With all the worry about small aero and tire rolling resistance -savings, 1 watt for better cable routing etc., how much frictional losses can you prevent (or not) by riding the white paint strip on rough roads, such as chip seal or old asphalt? I try to ride the strip as much as possible during even short races and notice most people don’t seem to bother.
subjectively, i think there is less resistance on the line…but your also expending energy and concentration trying to stay there…at least i do…is there a net gain? i dunno.
I would think you’d waste more energy trying to stay on the line than you would gain from decreased rolling resistance.
I gotta say, I’ve thought about this myself. I have no data, but riding the paint certainly FEELS faster (smoother) to me. I have no idea how much effect this might actually have, and as others have mentioned, maybe it isn’t worth the extra effort needed to hold your wheel on the line. I’m sure that someone with a power meter could experiment with this though.
At best, I would guess that the difference is small at best.
mm
I’ve kind of wondered this myself. I usually don’t think about it during races but it can be a nice distraction for the mind while training!
Mike is that you?
We have a guy here who swears about riding the white line. His partner that rides with him just wants to ride his bike. The two of them arrive at the same place at the same time, usually knackered equally. As it’s a long ride.
Not sure if I am sold on the white line. Yes I have tried it. Found I use more energy “balancing” than actually riding. Almost smucked a car as well that was parked on the road, as I was watching the line, not where I was going.
Agreed, would cost energy if you concentrated on staying there 100% of the time, but if you ride upper body relaxed and spinning without much cross-wind, it’s pretty easy to stay there majority of the time, or at least just as easy as holding a line about anywhere else.
I agree completely. Only triathletes can hold a conversation where we commiserate about how hard it is to ride in a straight line 
I ride the white line when I can. Seems to be noticeably less rolling resistance.
It really is not that much extra energy focusing on riding the white line and it sure feels faster. I ride rollers in the winter and I have two pieces of duct tape about 6 inches apart taped to the rollers which form my “rumble strip”. If I go outside the duct tape, I am on my way to potentially flying off the rollers. After that, it is easy to ride straight on the white line.
The only time to not ride the white line in racing is when there is lots of debris on the road. Then I ride around 3 feet into the lane where the right hand wheel of the cars would generally end up at. This place on the road (in racing) ends up having less crap and there is a lower chance of flatting.
I never thought of it being faster, but in triathlons you have less chance of flatting it seems to be more clear. Anyway thats why I do it.
No, not Mike, I’m in Texas, but I do ride a Canadian bike, maybe my bike has a white-line affinity?
White line fever is a definite risk to ‘riding the line’.
I can’t believe I’m going to post this…
According to a test in “High-Tech Cycling”, there’s a noticeable difference in measured rolling resistance between linoleum / smooth concrete / rough macadam (chip seal?) (.30 / .35 / .54). That would make sense with the observation that more tire deformation occurs over a rough surface. But is a 10% decrease in tire rolling resistance, taken as a whole, noticeable? I guess all else being equal, it would be faster, but to put those numbers in perspective, the difference between the same tire with a latex vs. butyl tube is .23 vs .28.
I believe John Cobb posted something to this effect about 10 years ago. Riding the paint is faster (unless you can’t ride a straight line, then perhaps a suggestion of buying some rollers to train on might help :-)…riding near guard rails, walls, worn asphalt vs. new asphalt, etc. is faster (although I don’t remember why, perhaps John or Andrew, or one of these aerodynamic gurus can explain that).
I don’t know whether it is faster, but will vouch that the white line can offer a smoother ride on a rough road. The bike course for IMFL has some rough stretches and I have found the white line offers a smoother ride, in part because the paint has filled in some of the cracks. But, as anywhere else, you must keep your lookout for holes, roadkill, etc.
LD
You started it with actual numbers, so here goes (if my wife found out I’d never live this down):
I checkout out analyticcycling.com and entered some values for crr. The crr for ‘asphalt’ is 0.004, a ‘rough paved road’ is 0.008, so I used 0.004 as a value for white line, and 0.006 as a value for ~average asphalt. This is a similar percent range difference as your reported values for smooth concrete and rough macadam (chip seal?), so I guess a maximum expected impact of white line vs. adjacent asphalt. Assuming all their default values for cyclist and bike, I set zero slope, and 9 m/s (~20 mph) speed.
here are the numbers for a ‘utility clincher’ and ‘premium clincher’:
Utility
0.004 (white line asphalt) = 145.6 watts
0.006 (~rough asphalt) = 162.5 watts
approx. 17 watts savings, over 40k ~42 seconds (analyticcycling calculations).
Premium
0.004 = 138.2 watts
0.006 = 151 watts
approx 13 watts savings, no numbers for time savings, extrapolating should be about 32 sec.
Like I said, max savings values for assumed crr differences, maybe realistic is half this difference? would still be ~20 seconds savings.
Holy sh!t
.
Just make sure it is not wet and oily. Otherwise, you can be up one second, and down the next.
Dave
Why does no-one thank the white line for this free speed?
I have read the complete opposite. Especially if the line is white. I read somewhere, I forget that the smoothest part of the road is about 6 inches to the left(?) of the white line.
Maybe they’re using Tufo tubular tape for the lines in your area instead of paint:)
Greg.