I just ordered my 200 mm crank arms and 55 tooth front sprocket. They should be here by this time next week. My current crank arms are 170 mm in length, by adding 30 mm (which is an inch and a quarter) I’ll be using Archimedes theory about levers (not his heat ray theory, but that one would be cool too). Though I won’t be able to spin the new cranks as fast as I can my current ones, I should be able to get into a higher gear more easily. A higher gear with fewer rotations per minute traveling the same speed translates to having legs to run a marathon.
See if this math works out…. Comparing 80 RPM to 60 RPM going the same speed because of the advantage of being able to get into a higher gear and pedaling more easily, and fewer times, at that higher gear with the longer crank arms. (breath). If the bike leg took 7 hours to complete, I’d have spun the pedals 33,600 times (80 x 60 x 7) if I did 80 RPM. By comparison, if I was able to cover the same distance in the same amount of time by doing only 60 RPM that would mean I’d have spun the pedals 25,200 times (60 x 60 x 7). That’s 8,400 fewer spins!
Going one step further, (even though it doesn’t really equate, but fun to think about) those 8,400 fewer pedal strokes could be the number of steps I could be using in 6 miles worth of the marathon. Each mile is about 1,400 steps (jogging). So 1,400 x 6 = 8,400.
Actually, I want the longer crank arms to get into the higher gear to go as fast as I can. It’s all experimental, starting next week when the cranks arrive! Until then, I’ll be up all night dreaming of new math problems.
