John Sanderson wrote:
> What I'm really interested in is a way to figure how much the human
> rider is exerting, in terms of power, related to that reaching
> the chain.

This doesn't directly answer your question, but monitoring heart rate can
provide useful insight into the human part of the workings.  The PowerTap,
for example, includes a heart rate monitor.

I think if you truly want to measure power consumed by the body, you will
need a respiration monitor to measure how much O2 is converted to CO2.

> Just how much is the rider losing through trailing pedal force, if
> they are not consciously `pulling-up' on the trailing foot?

I don't know, but it's not immediately obvious whether pulling up on the
trailing foot is better or not.  The weight of the leg needs to be raised
somehow so that it can go down on the next power stroke.  This energy can
come from the downstroke by letting the trailing foot idle, or you can use
different muscles in the trailing foot to do the work.  Actually if the
trailing foot is idling, then the weight of the leading foot ballances it
and the muscle power goes into moving the bike.  For example, pedalling
backwards is very little work since the weight of both legs ballance.

>From my own subjective experience, it feels like more work to deliberately
raise the trailing foot.  It's something I do when I want a burst of power
for a short time, not for long term efficiency.


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