Originally Posted by
Brian Ratliff
Another way of thinking about it is noticing that the pedal has more leverage on a smaller chainring, like your analogy with the plank.
i don't think this is really happening..
take a look at your weighted drive-train. apply force to the pedals and hold the bike in place. check out your chain. the only links that are actually holding real tension in the system are the first 7 or so, you can wiggle the rest of the links that are engaged around the chain ring..... that's about 15% of the ring on a 49t.. compared to an extreme small ring, say a 40t- that might drop 1 link of engagement? with this small area of engagement the circular shape of the ring doesn't really come into play.. i cant see that affecting leverage