Tips Archive:

Hot Tip of the Month- November 2004: "“Flywheel Inertia” What it means, how it differs."
Ever wonder why a Lemond® feels different from a Schwinn®. Or the Old V-bike® feels different from the New Star Trac Johnny G Spinner® series bikes? Inertia is the amount of pull generated by rotational mass. Some bikes have a perimeter weight and some are flat and skinny. When you have a weighted perimeter flywheel, like on the old Schwinn Johnny G Spinners®, or the new Star Trac Johnny G Spinners®, this give the stronger feeling of being “pulled” by the flywheel. Bikes like the Lemond® or the old V-Bike® utilize, the flat skinny flywheel, and you get more of a “top to bottom” pedal stroke. If a person was introduced to indoor cycling on a perimeter weighted flywheel equipped bike, it may be an odd transition to go to a non-perimeter weighted flywheel. And vice versa, if a person started out on a flat, skinny flywheel and then started using a bike with a perimeter weighted flywheel.