DOES CYCLING LENGTHEN THE LEGS?

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXV, Issue 1942, 19 June 1905, Page 7

DOES CYCLING LENGTHEN THE LEGS?

" Is the bicycle a leg-palling machine T asks a country peper, and then, correct! at itself in order to explain the Joke, it romarki that persistent riding; ten da to make not only the right leg but also the left " longer than it really ought to be." A contemporary Extorts, " Whiit if it does T Whether or not having the legs actually stretched makes any material difference is a sabject for physiologists, bat muny bicycle riders, if not a great majority of all can testify to the fact that there is an apparent; elongation of the legs in consequence of riding. A common remark of dealers when a man buys a machine on which bis foot.just reaches the pedal is, "Oh I well, after you ride a little your lew will stretch, you know, and it will fit you afl right." That is not the nonsense it sounds like, for the whe«lwoman finds that after riding a little she does reach the pedals properly, and the wheelwoman who starts with a low, easy reach usually finds it advantageous after a while to raise the saddle. A rider of several years' experience, chatting to this line sayß:—"When I began to ride 1 could not possibly use a 24-inch frame, even with a direct post and the saddle down as far as as it would go. I got a frame 23£ inches high, and with the saddle plump upon the frame could just manage to work it. 1 wished for months that I had trot a shorter frame and could sic lower, and then it ceased to bot her me. 1 forgot it. Last year I got a 24inch frame, the one lam riding now. So fax as I can tell the saddle site higher from ills frame than on the first wheel I had in 18S4, but I am plenty low enough. It may be there was some minmeasurement in the frame or a diiference in the siase of the saddle itself, bat 1 have been taking some careful observations and I do not think there was. I think that my legs reash further than at first." A physician gives it as an oft'-hand opinion that the limbering up of the tendons and muscles of the legs might account for the phenomenon to a slight extent, and that a man who never rode before might be able to reach half an inch or an inch further. Whatever the explanation or the denial of the fact, there is abundant testimony to show that wheeling makes the legs grow longer.