Originally Posted by
ofajen
I’m not suggesting you are necessarily doing the work of pedaling at 200 rpm. On a fixed gear going downhill, the bike will do whatever work you don’t to move feet, pedals and legs at the relevant speed and will extract that from the kinetic energy of you and the bike.
Otto
So instead imagine we are on a flat. I am riding next to a guy who is doing 70rpm and I am doing 120rpm. I am not doing 150W of internal work my partner is avoiding. If that were the case I would never be able to keep up. No one would ever spin if there were disparities like that. At the pro level you could pull all sorts of numbers. The speed differential between current and historic is not that great. Start with Peter Post mentioned above. The old guys did much higher rpm than current and used far lower gears. Except on hills, where equipment limited them. If internal losses were anything near what you suggest modern riders would not be waiting 53 years to best an old course record and needing perfect weather to do it.