Hacker News Reader

There was a video a few years ago in which a professional cyclist is connected to a generator (bike included) and their continuous power output was around 100 W which they could maintain for a few hours. But it would be unreasonable to expect this amount of exertion from an untrained person.

Edit: weeeelll. I'm either thinking of a different one or completely messed up the numbers and duration: https://youtu.be/S4O5voOCqAQ

View on HN

Assuming my exercise bike wattage is accurate I think most decently fit people could average 100 watts for an hour with a bit of sweating but not like, full on panting. 20 watts is low enough that it's awkward to generate that little power in terms of speed/resistance.

After 6 months of training I went from 150W/h to 200W/h. For most bikes, 100W is like riding 18-20km/h.

Yeah, pro cyclists can put out 400W for an hour. The 20W it takes to charge a phone is less effort than walking, it's honestly the bare minimum a grandma puts into a bike to get it to roll down the road.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com