Bicycling Science

by David Gordon Wilson
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004
480 pp., illus. 226 b/w. Trade, $55.00; paper, $22.95
ISBN: 0-262-23237-5; ISBN: 0262-73154-1.

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be

This book is about bicycles and bicycling. It is also about the physics and the mechanics of this extraordinary contraption. And it is implicitly about the unwillingness of everyday miracles to give in to scientific analysis entirely.

Coming from a country where more bicycling champions were born and raised per square kilometer than in any other place–remember Eddy Merckx?–I couldn't resist browsing through this treasure trove of useful and trivial knowledge without a sense of envy. Why haven't we Belgians been at the forefront of bicycleological investigation? Why don't we have bike-ineers, tire-analysers, gearonomers, and velocipedicians? Anyway, if we had any, they would look at this volume as their bible, just like any cyclist, bicycle designer, builder, or buff will.

This third revised edition opens with a very well researched history of the bicycle that demolishes many widespread myths before it plunges into the intricacies of human power generation and a thorough discussion of the thermal effects on power production. (How to keep cool is an important aspect of the ultimate goal of any bicyclist: to get there as fast as possible without the help of any other source of energy than one's own muscles and possibly some compassionate bystanders.) In the second part, all aspects of bicycle physics, from tires and bearings to steering and transmission, are extensively explored and explained. Mechanics and physicists will appreciate that all the formulas and maths are there while the reader with a limited technical or scientific background is still able to follow the general drift of the argument if she or he is willing to close an eye from time to time. The only problem with the text is the inconsistent use of measurements. Inches, stones, centimeters, newtons, joules, and even calories are mingled, and the conversion table in the appendix doesn’t make up for the confusion these inconsistencies bring about. But this defect is only minor and forgivable, certainly because the authors have tried to bring the results of so many different researchers together in a balanced and transparent story.

As the author proves, the end of the evolution of the bike is not nearly in sight. Improvements are possible in all areas, with the use of new materials and the application of new insights in aerodynamics to name but two. The efficiency of a bike is already tremendous. Compare an energy consumption of 15.6 kilocalories per kilometer for a biker at a moderate speed of 16 kilometers per hour with a staggering 539 kilocalories for a car at a speed of 48 kilometers per hour. Top speeds with recumbent bikes are well above 120 km/hour or 75mph, and records will be broken when this type becomes more popular and eventually will be adopted as a valid alternative to the UCI-standard upright posture-machine.

As a bonus, the book has chapters on unusual human-powered machines for use on land and in water and air. But the real bonuses are in the tongue-in-cheek footnotes, comments and observations Wilson adds, and in the tangible pleasure he shows in writing about his beloved and fascinating "draisiennes" and their descendents.