View Single Post
Old 07-13-20, 01:13 AM
  #13  
jbchybridrider 
Senior Member
 
jbchybridrider's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: adelaide, australia
Posts: 2,804
Mentioned: 6 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 222 Post(s)
Liked 372 Times in 147 Posts
Some of you guys are only focused on one aspect of rotational mass thats when accelerating. In say a crit yes you can feel the acceleration but less felt is when you take your power out of the cranks you loose more speed faster than a wheel with more rotational mass which maintains forward momentum.
A rider with less rotational mass needs to apply more power sooner to regain the speed of a wheel with more mass. This is kinetic energy.
In Formula one racing it's the continued energy "momentum" after power has stopped being applied that is stored in batteries. In cycling light wheels are always an advantage and biggest benefit when there's climbing because it's the easiest fastest way to reduce total mass, it's not about rotational mass so aero becomes the biggest advantage when looking for faster wheels.
On a climb you could say a light accelerating wheel can get a breakaway from the bunch and can but still you can't maintain that power on a long climb and when you explode loose momentum faster than a rider that maintains a constant effort and may have a wheel with more rotational mass.
jbchybridrider is offline  
Likes For jbchybridrider: