Cycling Science by Max Glaskin

How much smaller would the internet be without all the discussions on cycling forums about gear ratios, tyre widths, aerodynamics and which frame materials are more laterally stiff and vertically compliant? Cycling Science should at least arm the combatants with some facts; and, with its easy-to-navigate layout and striking graphics, you can take your lessons with a degree of pleasure.

Such is human nature; we like to introduce the mystic into our understanding of the world. True, no science manual is likely to explain the thrill of watching Cav come storming through the pack to grab a hair's breadth win, but some views on the fundamentals of bike design and rider input have become so entrenched as to be almost religious dogma. Shedding weight from your wheels is more important than any other place on the bike, right?

> Buy this online here

However, the bicycle is a machine and as such subject to the forces of nature and the power of our engineering knowhow. Its engine (you or me) is an organic machine with some sophisticated control systems and we know a fair bit about how that works too. In this book, those two elements of cycling, the bike and the rider, are dismantled, examined and put back together again to show, as the subtitle says, 'How rider and machine work together'.

The format is essentially a collection of double-page spreads, each answering a question about how and why bicycles and their riders do what they do. Typically, it's half words, half pictures so this isn't a heavy read.

A substantial portion of the book is given over to materials science: why metals differ from each other in their properties; how carbon fibre is made and how it can be tuned to display different qualities; the importance of tube diameters and thicknesses. While the book is not a training manual, it might help you make better choices by setting out the science behind areas such as shoe stiffness, tyre pressure, the forces at work when cornering, the pros and cons of friction and much more.

You might look in new ways at the old and familiar: the humble bike chain is shown, by science, to be a marvel of engineering; up to 98.6% efficient at transmitting your power to the rear wheel. The harder you pedal, by the way, the more efficient it is found to be.

If this book sometimes reads like a manifesto for cycling, well – that's down to science too. Bikes are just best and that's a fact: three times more efficient than walking at using human energy for transport, one twentieth as costly in terms of carbon emissions to operate than a pick-up truck. People who cycle are as efficient at using oxygen as people 10 years younger who don't cycle. People who cycle can expect to live two years longer than people who don't. Each claim in the book is backed up by research referenced in the notes at the back, so if you want to go deeper into the subjects covered in any chapter, you can.

> More reading matter for cyclists…

Journalist Max Glaskin has brought together his expertise in science and technology and his interest in cycling to write this book, which is clearly a labour of love and no hack project. Equal credit should go to the design team and the illustrators, Robert Brandt and Nick Rowland, whose graphs, charts and inventive graphics help make this book both accessible and a pleasure to read.

Verdict

Science for cyclists in an easy-to-digest formula that will arm you with facts for those perennial pub debates