Are smaller wheels faster?
This debate doesn’t come up often in “regular bike” lists because wheelsizes are relatively fixed, but on recumbent mailing lists, this is a hot topic, with typical wheels ranging from 16 to 27 inches. (Skip the debate, gimme the damn answer!) From a pure physics point of view, is one better than the other? First of all, it’s important to understand that the rear wheel size is one of the gear ratios in the drivetrain. A smaller rear wheel is compensated for by bigger gearing in the rest of the drivetrain, but for the same overall gear ratio, you’ll get the same ratio of force between the pedal and the road regardless of wheelsize. But perhaps there are deeper issues in simple physics? Some wonder if smaller wheels have less inertia and therefore give greater acceleration, while others believe that the smaller wheel has to spin faster, so it is a wash. But when you do the math, smaller wheels win. The kinetic energy in the wheel is a measure of how much energy you’ve spent just getting
