[ErroneousBosh]

> But air resistance only becomes a big thing past 20mph or if you are wearing clothing that is really baggy.

Can confirm, am 105kg 51-year-old and can get pretty close to 20mph on the flat on my elderly Commençal Uptown. I suspect someone that rode a greater distance per day and weighed about 20kg less would be able to hit 20mph for far longer periods of time.

The further point is that my even more elderly 30-year-old Range Rover can get something like 3mpg better fuel economy on a long run at 50mph than at 70mph. It's genuinely worth getting up at around 4am to drive on deserted roads at 40-50mph to get the back of the journey broken before you start to have to care about keeping up with traffic - just me and the lorries at that time - to get an easy 50-60 more miles out of a tank.

Bicycles are incredibly mechanically efficient because it's basically three sets of taper roller bearings and a chain drive, and chains are insanely efficient. Shaft drive and belt drive sound good, but belts have a lot of friction and shafts require a couple of right-angle gearboxes which are notoriously inefficent. You can make really efficient hypoid gears (that's what's in vehicle differentials, to turn the fore-and-aft propshaft's rotation through 90 degrees, and they're quiet, efficient, and immensely strong) but they require complex cutting curves.

I think that people complaining about the "inefficiency" of bikes are confusing efficiency with effectiveness. A bike would be very efficient at turning power from your legs into motion, but it would not be very effective at transporting two adults, 200kg of tools, and a 3.5 tonne trailer for a couple of hundred miles on road and then a few more up a steep muddy rocky mountain path.

The simple fact that bikes haven't really changed in about a century and a half should tell you how right they got it, straight out the gate. Everything else has been evolution. Take a look at the picture of the 1885 Rover Safety Bicycle on Wikipedia, and tell me you wouldn't quite happily daily that! Okay, you'd be a Hipster Fixie Twat but it would be just right for bimbling round the Finniestoun coffee shops with your ridiculous haircut and Macbook trying to find backers for your AI-powered Cat Food Over IP startup. Me, I'd throw a set of disc brakes and a 5-speed derailleur on, and ride it everywhere.

I genuinely like that frame, actually. I may have to invest in a tube bender.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_bicycle#/media/File:Rov...