General Category > The Dark Side
Lead Me To The Darkside
Cudzoziemiec:
For legs of different lengths, TA used to make "orthopaedic" pedals with individually adjustable cage heights. See here and here but finding any for sale doesn't appear to be easy.
henshaw11:
--- Quote from: Kim on August 19, 2012, 01:19:54 PM ---"Sitting in a slightly different spot" rings alarm bells for that reason. You're going to end up gravitating to whatever spot is natural, and if that's not quite right for your legs, you need to fettle things until it is.
--- End quote ---
Hmm...in possibly contradiction to this, I've only ever set up the boom on my Speedmachine once, outside Bikefix when I picked it up, and very approximately. So the odds are it's almost certainly not quite the ideal length - by comparison, I can tell if the seatpost on the mtb is more than about 5mm in error (plus the kness start clicking a bit). The lower seat section (bodylink jobbie) is very reclined, whereas the upper section I've got about halfway in it's recline range. I'd guess the more reclined lower section allows a bit more wriggle room - whereas a more upright seat might not.
Kim:
The bodylink seat may well be more forgiving (mine's the older one-piece version, on which there is exactly one really comfortable stable position), and I think you're right that a more reclined seat is less critical of leg-length. I successfully managed to ride Charlotte's Optima Baron, in spite of the boom being about 6" too long for me, thanks to the relatively reclined position (it wasn't especially comfortable, though, and I had trouble seeing over the bars).
I don't know about anyone else, but I find that recumbents benefit from a more ankly pedalling technique than DF bikes, which gives a little bit more flexibility to compensate for boom adjustment.
...and of course if you havent' played with it, there's always the possibility that there's a better position you simply haven't discovered yet :)
arallsopp:
--- Quote from: Kim on August 23, 2012, 02:19:37 PM ---The bodylink seat may well be more forgiving (mine's the older one-piece version, on which there is exactly one really comfortable stable position), and I think you're right that a more reclined seat is less critical of leg-length.
--- End quote ---
There's definitely something in the seat position that swings it. Like Henshaw, My SMGTe was set up for me by Stuart outside the shop. 10,000 miles later I got a Furai and set the boom length so that it was mm identical to the tried and tested SMGTe.
3,000 miles into riding it, I pushed the boom out by about 2 inches at the side of the road in response to a big ride giving me pain in the knees. Another 10,000 miles later, the Furai is still in its hastily shoved position, and I've extended the SMGTe to match. I guess I settle a little lower on a long ride, and chances are once I was done with learning I could have actually pushed it out an inch or so anyway. Many unknowns...
On which, one not insignificant unknown is whether poor Clarion actually has a pair of mismatched legs. After all, everything he did to suggest an imbalance was performed using my shoes which have about an inch discrepancy in cleat position to compensate for *ME*. If he were perfectly symmetrical, he'd still have been an inch out in this scenario...
(From my observations, most people with mismatched legs favour a 'hip jutted out' position when standing as this compensates. Given Clarion stands like a duck, I reckon he'd fall over if he was anything other than mirror perfect ;))
matthew:
--- Quote from: arallsopp on August 23, 2012, 02:36:02 PM ---(From my observations, most people with mismatched legs favour a 'hip jutted out' position when standing as this compensates. Given Clarion stands like a duck, I reckon he'd fall over if he was anything other than mirror perfect ;))
--- End quote ---
Maybe this kills my N+1 recumbent plans, I *know* (Diagnosed by a physio when I first reported problems with my right hip at 24 years old) I have an 18mm discrepency and as you observe tend to stand with my feet perpendicular to each other and the left hip jutted out.
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