Do Red bikes go faster?

Anonymous

Ive got some red bits on my bike, I'm sure it goes quicker, but what about the whole colour being red? Does it go faster?

Red is fast or is it?

I'm not bored much, honest.

whyamihere

Of course. Red is the fastest colour.

Red light has the lowest frequency of the visible colours of light, with violet being the highest. The energy of light is given by Planck's constant multiplied by the frequency. This means that on a frame with a colour of lower light frequency, less energy will be used in making it look pretty, so more energy can be used to make it go fast. I'd be surprised if you didn't get a boost of at least 0.0000001mph by riding a red bike compared to a violet one!

Note: I'm talking crap.

ride_whenever

yes, my 456 is far faster than all my non red bikes...

hisoka

red wonz go fasta!
and
for Gork! no for Mork!

I'll just get my coat.

Elganesh

hisoka wrote:

for Gork! no for Mork!

I know what you do when your not cycling now

Get everything red frame, wheels, chain, the lot and join the cult of speed.

Big wunz is best! I've been looking for that anorak for ages.

sicrow

so does that mean if I get on a sunbed for 2 hours I'll be faster as non of my bikes are red

Biscuiteer

Remove all the red bits from your bike then challenge your postman* to a race. That should settle it?


* The red-bicycle-riding sort of postman. Not the van driving version you also get nowadays.

kozzo

What about Sram Red???

topcattim

dmclite wrote:

Ive got some red bits on my bike, I'm sure it goes quicker, but what about the whole colour being red? Does it go faster?

Red is fast or is it?

I'm not bored much, honest.

Bizarrely, it might! There is evidence in other sports that the colour of the shirt affects the outcome. For example, red shirt wearing teams were found to be more likely to win the English football championship than they should have been on chance alone. Similarly, teams that play in red have better home records than should be expected on chance. As an Everton supporter, I'm not very happy about that stat!

There is also evidence that when keepers look at the shirt of a penalty taker, they are less confident in their ability to save the penalty than if the penalty taker wore white.

It also affects other sports. In some Olympic events, apparently, such as judo, wrestling and boxing, one competitor wears red, the other blue. (got to say I've never noticed that, though!) The red competitor wins more often than would be expected on chance.

I guess it must be something to do with how colour affects mood. I also suspect that the effect size is very small, i.e. that while it happens, it isn't a very significant factor amongst all the other factors such as skill, training, practice. So I'm not rushing out to replace my kit, and my lovely blue Orbea bike just yet...

kozzo

whyamihere wrote:

Of course. Red is the fastest colour.

Red light has the lowest frequency of the visible colours of light, with violet being the highest. The energy of light is given by Planck's constant multiplied by the frequency. This means that on a frame with a colour of lower light frequency, less energy will be used in making it look pretty, so more energy can be used to make it go fast. I'd be surprised if you didn't get a boost of at least 0.0000001mph by riding a red bike compared to a violet one!

Note: I'm talking crap.

In this case black should be the fastest.

tarquin_foxglove

topcattim wrote:

In some Olympic events, apparently, such as judo, wrestling and boxing, one competitor wears red, the other blue. (got to say I've never noticed that, though!) The red competitor wins more often than would be expected on chance.

I'll see if I can find the study but IIRC it was taekwondo they used. Got qualified judges to watch video of bouts & score them as normal. With a bit of technical wizardry they swapped the colours and got judges to score them again. "Red's" scoring hits were seen more often than "Blue's"

tarquin_foxglove

tarquin_foxglove wrote:

I'll see if I can find the study

A report about it in New Scientist

on the road

dmclite wrote:

Re: Do Red bikes go faster?

I hope so

crown_jewel

They do when Contador is riding them....

term1te

In snooker the red balls disappear first, so they must be the fastest. England won the world cup playing in red, probably due to their extra speed. I haven't got a red bike, and I'm quite slow. The evidence is definitely mounting. Although I think this is a fairly recent phenomena, if you look at footage of the grand tours before the 70s the winner always had a grey bike, in fact everyone rode a grey bike. This is true for all forms of racing and indeed sport you could watch on TV, even Ferrari raced grey cars in those days. If you go back before the days of TV though, everyone raced in sepia. Sales of sepia enamel must have fallen through the floor when TV came along.

GavH

My new white bike is much faster than my old red one. I think thats the small flashes of Bianchi Celeste on it though, not actually the white.

singlespeedexplosif

Red is faster than green, but black is the fastest of all. Natural titanium 2nd fastest.

Anonymous

There is some strong evidence that red is a fast factor indeed. I am pleased that so many of you have an opinion on this.

Although black is fast too...I think.

Liked the postman race idea, my postman is like a keg on legs and puffs a lot so I reckon i could bet him, red bike or not.

mmuk

my red bike is clearly faster than either my blue bike or my silver bike

what more do you need to know?

Miike

whyamihere

kozzo wrote:

whyamihere wrote:

Of course. Red is the fastest colour.

Red light has the lowest frequency of the visible colours of light, with violet being the highest. The energy of light is given by Planck's constant multiplied by the frequency. This means that on a frame with a colour of lower light frequency, less energy will be used in making it look pretty, so more energy can be used to make it go fast. I'd be surprised if you didn't get a boost of at least 0.0000001mph by riding a red bike compared to a violet one!

Note: I'm talking crap.

In this case black should be the fastest.

Black's not a colour, black is an absence of colour.

mrushton

Black is stealthy not fast. Like those B2 bombers etc, not supersonic but invisible to radar (supposedly) so if you think it's there it's too late.....it's gone.

kozzo

whyamihere wrote:

kozzo wrote:

whyamihere wrote:

Of course. Red is the fastest colour.

Red light has the lowest frequency of the visible colours of light, with violet being the highest. The energy of light is given by Planck's constant multiplied by the frequency. This means that on a frame with a colour of lower light frequency, less energy will be used in making it look pretty, so more energy can be used to make it go fast. I'd be surprised if you didn't get a boost of at least 0.0000001mph by riding a red bike compared to a violet one!

Note: I'm talking crap.

In this case black should be the fastest.

Black's not a colour, black is an absence of colour.

Therefore 0 multiply by Plack's constant...
So no energy is required to have a great look and all amount may transferred to speed

It has to be like this because I have a black bike... :P

hisoka

Elganesh wrote:

hisoka wrote:

for Gork! no for Mork!

I know what you do when your not cycling now

Get everything red frame, wheels, chain, the lot and join the cult of speed.

Big wunz is best! I've been looking for that anorak for ages.

Haven't done the wargaming in ages, but keep meaning to try it out again. hehehe

keef66

I gave my red bike to my son when he went off to Loughborough. That went pretty fast. Well, the wheels did. In the night. The locals treat the campus as a kind of cycling pick-n-mix.