I read that the maximum amount of torque momentarily produced by a professional (racing) cyclist is in the region of 1,000 Inch Pounds. That is 83.3r Foot Pounds, or 112.984 829 333 Newton Meters.

A 250cc motorcycle I used to ride only produced around 20 Newton Meters, so is the 112+Nm figure really an accurate one for the maximum torque a human can produce on a bicycle? It seems rather high to me. But then considering a rider with a mass of around 100kg standing up on the pedals and allowing his entire weight to push down on 175mm cranks (with a turning circle of 1099.6mm). This rider without even trying, and merely allowing gravity to pull his mass down and turning the cranks in the process, will exert approximately 539.35Nm of force through the bottom bracket spindle.

Rider’s weight: 981 Newtons
Distance cranks turned (at pedal): 0.54978 Meters

Riders weight divided by distance crank turned?

Now 500Nm of force sounds like a huge amount to me for a rider to exert, even for just a few seconds. That is a similar amount an average juggernaut produces. I think I have my sums wrong.

What do you make of this?