Aug. 31, 2022, 11:16 a.m. -  Mike Ferrentino

All this talk about relative seat angle and reach changing with moving the foot forward on the pedal, but what about the change in effective chainstay length/rear center? If moving your whole body forward causes a shortening of reach and a slackening of ESA, then it stands to reason that you'd also be lengthening the effective rear center by a similar amount. I'm so ingrained in my habits that I have to consciously remind myself to move my feet forward on my dirtbike and ride with my arch on the footpeg instead of my forefoot. When I think of pedaling on my arches, all that comes to mind is that it most likely would result in a much lower max rpm, for me anyway. That's probably something most of us would be willing to live with, and on flats it's a moot point since you can always just slide your foot backward when you need to spin faster. That thought alone - the ability to move your foot around to the optimal position - makes my head spin. I might have to give them flat pedals a try someday!