Why does pedaling up hill feels harder than walking up the same hill?
In: Physics
One obvious cause is that you have to push the bike. Extra weight is quite important when going uphill, so adding 5-20kg of bike is not trivial.
Another reason is the “shape” of the effort.
For example, when going flat on a bike, you can push very hard when the pedal is around horizontal, and not push as hard the rest of the time. That’s fine, because the bike does not slow down much between strokes.
When going uphill, the bike will slow down a lot whenever you stop pushing on the pedals. You almost have to push continuously.
Human muscles like working like the first case, making pulse like efforts. And don’t like making continuous efforts like in the second case. So, on a bike it’s more difficult to output the same power going uphill Vs going flat.
I suppose the same is observed for walking uphill Vs riding uphill: your muscles are ok with the shorter bursts that make you walk, but find it harder to spread out the effort when on a bike.
Latest Answers