Coastdown - Does acceleration matter?

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southlogan
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:03 pm

Coastdown - Does acceleration matter?

Post by southlogan »

Item #10 in the Coast Down instructions says, "10. When this screen is shown, pedal your bike faster BUT INCREASE SPEED IN A
LEISURELY MANNER, making sure you remain in your usual ride position."

So there are two stages - acceleration and coasting.

Question: Does the acceleration stage of the coast down affect the results?

The reason I ask is that I did coastdowns yesterday, but I didn't remain in my usual ride position or increase speed in a leisurely manner during the acceleration. In particular, I stood up for several pedal strokes and then crouched for several more to make it easier to get to 20mph. I stayed in position during the coasting phase.

Do I need to redo the coastdowns?

Thanks
Velocomp
Velocomp CEO
Posts: 7888
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:43 am

Re: Coastdown - Does acceleration matter?

Post by Velocomp »

Coast downs measure the rate at which you slow down--not speed up.

The reason for the recommendation is so that you don't create a transient condition (i.e. fast acceleration or out-of-position location to 20 mph) that affects the coast down conditions.

Once the coast down begins everything has to be "normal". So, assuming that everything was normal once you started slowing down, you don't have to do them over.

However, note that the more coast downs you do, the better. So, there is no harm in doing more measurements.
John Hamann
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