Spend a good hour yesterday studying on the frame angles of the Gruv 2. My height makes for a weight placement just barely forward of the rear axle. Noted this effect last summer climbing a short hill in the woods.. as I standing up on the ground quickly as the front wheel came up with the weight shift behind the rear axle.
My original reason for the Gruv was less knee strain.. this seems to be helping. I do not have serious knee issues.. just minor strain in the right one especially.. and I want to keep it minor.
So.. with the need for a custom stem.. I am considering something that would correct this weight being placed so far back... and possibly experiment with how far behind the petals is ideal. From this perspective: my conventional 10 now 14 speed Schwinn Traveler takes some weight off the 'caboose' area.. my more upright handle bars forces some weight onto my hands. And this seat to petal relationship makes one lift your body in a minor way while applying the downward stroke to the petal. The effect being I'm working the leg muscles in a different way vs the crank forward Gruv... and not having this continual weight setting on my ass.. putting that critical area to sleep. Now my thinking is attempting to fabricate a stem that negates the stem going back towards the axle as it is raised. And then.. possibly.. making it possible to move the seat to and fro.. per adjustment on a top rail.. to experiment with some 'sweet spot' per distance behind the pedals vs continual weight on the butt.. ie.. getting those muscles in play and not constantly subjected to weigt.
I seem to remember someone posting per a system allowing seat adjustment forward and back but can't find it archived. Anyone have a link.. or input on these ideas?
Yes to the heat treatment per one suggestion.. or some similarly strong end product. I raised the idea of wood... I chuckle at that now..
. Nothing sez the stem once out of the frame has to be.. or would be round either. This is beginning to sound like some engineering challenge.. or some new invention.
NOTE: I use conventional platform petals.. anything tying my foot to a petal is out for me.