We are doing the GCC (Global Corporate Challenge) with work this year. Its a challenge where employees are asked to where a pedometer and count how many steps they do daily. The idea been that it will help us lead more active lives and stop using the lift so much etc…

Now there is a conversion where you can input the distance you have cycled and it will convert this figure into steps. The conversion figure is 0.6 miles = 300 steps. This is just a generic figure and doesn’t matter what type of bike you are riding, or what terrain.

So, what i wan’t to know is. Has anybody been clever enough to make a calculator where you can work out the effort used while cycling comparing different bikes, maybe even different terrains?

The main reason for this thread is to try and make it a little fairer between the cyclists in the office.

Lets say person a rides 5 miles on a BMX to the office, person b rides 10 miles on a MTB and person c rides 20 miles on a road/race bike. Who does the most work? (For now assuming we are all riding on tarmac).

Obviously, there are so many more variables that could be considered, but would it be easy to work out?

Im person b by the way, and hoping to get GCC to add a little more info so once converted, my steps will be a little closer to person c 😛

I usually count on road being about 1.5 times easier than MTB for distance riding (ie XC with hills, not jump park). Not got a BMX.

Surely there’s no difference? With gearing systems your output doesn’t change, just your speed and rate of ascent.

Just going on average solo speeds I’d say that road riding is twice as rewarding in speed and distance than mountain biking. I used to average about 7 mph in mountain terrain and I always average 14.2 mph solo on the roadie.

It obviously depends on a huge amount of factors so any number is never going to be accurate. To get something close, why not get a garmin with heart rate monitor or similar. Get all three cyclists to ride at their normal speed and log their calories burnt over one mile, then get an average chap to do the same for walking a mile. Then you should have a ratio between all four activities for the same distance, so can work out a multiplier for each cycling activity against walking.

It’s going to be pretty vague, but should give you something to work with.

for a start dont measure the milage covered – that is an arbritary number when it comes to “effort”

my mate and me did 100 miles on saturday.

it required much more effort on his part as he is less fit.

we both did the same milage though 😉

Who does the most work

W=Fd

F in this case is due to the inertia of the rider and bike.
d is the distance.

So, ignoring rolling resistance from differnet tyre pressure/materials, and assuming all mechanical interfaces are equally lubruicated, The road bike does more “work”, then the mtb, then the bmx due to the distance travelled.

Simple.

🙂

for a start dont measure the milage covered – that is an arbritary number when it comes to “effort”

Yes and no: I usually do 3-4 hour length rides on a Sunday morning, sometimes road and sometimes mtb. They’re always with the same mate, and are around the same area with the same sort of hills. While obviously sometimes the conditions are against us, or we put a bit more effort in, the average difference in distance is about 1.5. So I’d argue that a 15 mile commute on a road bike would be about the same amount of effort for the same person as a 10 mile commute, assuming similar sort of gradients and reasonably smooth/mud-free trails.

If you start talking about radically different route profiles, or different people then making any kind of meaningful comparison is impossible.

I agree the effort should not be different, i could have worded it better.

I was planning on sending the idea off to GCC so they could just give a drop down list of what type of bike you ride with a different conversion list for each type.

The garmin idea is good, but it would have to be done with the same person on each bike on the same route to make it roughly accurate.

Lets say the MTB was 300 steps per mile. Would you say the roadie would work out something more like 200 steps and the BMX 400 steps?

This is still very rough, i was hoping someone has already done the hard work and there was already a calulator online that does all that for you, and even worked out how much harder you need to work to ride on mud/sand etc. No such luck 🙁

yorkshire89 – Member

The garmin idea is good, but it would have to be done with the same person on each bike on the same route to make it roughly accurate.

But if the point is to get a multiplier for each of the three specific people, then it does work to get a ratio between their individual efforts and the average walker, does it not? i.e. the only comparison that matters is the individual cyclists to the walker, not to each other.

But if the point is to get a multiplier for each of the three specific people, then it does work to get a ratio between their individual efforts and the average walker, does it not? i.e. the only comparison that matters is the individual cyclists to the walker, not to each other.

How about comparing the rider walking 1 mile to the same rider riding 1 mile. That way the work they have done to cover 1 mile will be the calculation you need to convert their cycling to their walking. ???????

Also true, but I was working on the basis that it’s such a rough estimate anyway that just comparing it to any walker would do. Your way would be even more precise.

W=Fd

F in this case is due to the inertia of the rider and bike.
d is the distance.

So, ignoring rolling resistance from differnet tyre pressure/materials, and assuming all mechanical interfaces are equally lubruicated, The road bike does more “work”, then the mtb, then the bmx due to the distance travelled.

Simple.

And wrong. F in this case is the force the rider has to apply to keep the bike moving.

So, ignoring rolling resistance from differnet tyre pressure/materials,

This would be the massive flaw in your argument. That and ignoring resistance generated by obstacles such as rocks and roots. You are also far more likely to get your potential energy back as kinetic on a road bike than you will on a mountainbike where you will be braking significantly more. I’d use something like what mogrim does.