Power Pedals Promise Assisted Biking

[Guest]

Bogcotton claims to ride up 20 degree hills; that is a grade of 36%. I call BS.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]doubting thomas[/nom]Bogcotton claims to ride up 20 degree hills; that is a grade of 36%. I call BS.[/citation]
I'm not sure of the grade, but I have ridden up a hill so steep that even leaning very far forward, the front end kept kicking up (I was in the lowest gear) and the back tire kept skidding. It was only about 200m long, but still very difficult. If 45 degrees is 1:1 height:length, this hill is probably 30 degrees (1:2).

 

[bogcotton]

[citation][nom]doubting thomas[/nom]Bogcotton claims to ride up 20 degree hills; that is a grade of 36%. I call BS.[/citation]

Obviously the 20 degree bit is just a lip on the hill which is about 6 to 8 metres long.

There is no way I could sustainably pedal up something even half as steep as that though, which was my point, you just have to pedal like a mad man before you reach the hill then feel yourself slowing down whilst your legs seem to be exploding.

Back on topic, 200 watts isn't all that much when you are talking about hills.
Doing the calculations for my body, (75kg + about 6 for the bike), this would give me an extra 5 mph on a 10% gradient (5 degrees from horizontal), and this is just what he hopes this could potentially do.
Put the gradient up to the cyclist murdering 20%s and you get an extra 2.4 mph.

Really cool idea, but I'm going to stick with simple wheels with inbuilt motors which you replace your front wheel with.