This work presents a methodology for the evaluation of energy cost on cycling through on-road tests. The proposed methodology consists on the measurement of the power delivered by the cyclist on the pedals when riding on a real circuit. The aim of the methodology is to generate indexes for the direct evaluation of the effect on energy cost generated by an arbitrary modification implemented on a bike. The modification can include the variation of multiple parameters. The proposed indexes for the evaluation of the energy cost are the mean input power and the mechanical work per distance during the test. The proposed methodology intends to evaluate the energy cost for a given bike-rider set on a given circuit.
A case study is presented for the evaluation of tire pressure influence on energy cost. For the application of the methodology, one cyclist rode on the circuit of interest with a set of different tire pressures. The power delivered by the cyclist was measured on the pedals. Several tests were conducted for each pressure in order to achieve a good level of significance. The results obtained for the case study with the proposed methodology are compared with the results of a method based on rolling resistance coefficients reported in literature.
