This sort of thing might come in handy for your investigations. Thanks to Troy Rank, an engineering student at RIT and electric bike tinkerer, for showing me this. The chart lists the aerodynamic drag co-efficient and a host of other performance factors for human powered vehicles. I'm not sure of the true source of all this data but will duly give credit if I find out.
The Cycling News Reader Poll has pedal based powermeters topping the list of best tech innovations of 2010, among 9 other items. Pedal based power meters, like the one introduced by Metrigear, will tell you how much workload each leg applies into cycling motion. Positive tangential, negative tangential and net tangential pedal forces are the jargon in the list of features it offers the user. Its a solid physics based tool and I reckon that most of you in the general public who rides and who have a natural perception for pedaling efforts anyway wouldn't require a gizmo to tell you what you probably already knew - that the dominant leg works 5-10% harder than the other.
Some of the other items in the list were :
Pedal-based power meters, 4521 votes (26.9%)
GPS-enabled computers, 4095 (24.4%)
Disc brakes on 'cross bikes, 2065 (12.3%)
Wide-profile road wheels, 1386 (8.3%)
Belt-drive drivetrains, 1122 (6.7%)
PressFit 30 bottom brackets, 970 (5.8%)
BBright multi-fit bottom bracket standard, 960 (5.7%)
Carbon fiber mountain bike wheels, 955 (5.7%)
E-bikes, 362 (2.2%)
142x12mm rear thru-axles, 351 (2.1%)
What innovation made most sense to you ?
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