Tuna On a Bike

Life in the Bike Lane

Tom Frady

It’s easy to tuna fish, but if you could teach it to ride a bike, you’d really have something.

I was thumbing through my latest issue of Scientific American the other day when I ran across two-page chart (and you seven loyal readers know how I love charts) comparing the moving efficiencies of various forms of animal and mechanical locomotion.

If you are reading this you will be happy to know you are a more efficient runner than a rat.  I am assuming rats don’t read newspapers.

To travel, one must fight gravity and move forward.  Long-legged animals move more effectively than shorties. Birds can glide on air currents, therefore are move efficient than rabbits (hummingbirds, bumblebees are outliers).  A fish can glide through the water while their natural buoyancy minimizes the need to fight gravity.

Like most people, I’ve always wanted to be able to move like a salmon.  My bike allows me to be more fishy, the wheels allow me coast, maybe to glide through the atmosphere without much effort.  The bike frame helps me fight gravity.

According to my close personal friend Tyson Hedrick, a comparative physiologist at the University of North Carolina, bikes “turn humans into this hyperefficient terrestrial locomotor because they make being on land more like swimming.”  But we humans have a very unaerodynamic shape.  We could be even more efficient on a bike if we were shaped like a tuna, you know, streamlined.  However, when on our bikes, we are still the most efficient movers in the animal world – better, according to the chart, than your dog, a locust, even a jet fighter.

Bike manufacturers have discovered it’s worth giving up a little weight on a bike frame to create better aerodynamics. Even tire makers have found ways to shave wind resistance.

Of course, there are a few things the cyclist can do to get closer to the tuna ideal.  Focus on drivetrain maintenance by keeping it clean and properly lubricated, and optimize your riding position to be more aerodynamic. Other effective methods include checking tire pressure, ensuring your tires are in good condition, and making sure your brakes aren't rubbing. For those looking for larger performance gains, consider upgrading parts like wheels and clothing.  Those huge aerodynamic helmets are head-turners.  Do all of this and you will see a big pile of almost no improvement.

Anyway, my take-away from the article is that I’m more efficient than a budgerigar, at least when I’m on a bicycle, albeit the scientists never saw me on a bicycle.

This gives new meaning to the old saying, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”.  It’s easy to tuna fish, but if you could teach it to ride a bike, you’d really have something.