reever
rbent member
Posts: 459
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As I have been riding, my mind has been drifting back to this old sadistic teacher I had in 5th grade. He made me spend many recess periods inside with him holding dictionaries out at arm's length--perfectly horizontal. I found it much easier to hold the heavy loads closer to my body when the son-of-a-b*#@ch was not looking. The same concept holds true with our cleats and ankles. In 5th grade the pivot point (joint) was my shoulders and the load (dictionaries) was either far away (straight arms) or nearer the pivot point (when I bent my arms). With us bike riders the pivot point is our ankle. The load is the force supplied by the pedals. We can either move the cleat farther away from the ankle (that would be the straight arm thing) or move the cleat nearer the ankle (moving the dictionaries in closer to the body). Having the cleat out further towards the toe may result in an increase in speed under low loads quite like the whip of a lure at the end of a fishing rod. It can be zipped through the air very rapidly (if it is not too heavy). But increase the weight of that lure and the fisherman doesn't have the power to make the lure move at all. The lever is too long. I like to take things to their ridiculous extreme when considering an argument. Picture riding a bike with a pair of super-oversized clown shoes with the cleats on the very tip of the shoes. Okay, I know on some recumbents your heels would be scraping the ground, but let's ignore that. Riding a bike in that situation would be like trying to lift a bar bell using the full length of a pole vaulting pole. You could be the incredible Hulk and still couldn't lift 50 pounds that way. Yes, I'm still learning lessons from that b@#^*rd, Mr. Hidalgo. He did have a way of making those life lessons stick with you for life.
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