On 11/13/2020 1:49 AM, Joy Beeson wrote:
Wednesday:

I had already chickened out of riding to Open Air Nursery and was
climbing the courthouse steps to make up for it when I saw the burger
truck on Center Street, but buying hot food made a good excuse for
riding straight home as fast as I could.

I climbed each flight three times, and there were fourteen steps in
each flight. How much of the extra mile did I make up for?

Two steps equal one rotation of the cranks. Seven times nine is
sixty-three. Round off to seventy-five because there were four extra
steps on the west side.

The development of a 27" wheel, my handy-dandy solar calculator tells
me, is 85".

Thursday:

Counting the teeth on sprockets and cogs is much harder than one would
think. Determining, with some difficulty, the number of legs in each
spider (five front and six back) and counting teeth between legs, I
come up with thirty-five teeth on my inner chainwheel and thirty-three
on my largest cog.

This can't be right. I'll just say that each turn of the pedals
equals two turns of the back wheel.

75 steps x 85" x 2/step x 1 feet/12" = 75 x 85" x 1/6 feet=
25 x 85 x 1/2 feet = 1062.5 feet.

About one fifth of the distance from the courthouse to Open Air.

I did come down the steps, but I have to come back from Open Air also.

The bisonburger was still warm when I got home. Lots of insulation in
the pannier helped.

Two comments: When counting cog or sprocket teeth, it helps to have a
uniform procedure. I put a chalk mark on one tooth, then start counting
clockwise, with the _next_ tooth counted "One" - same as the face of a
clock. The tooth with chalk is the last one counted.

And I think going up stairs is much more strenuous per step, or per
revolution, than riding a bike. On stairs, during each step you take
your leg supports your entire body weight. On a bike the force on your
leg is normally much less.

BTW, I think that's one of the reasons cycling tends to be easy on the
joints. Not only are the motions constrained (so there's almost no
chance of twisting an ankle, etc.) but the forces are relatively small.
Yet there is motion to provide circulation or stirring of synovial fluid
within the joint. A physical therapist friend tells me that has great
benefit.

--
- Frank Krygowski