DIM, that's a good analogy but, I think, the wrong one. Pedaling a bike is more akin to climbing stairs. Both tall and short people, and even very small children, climb the same stairs. They are not standard, exactly, but pretty close. The important thing is what your legs are accustomed to.
I think you are onto something with the stairway analogy. Way back in the 1970's, I was wiring high-rise buildings in a resort town. We couldn't afford to wait for the construction elevator, so we used the stairs to get to our work floors. None of us walked up the stairs - it was too tiring. We ran. It seemed to be much easier, even if we were carrying stuff. I think the motion of hopping off your plant foot made the reach to the next stair a bit shorter. Of course I could be totally wrong, but it worked for us.