Re: Do fluctuations during the pedal stroke slow you down?

Graham Steer said:

A wild guess but is the clue in the word "slowtwitch". Is it the increased
peak muscle loading that is occurring to maintain a constant average speed
up the climb that is fatiguing the muscles earlier in the non-round or slow
cadence case. Increasing the muscle force will recruit more fast twitch
fibres and towards the limit they will go anerobic and fatigue. Get your
model to output peak pedalling force and that should show if there is
anything in this idea. I'm no physiologist but my guess is that there is a
maximum peak muscle force that is sustainable for any climb.

Since the bike's (and pedal's) max positive acceleration coincides with
the max force point in the stroke, the fluctuations would tend to
*reduce* peak loads (if anything)... not increase them. In my model
though, the power (and torque, force) and time are inputs, so these
values are the same in all cases. The thing that varies is velocity
(and pedal speed) throughout the stroke... though cadence is fixed.

At any rate, if fluctuations are bad then *more* weight is "good"...
not less.

The fluctuations seem to mimic the effect of biopace rings... where the
effective gear is reduced in the power portion of the stroke and
increased near the dead points.

One way to counteract the variation in pedal speed, would be the "new"
elliptical rings that increase the gear in the power stroke... but I
doubt that would really help for most people.