Influence of wheel rim width on rolling resistance and off-road speed in cross-country mountain biking
- Maier, Thomas Section for Elite Sport, Swiss Federal Institute of Sport, Magglingen, Switzerland
- Müller, Beat Section for Elite Sport, Swiss Federal Institute of Sport, Magglingen, Switzerland
- Allemann, Remo Movement and Sport Sciences, Department of Neurosciences and Movement Sciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
- Steiner, Thomas Section for Elite Sport, Swiss Federal Institute of Sport, Magglingen, Switzerland
- Wehrlin, Jon Peter Section for Elite Sport, Swiss Federal Institute of Sport, Magglingen, Switzerland
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03.04.2019
Published in:
- Journal of Sports Sciences. - 2019, vol. 37, no. 7, p. 833–838
English
The rim width of cross-country mountain bike wheel sets has increased in recent years, but the effect of this increase on performance remains unknown. The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of rim width on rolling resistance and off-road speed. We compared 3 tubeless wheel sets: 25 mm inner width as baseline, 30 mm width with the same tyre stiffness, and 30 mm width with the same tyre pressure. Three riders conducted 75 rolling resistance tests for each wheel set on a cross- country course. We determined rolling resistance using the virtual elevation method and calculated off-road speeds for flat and uphill conditions using a mathematical model. Baseline rolling resistance (Cr) was 0.0298, 90% CI [0.0286, 0.0310], which decreased by 1.4%, [0.7, 2.2] with the wider rim and the same tyre stiffness and increased by 0.9%, [0.1, 1.6] with the wider rim and the same tyre pressure. The corresponding effects on off-road speed were most likely trivial (0.0% to 0.7% faster and 0.1% to 0.6% slower, respectively). Because the effect of rim width on off-road speed seems negligible, athletes should choose the rim width that offers the best bike handling and should experiment with low tyre pressures.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences et de médecine
- Department
- Département de Médecine
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Biology
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 324352
- DOI 10.1080/02640414.2018.1530057
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/307607
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