Originally Posted by
RChung
Um, your first statement is wrong: if you are maintaining power at constant cadence, pedal force is independent of increasing slope.
And your second statement addresses a different issue: if you run out of gears on a steep climb, I'm not disputing that crank torque may be high in absolute terms--I'm saying that if you lower your cadence, crank torque decreases. That means, of course, that in any gear, lower cadence reduces crank torque: it never increases it (take a look at either the power or force equations and differentiate wrt cadence to see).
Ok, you are right. Increasing slope will actually reduce cadence at the same power, but crank torque will increase to maintain power. Maintaining cadence on a steeper slope also requires more crank torque, but power also increases. I was wrong to state constant power in that scenario.
I’m certainly not disputing that lower cadence reduces crank torque in any gear. But it would be misleading to suggest that low cadence = low crank torque when it is often the opposite. For example riding in a higher gear vs lower gear at the same road speed.