Is the bike an improvement on God's design?

CJ

On 3 Jun, 22:39, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote:
> In article <st-dnaRf56SJItnVnZ2dnUVZWhedn...@comcast.com>,
> *"Jack May" <jack....@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > Kangaroos are produced by evolution. *That is why they are so
> > efficient over natural ground. * Bikes are mainly designed for smooth
> > man made surfaces like roads and pedways.
>
> That's where bikes are very efficient, but as you say less so on natural
> terrains or, for that matter, even on the typical deteriorating roadways
> that 28 years of devotion to tax cutting above all else has left us
> with. *
>
> But are they more or less efficient than kangaroos? *These things are
> usually considered in calories per mile or kilometer, and I've never
> seen estimated for kangaroos. *Pedestrians, horses, dog, cars, etc. I
> have seen estimates for but not kangaroos. *Come to think of it, all the
> estimates I have seen for bikes have been on pavement, I've never seen
> one for bike off-road.- Hide quoted text -
>
According to a compendium of research from various sources published
in Scientific American (March 1973), a human riding a bicycle on a
firm and reasonably level surface, outperforms every other creature in
terms of energy per unit bodyweight over a given distance, by a
substantial margin. I don't have the original article to hand or
recall whether kangaroos were included, but some of this data is
reproduced in Bicycling Science (D G Wilson, MIT Press 2004),
including that for leaping rabbits. Kangaroos have a similar mode of
locomotion and surely do it more efficiently, being larger, but
leaping rabbits score so badly that it seems unlikely the kangaroos
would beat horses, never mind humans on bikes - on pavement.

Soft and irregular surfaces are, of course, a totally different
matter. Here a wheel becomes inefficient compared to walking, in which
the legs act like the spokes of a rimless wheel.

On a firm and flat surface, the energy requirements of adjusting the
lengths of these "spokes" in order to walk without excessive jolting,
which also has an energy cost, render legs less efficient than wheels.
On a soft surface however, compression of the surface becomes a major
energy cost and whereas feet only compress small patches of surface, a
wheel compresses a continuous track. As anyone who has ridden a
mountain-bike in sand will know, there comes a point where it is less
fatiquing, AND faster, to walk and push. And on irregular surfaces the
adjustable-length spokes, that are legs, really come into their own,
isolating the visco-elasitc mass of the human body from energy sapping
bump losses to a level that no wheel can match - even with the biggest
tyres and most sophisitcated suspension!

However: if a few humans invest some energy in smoothing a path, then
a large number of humans can save a great deal more energy in
bicycling along it. That facility for cooperation and invention is
what makes us more efficient travellers than animals.

ComandanteBanana

On Jun 6, 3:42 am, GeneralissimoApeshit <noloonnoprob...@hushmail.com>
wrote:
> On Jun 5, 8:06 am, ComandanteBanana <nolionnoprob...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Gorillas scare me, particularly after King Kong.
>
> Private Banana, you were demoted for your lack of vigilance.
>
> You are not a comandante. Comandantes lead people.
> NOBODY follows your lead.

The revolutions that follow a comandante are found in Cuba and
Venezuela. Here we've got a Democratic revolution, where we don't need
a gorilla. All we need is a good political program...

COMING OUT OF THE JUNGLE
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote1

Well, we also need him!

http://www.lovesanimals.com/images/...unny_monkey.jpg

ComandanteBanana

Originally Posted by KrisPistofferson

"Is this a Ron Paul thread?"

This is NOT a Paid Political Advertising.

Is he for the lion or the monkey?

He's a Libertarian, and they are for the Law of the Jungle. I'm left
libertarian, where Gandhi or Martin Luther King would be. I think
along these lines....

"Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that
life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the
thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher
synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths
of both." -M.L. King

ComandanteBanana

If Jesus and Christians were smart (something we've got to determine)
they would be riding things like this...

http://www.strida.us/

This is NOT a paid advertising, but it looks SIMPLE, and COOL, MORALLY
RIGHT.

And they are for the revolution. Has anyone tried them?

ComandanteBanana

On Jun 7, 2:30 pm, "pba...@worldonline.nl" <pba...@worldonline.nl>
wrote:

> Well, as long as she has no license she lets me do the driving.
> Bur we found out there is a donwside of not being in a Hummer.
> Someone might overlook your car and bump into it while changing lanes.
> Which happened to me. As a result the dirverside mirror broke off, the
> police wouldn't allow me to continue and now I temporarily drive a
> lower modelhttp://www.rijtesten.nl/test/206/0/0/volkswagen_polo_14_tdi_bluemotio...
> and Kesinee (1m45) managed to bump her head!


Most people in America would be simply go for a larger vehicle, much
larger...

This is heard by my girlfriend at work: "My next vehicle will be
something like an SUV, so I can be safe." They never go, "Gee, it's
time to make our roads safer." That would be way too smart for a
Christian nation.