12 August, 2007

Bicycle

My office is around 1 km from my home, getting auto rickshaw is not always easy, because autowallas sometimes refuse to go small distances. I have been thinking about buying a bicycle and use it to commute to office and go on long rides on weekends.


So finally I got Hero Hawk. It's light, fast, single gear ratio, no springs and no problems so far.

Yesterday I managed to cycle from my home to Vile Parle (E), market, Dinanath Mangeshkar Natyagraha.

(Photo Source: http://herocycles.com/boyz.php)





I was wondering how much power do I produce when riding the bicycle and how I can measure it. I need to measure crank rpms and torque. For time being I have following figure showing typical power produced by cyclists.

If I assume peak power of 0.2 horsepower, it's (0.2 * 745) = 149 watts.

(Image Source: http://users.frii.com/katana/biketext.html)

According to article at above URL, you need multiple gear ratios to deal with different slopes.