My amazing powers of discernment



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Gary Young

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This morning I retired my winter cycling shoes and brought out my fair-weather shoes. After about 15
minutes, while I was riding up a hill I encounter every morning, I felt a pain in my thigh that over
the years I've come to associate with having my saddle too low. I figured a change in cleat
placement or perhaps in the thickness of the soles had changed my position on the bike and that the
pain came from working muscles that were usually idle. I moved the saddle up a centimeter and
immediately felt better.

Before lurking in this group I would have let it rest at that. But now I wonder if my explanation is
correct or even if the phenomenon has any basis in fact.
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Gary
Young) wrote:

> This morning I retired my winter cycling shoes and brought out my fair-weather shoes. After about
> 15 minutes, while I was riding up a hill I encounter every morning, I felt a pain in my thigh that
> over the years I've come to associate with having my saddle too low. I figured a change in cleat
> placement or perhaps in the thickness of the soles had changed my position on the bike and that
> the pain came from working muscles that were usually idle. I moved the saddle up a centimeter and
> immediately felt better.
>
> Before lurking in this group I would have let it rest at that. But now I wonder if my explanation
> is correct or even if the phenomenon has any basis in fact.

All sensory stimulus has a threshold of perceptibility. Is a 1 cm difference within your threshold
of perceptibility? The only way to know is to do blind testing.

There's an entertaining story of Davis Phinney. The team he was riding for (7-11?) had Eddy Merckx
as an adviser. On a team ride, Eddy would ride alongside riders, check out their position and make
recommendations. Riding alongside Phinney, Eddy told him to raise his saddle a certain amount.
Phinney stopped and pretended to change his saddle height. A while later, Merckx rode next to
Phinney and then told him to lower the saddle half the distance he had raised it...
 
Tim McNamara wrote:
>
> All sensory stimulus has a threshold of perceptibility. Is a 1 cm difference within your threshold
> of perceptibility? The only way to know is to do blind testing.
>
> There's an entertaining story of Davis Phinney. The team he was riding for (7-11?) had Eddy Merckx
> as an adviser. On a team ride, Eddy would ride alongside riders, check out their position and make
> recommendations. Riding alongside Phinney, Eddy told him to raise his saddle a certain amount.
> Phinney stopped and pretended to change his saddle height. A while later, Merckx rode next to
> Phinney and then told him to lower the saddle half the distance he had raised it...

The important question is: when he pretended to lower it, did it feel better to Davis Phinney? ;-)

--
Frank Krygowski [email protected]
 
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