Originally Posted by
RC71
In fact I was a test engineer and program manager at the largest test lab west of the Mississippi. While I started out programming IC testers and military hardware environmental testing I moved up the food chain quickly and took over doing all the off the wall test request.
This is no different, but I don't think this calls for an indoor "lab test". I see it as two bikes, one a test vehicle and the other a tow eBike. Using boost cut off speed of 15 MPH. Add a strain gauge and a recording device.
So you would record a change in test bike propulsion force, assuming test bike is not being pedaled? That change WOULD be significant, but as a former systems engineer on off-the-wall projects, I would plan to isolate the possible tire effect from the other factors in the test vehicle propulsion/drag equation. I'd design in some practical characterization of the test environment - tow bike speed, grade, surface if practical, wind, temperature, perhaps a vertical accelerometer under the saddle, a few confirmation cameras to record the road surface (were you riding on a painted line?) and that the test rider was or was not pedaling.
Sorry to make it expensive, but I think the value add is to use the test data with a model of vehicle propulsion energy balance, and that means we should estimate the additional known factors in consumption of energy. Perhaps we can isolate the energy dissipated by the tire, and estimate the actual change due to the tire.