Energy use with different travel

bennny

Is there any data somewhere, that compares on the same cross country route, how much energy it takes with various travel types, such as:

HT
100mm
135mm
150mm

Would be curious how much more energy it takes to push around the longer travel bikes.

cooldad

Impossible to say, there are so many other variables. From tyres, to pressures, to geometry and probably a million other things.

It will probably take less energy to ride a good long travel FS bike than a crappy BSO HT.

bennny

cooldad wrote:

Impossible to say, there are so many other variables. From tyres, to pressures, to geometry and probably a million other things.

It will probably take less energy to ride a good long travel FS bike than a crappy BSO HT.

Of course - but let's assume all those variables are identical. You take a brand new Santa Cruz Highball, Tallboy, Hightower and Hightower LT with identical wheel sets, same tyres, same tyre pressure, same rider, same groupset and complete the same course on the same day, using the same powermeter.

The Rookie

And what will your damper/lockout settings be? Would you be running those on the same tyres (not if you were using them properly).

Really is a meaningless question given the permutations, which is why no-one will have been bothered to go to the meaningless effort of trying to answer it. Comparing three SC Supelight with the different wheel sizes causes enough issues!

cooldad

Why not the same downhill route, and compare injuries? They are for different types of riding, so I don't see the point?

I prefer my FS (120mm 29er) trail oriented bike to my 65mm light HT for long distances because my body is in less pain at the end. But the HT uses much less energy, on smoother stuff.

bennny

The Rookie wrote:

And what will your damper/lockout settings be? Would you be running those on the same tyres (not if you were using them properly).

Answered in my last post, assume tyres and pressures are identical

The Rookie wrote:

Really is a meaningless question given the permutations, which is why no-one will have been bothered to go to the meaningless effort of trying to answer it.

I don't think it's meaningless at all! And you're wrong, just found this:

http://forums.mtbr.com/xc-racing-traini ... 00916.html

cooldad

That was meaningless.

Uber_Pod

TLDR: it really is meaningless

OP - I'm not sure what question it is you're trying to answer.

Even if it were possible to make every other condition identical, the result wouldn't apply to real life because everything is so variable.

To look at it another way, professional racers have an interest in being fastest (does using less energy necessarily translate to faster?). Look at what they use.
I'm pretty certain they would change setup for difference courses and conditions. Meaning there is no single answer to apply to every situation.

The Rookie

Look at any XC racer and they nearly all have an HT and an XC, at each event they pick the fastest.

Unlike Fox my rear shock has an adjustable pedal platform, so for the same travel it can feel very different with just a quick tweak, my bike can also have 120 or 100mm rear travel with a swap of shock bolt location, will that make it any less efficient.

Why would you have a long travel bike and run it on XC tyres, or an XC bike and run it on dual ply Enduro tyres, as I said, meaningless.

rockmonkeysc

It depends a lot on the trail as well. Then there's also the extra fatigue from your legs doing the work of soaking up bumps.
There's no right answer but many wrong ones.