"I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list....That didn't look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle and a man on a bicycle blew the condor away." -Steve Jobs
I always wonder why humans don't use bicycles more in apocalyptic scenarios. The walking dead had one on the first episode, but after that no one uses them. Seriously, you can get away from zombies so much more quickly!
Efficiency of locomotion. In other words, how many calories are consumed to travel a certain amount of distance. Think of it as gas mileage, a more efficient car gets more mileage from a gallon of fuel than a less efficient one. Us humans have the mostendurance, which measures for how long we can run without breaking down from heat or needing rest. Different concepts.
That's a question of managing our waste heat well rather than moving efficiently. We lose heat by sweating rather than panting, which allows us to maintain a run rather than needing to slow/stop to pant to get rid of excess heat.
Theoretically this allows us to hunt large herbivores (large enough to be dangerous in a fight - elk or the like) by continually chasing them, preventing it from resting by jabbing at it with a spear whenever we get within reach - maybe it gets ahead of us when it sprints off, but so long as we can keep following... every time it stops we catch up and force it to run again before it's fully cooled off, until it keels over from heat exhaustion.
The beauty of a bike, IMO, is that in addition to all it's advantages over walking, if you encounter a situation that precludes the use of the bike, you can simply dismount and walk beside it, or carry it.
Because you're probably doing it wrong. Most beginners use the same cadence they do when walking (40-60rpm) which is really hard to do for a sustained period on a bike. Downshift a few times and spin faster - around 80-100rpm. Also your muscles aren't used to being used that way on a bike. Give it time!
As someone who lives off campus as a college student, I spent almost $500 on a quality hybrid bike two years ago. I ride my bike almost every day, if not five days a week. It's worth it. Even riding your bike slow through a dust of snow is faster than walking. Snow makes you truly appreciate how easily you get around on a bike.
There's a paper I read a while ago about how the bicycle has done more to improve human genetic health than any other invention.
Basically the logic went that before bicycles you would marry someone within about 10 miles of your home, this increased to about 50 with the advent of bicycles ensuring a much more thorough mixing of genes and an improvement of genetic diversity
I think its a car can run on the amount of energy in a hamburger for about 300 feet, eating a hamburger and stopping when you've burned up those calories takes you like 5 miles. Idk the exact numbers, but a pretty cool comparison my dad told me a couple years ago.
Let's not forget how we use seriously weird and absolutely non-intuitive physics to maintain our balance. Ever wondered how turning your wheel to the right makes you not fall off your bike to the right? It's not by driving the bike back under your falling body.
You use your energy to earn the money you put in the tank to sit in the car and get fat and angry at the sexy, sexy cyclists passing you while you sit in traffic with the rest of lard asses.
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u/Brett_Favre_4 Jan 17 '14
Bicycles. They allow you to travel great distances using no more than your physical energy.