Friday, May 23, 2008

Increase your fuel efficiency, burn less calories through hypermiling

Hypermiling.

Hypermiling has been around forever, its just a new name. For those of you who don't want to read the article, hypermiling is just tweaking your driving habits to increase gas mileage. Most of us have already heard of this, and just don't do it. Personally, I never adopted it because slowing down and driving with more patience (especially on the southeast expressway) has not been worth it. But with gas going where it is, the thought of a 35% increase in gas mileage (thats right, 35%) just might be worth it. In reading this however it got me thinking about cycling.

In the fitness obsessed world that we live in, people are always counting calories (energy) so that they look good naked, feel better about themselves, or whatever other personal goals they may have. It is to the point where I'm sure that somewhere, someone has affixed a calorie counter (typically found on stationary bikes) onto an actual bicycle. They are probably doing it to see how many calories they burn while they are working out. But what if burning calories wasn't the goal? For those commuting to work by bike in the morning, they might just want a lackadaisacal ride to work, not a calorie destroying sweat-festival. I say, why not try personal hypermiling?

Also, this form of hypermiling cuts the waste out of the workout, allowing the user to perfect technique. Sounds like an awfully valuable tool to someone training for endurance. Gotta perfect that waste-less cycling motion

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