That is very interesting and tallies quite well with what I know of the real world. However in the real world I also note the following (which may or may not be important);Miles_Turner wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 12:07pm Apologies for arriving late. Although the published text of my paper is indeed paywalled (I'm sorry to say), for those interested there is a nearly identical preprint text here: https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _vibration
1) real bicycles are not massless (unfortunately)
2) real bicycles (and riders) exhibit very different stiffnesses at the front and rear wheels. A fork of a different stiffness is often one of the few options available to the rider.
3) engineers will soon tell you that any vehicle with suspension is liable to be faster over rough ground for a constant power, In reality however, the power is far from constant, because it is the human machine here. Anyone who has ridden full suspension knows that it doesn't suit everyone, and even those who like it are forced to pedal differently very often. So 'bobbing' (or other losses associated with a 'pulsy' torque delivery) are a real possibility with any suspension system, including fat tyres. Also there might be a substantial difference in the effects of stiffness changes between the saddle and pedals vs elsewhere. Even once you have come to grips with the likely physiological changes relating to power output, there is the no less important matter of 'what is going on between the ears?' to consider also.