[davidgould]

The human body is not perfectly elastic, as it is made out of meat. When the bike goes up and down, it makes the meat jiggle or flap which dissipates energy in the flesh as heat. So taking the hit at the tire which is much more elastic instead of in the heavily damped rider is more efficient.

Take a look a slow motion video of riders on a rough road, say some Paris-Roubaix footage and you can see this.

[wolverine876]

Ah, thank you; that makes sense to me. I didn't anticipate a big difference between a tire and a person in that regard. FWIW, from the article:

> Studies by the U.S. Army found that the more discomfort vibrations cause, the more energy is being absorbed. And the amount of energy that a vibrating human body can absorb is significant – the U.S. Army’s study measured up to 2000 Watt!

Let's not imagine how that study was conducted ...