Forgive me for just responding to small portions of your post! But no: Shorter crank arms make it easier for your legs to do one thing, while longer crank arms make it easier for your legs to do something else.
The effect may sound like higher gearing or even feel like higher gearing, but they are not the same thing. So when you talk of "effective gearing" I know what you mean, but don't like the term.
Ok,
leverage then. It's not gearing but since the purpose of gearing is to influence leverage it accomplishes the same purpose.
But my question to you is when does it feel like higher gearing? That is, if you can even tell; I know that fatter tires change the gearing too, but I'd be hard pressed to say I can feel it and, as I conjectured above, I'd imagine the pure leverage ratio effect of crank length would only hold true under small variations.
More later! It's time for me to shut this PC down, hop on my folder with 140 mm crank arms, and forget about this discussion until Monday.
Ha, ha. See you when you come back to work!
