Balor
Zen MBB Master
Well, this is a good point, but where those "30 days" came from? Is there actual *data*? What was the range of adjustment in question? In most cases was about seat recline, not BB height, btw. It changes hip angle, which likely results in a shift of optimal pedalling patterns that you need, and obviously *can* adapt to quickly.
In my case, adjusting the angle from BB below the seat to BB level with the seat results in no power drop, but a further combination of lowering the seat/rising BB certainly did, and by a whooping ~50 watts!
Likely, *some* adaptation is possible, but limits and speed of it are likely personal. Let me quote from this article again:
I wasn’t, however, and I was the only one riding the bike. After several months of denial, self deception, avoiding looking at my average trip speed indicator, etc., I finally gave in and recognized that I was an astonishing 2 mph slower in open-country riding on the Barcroft than on the V-Rex, and my legs had been telling me the reason. I didn’t have foot numbness, but I had increased lactic acid leg burn on all hills and anytime I tried to push the speed. Because I’m not into this for pain, I would back off until it didn’t hurt, and so I rode much more slowly.
The fact is, somewhere between a pedal height 2 inches to 5 inches above the seat height I had exceeded my individual tolerances for adequate leg circulation in a leg-elevated work position and so dramatically impacted my riding performance. And performance isn’t just vulgar speed, it is “easy speed” – simple riding efficiency. My performance loss was astonishing; trying to go faster, I had passed through some physiological threshold into a place where my leg circulation just didn’t work properly.
This is VERY, very close to what I experienced, except when it comes to BB 10" above the seat, my power drop is likely nearly 50%. And it stayed that way untill I've switched to a much lower BB bent - which happened to be MBB
My foot numbness never abated before that. Just like Osiris said, one of absolutely undisputed benefits of MBB is having BB nearly as low as one would want - with a 700c wheel, or 26/27.5 wheels with a fat tire. Compared to huge gains in power that gives you, a few percent in transmission efficiency, already pretty much a well-documented fact, is barely noticeable (but, obviously, welcome).My experience riding bents is about 4, nearly 5 years. My mileage on bents is nearly 15k. Not *much*, but not that 'bad' per se either - I have my share of problems that prevents me from biking as much as I'd like to.
Maybe, just maybe I will be able to adapt to a high BB completely. Point is, how many *years* will that take? Will I be even interested in riding bikes by that time? Dunno.
Anyway, my initial goal was to be 'about as fast as I was on DF mtb bike, and more comfortable'. I'm very close to that, but still not quite - unless we are talking about nearly pancake flat routes.
And besides, in your case, promoting 'throw enough training at it until it goes away' is kind of self-defeating. It will result in pretty much nobody, ever, adopting recumbents. Certainly no me, for instance - if I could simply ride even more and lose more weight at will, I'd would be blissfully unaware about intricacies of recumbent adaptation, and likely riding 1200+ brevets on that very upright DF niner even now.
