffic exhaust: there is no good discussion of bike-car interactions. (I recommend Effective Cycling, John Forrester, pub. MIT Press, for lots of statistical and practical information on this subject.) Unfortunately, neither EC or BS cover exhaust; I remember some studies done before gas (petrol) went unleaded in London that showed elevated lead levels in cyclists. Not sure how the trend to LEVs has helped.
* Effeciency of the bicycle design. It is definitely the case that recumbents are more efficient. This is in large part due to wind resistance. In general, designs that allow for continuous motion (e.g., circular motion of pedals) are far better than pumping (discontinuous change of direction), and that's what we've got. Attempts to make the pedal motion more efficient on the upright have not been too successful -- it seems we adapt well and smooth out the minor troubles.
* Bicycle weight: yes, I was wrong to call it a "new" trend to drill out chainwheels and generally obsess over grams. The new trend is perhaps the use of Ti and exotic compounds to lessen weight without sacrificing strength. In any case, even a one pound change in the weight (very large for the obsessives) has little effect on efficiency compared to, e.g., tire pressure, out of alignment parts, chain loss, &c&c. Lance needs it, but Lance has a team of engineers to keep everything else in check! Check it out!
* My comment on the traffic "rant." I am a huge anti-car person when it comes to urban design, and I generally agree with the conclusions of his rant. However, he makes some unsubstantiated claims about traffic flow in order to support his argument, and I just don't think they hold up. It is in stark contrast to the rest of the book, where he is very careful to cite and discuss the evidence for even the most "obvious" assertion.
* Climbing and cycling are totally the geek sports! No question. They are problem solving sports, where you combine smaller syntactical units to form original solutions to constantly changing conditions. (Martial arts fits this description very well, as well.) In cycling, the problem solving happens "offline" and during training, of course, where as martial arts and rock climbing are live. Compiling C versus interpreting LISP, I guess.
Thanks, all who contributed and will contribute! It is fun to see people's opinions, and to discover the number of /bikes.
Protect your liberties. Donate to the ACLU
This is Kwajalein (9Nx167E), where I currently live. Green one-speed Huffys rule here - flat terrain, and why spend more than $90 if the damned thing's gonna be a pile of rust powder inside of 8 months? The most popular mod is a 3-foot extension of the handlebar yoke so you can rest your forearms on the handlebars without bending over. Bike trailers are a must, for transporting large boxes home from the post office or schlepping SCUBA tanks to the beach. Adkins diet is a killer, because you need carbs to pedal a bike, go figure! And most important, there are many more bikes than the few government vehicles prowling around, so bikes rule the road - yeah!
The local store has brought in aluminum-frame bikes with 4-speed internal transmissions - they'll last about 2 years before the steel components go. I have one, sprayed a couple of coats of clear Krylon on it, and it's still going after a year and a half - did have to replace the chain. But at $300 apiece, the economics of the green Huffy still rule.
Some folks with time on their hands will scrounge parts from Bicycle Heaven (where all rusty bikes go) to build their primary tranporation - hey, what's a little rust, or a off-true wheel that shoves the seat up your butt, when all you need is a ride from the dorm to the chow hall?
We do have competitive cyclists on-island, and they get into the standard stuff - aerodynamics, lightweight materials and such. But we also have folks who compete in the annual triathalon (aptly called "The Rustman") with "Kwaj-condition" bikes.
All this to say it's been interesting living in a world where bikes really do rule...