This thread reminded me of a kerfuffle that hit bicycle clubs late in the previous century. Somebody conducted an experiment that proved conclusively that, contrary to received wisdom, pedaling slowly in a high gear is more efficient than spinning the pedals in low gear.
This created the kind of stir you'd get among lacers by proving that 200/2 cotton threads are stronger and less likely to break than 10/6 cotton threads. The difference in efficiency between slogging and spinning is so great that everyone has felt it for himself!
On closer examination, it turned out that the scientists had defined "efficient" as "I don't have to pig out on sweets."
Bike riders define "efficient" as "I can ride for a long time, and cover a lot of distance
before I get tired." With a side order of "I don't get sore muscles or wreck my knees."
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Which reminds me of a time when experienced riders got it wrong. A participant in a very long race, when reporting on the experience, said that toward the end of the race "I was so tired that all I could do was to sit up and hammer." The comments mostly ran to consternated surprise; riding on the drops is *much* easier than sitting up -- in my experience, it's about equivalent to shifting down a gear, and I have pretty big jumps in my gears.
I presume that eventually everyone figured out what was going on, but this was a column in a magazine, so I didn't see any further discussion.
Leaning forward makes pedaling easier by letting your big strong muscles do the
work. Being in a race, he'd ridden in the fastest mode the whole way -- so
when the big, strong muscles had given their all, the small, inefficient
muscles still worked.
I remember being so tired that all I could do was pull up on the pedals, and let my feet fall of their own weight. Shows I didn't pedal efficiently -- those muscles should have been contributing sooner.
--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.
where the sun is bright on the snow.
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