Maximum accelleration

davidof

What's the maximum acceleration of a cyclist?

drlodge

It depends on the speeds involved e.g. 0-1mph or 10-20mph.

slowbike

and if there's a red light involved ...

davidof

drlodge wrote:

It depends on the speeds involved e.g. 0-1mph or 10-20mph.

lets say above 10kph / 6mph

homers_double

oi snowhead

I would say it depends on a lot of factors, maybe to many to quantify.

ugo.santalucia

If you can get hold of the split times riders do on the track in the pursuit discipline, that would give you a good indication of what can be achieved in terms of zero to whatever

homers_double

And it's a more controled environment, I would expect all the riders are on 99.9% similar gear.

mpie

homers double wrote:

oi snowhead

I would say it depends on a lot of factors, maybe to many to quantify.

Ignoring the trivial cases like whe you ride off a jump (9.8ms-2) or into the back of a stationary car (higher), it's limited by the grip of the rear tire (on a road bike at least). Given that I don't think you can hold a bike on a 45 degree slope, that limits max acceleration to about 6ms-2. Doesn't seem much... ?

mfin

What you need is a big roll of tickertape, a 15 year old kid doing gcse Physics, a long classroom and a really good cyclist on a really good bike (probably a Boardman Air )

davidof

ugo.santalucia wrote:

If you can get hold of the split times riders do on the track in the pursuit discipline, that would give you a good indication of what can be achieved in terms of zero to whatever

I will do that, good idea

iPete

I read (admittedly in an in flight magazine) Chris Hoy can do 0-42mph in 10 seconds.

drlodge

iPete wrote:

I read (admittedly in an in flight magazine) Chris Hoy can do 0-42mph in 10 seconds.

So that's an acceleration of 4.2 mph/second

davidof

thanks, that gave me this

ai_1

davidof wrote:

What's the maximum acceleration of a cyclist?

This is very, very vague.

Assuming you're talking about a cyclist on a standard bike under his own power: Boring - I don't care!

But does the cyclist have to use a bike? Is a cyclist someone on a bike or someone who's often on a bike but not necessarily right now. After all although most "cyclists" are terrible runners initial acceleration under his own steam will still be much greater on foot than on a bike.

However I'm still making lot's of assumptions. You haven't, in fact, stated whether the cyclist has to survive the acceleration and if other equipment is allowed. For example you could get some serious acceleration if crashes or explosives are permitted and the cyclist is expendable.

markhewitt1978

Me thinks OP has a homework assignment? Of course there's a big difference between Cav pounding down a sprint, and me trying to get through the junction before the big lorry gets to me. The latter being faster obv