Table Of ContentBicycling Science
Bicycling Science
Fourth Edition
David Gordon Wilson and Theodor Schmidt
with contributions by Jim Papadopoulos
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in ITC Stone Serif Std and ITC Stone Sans Std by Toppan Best-set
Premedia Limited.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Wilson, David Gordon, 1928–2019 author. | Schmidt, Theodor
(Bernhard), 1954– author. | Papadopoulos, Jim, contributor.
Title: Bicycling science / David Gordon Wilson and Theodor Schmidt ; with
contributions by Jim Papadopoulos.
Description: Fourth edition. | Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England :
The MIT Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019024252 | ISBN 9780262538404 (paperback) | ISBN
9780262357531 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Bicycles— Dynamics. | Bicycles—History. | Human powered
vehicles.
Classification: LCC TL410 .W546 2020 | DDC 629.227/2015313—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024252
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
In Memoriam David Gordon Wilson xi
1 A Short History of Bicycling 1
2 Human Power Generation 41
3 Speed Achievements and Racing 129
4 Power and Speed 171
5 Bicycle Aerodynamics 213
6 Rolling: Tires and Bearings 261
7 Braking 319
8 Steering, Balancing, and Stability 349
9 Power Transmission and Hybrid Systems 393
10 Special Human- Powered Machines 453
11 Human- Powered Vehicles for Transportation 523
Index 547
Preface
In 2017 The MIT Press asked me to consider bringing out a fourth
edition of Bicycling Science. I was impressed with its confidence in
the book and with the challenge that a fourth editing presented.
The first three editions were lucky in that there was a great deal
of interest, at the time they were published, in bicycles in general
and in experimental innovative bicycles in particular. The Inter-
national Human Powered Vehicle Association (IHPVA) was founded
in the mid-1 970s, leading to a wide variety of new designs and large
increases in speeds and performances of new bicycle types. Bicy-
cle speed records are nowadays regularly set at speeds of well over
80 mph, 135 km/h, 37.5 m/s. (These records are not wholly valid,
because they can be set at the limits of permissible downslope, wind,
and so on.) It is a potent time for bicycling, because many large cit-
ies have racks of standard bicycles that can be picked up fairly eas-
ily for rental use. Cars are facing greater restrictions because of the
emissions that are still involved. Electric drive is becoming increas-
ing popular. Improvements are forecast in the types of batteries used
for electric bicycles and for regular motor vehicles. More exercise is
prescribed for greater health.
These major developments lead many to forecast a new period of
greater use of bicycles in cities. Therefore, while there is no longer a
sense of excitement over new types of bicycles, there is a sense that
they have matured and can be quickly produced for wider use for
the benefit of users and nonusers.
In the third version of this book, Jim Papadopoulos largely wrote
the text of chapters 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, which was insufficiently
acknowledged. In this heavily revised fourth version, a great deal
viii Preface
of Jim’s original material remains in chapters 2 and 8 and some in
chapters 4 and 6.
I have been very lucky that Theo Schmidt (see figure 8.5)
responded to an invitation to collaborate on the changes needed
to produce the fourth edition. He and I have worked together in
many IHPVA activities. We have both been chair of the IHPVA and
editor of its technical journal Human Power, and we have worked
together on the Human Power eJournal, of which Theo is currently
the editor and also a member of the World Human Powered Vehicle
Association rules and records committee. He earned a diploma in
physics and astronomy at the University of Basel and graduated
in physical oceanography and electronic engineering at the Uni-
versity of Wales. Theo joined the British human-p owered vehicle
club (BHPC), became vice-p resident of Future Bike in Switzerland,
and participated in the Swiss Tour de Sol with his own vehicles,
including an electric bicycle with a continuously variable transmis-
sion and a semiamphibious solar hybrid HPV. He started working
on an extraordinary range of projects, including kite research and
construction of early human and solar-p owered vehicles and boats,
on one of which, a semiamphibious HPV, he attempted to travel
from London to Paris (but gave up before reaching the middle of
the English Channel, then almost made it later on a solar boat with-
out batteries). He has his own research and development company
working in these broad areas, and some of his projects are illustrated
in this edition. Readers will appreciate the experience and values
that he has brought to the coverage.
David Gordon Wilson
Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 2019
I’m honored to have been invited by Dave Wilson and The MIT
Press to help with this fourth edition of Bicycling Science, as I have
neither Dave Wilson’s literary writing style nor Jim Papadopoulos’s
mathematical engineering knowledge. But I think I’m a good editor,
and this heavily revised new edition contains most of the material
from the third edition and follows its structure, except for the chap-
ter on materials and the appendixes, which we reluctantly left out
of the book this time. Many thanks to the MIT Press staff for their
patient help and to Nick Green (BHPC) and Michael Harrup (MITP)
for proofreading and copyediting.
