• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.171-177
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• 2008

This work intends to investigate the effects of pedaling directions on the muscle actions during the bicycle's uphill propulsion. A test rig was developed that consists of a bicyle with a special planetary geartrain, a height-adjustable treadmill, a rear-wheel support and a magnetic brake. A three-dimensional motion analysis was performed for measuring kinematic characteristics of the forward backward pedaling and the electromygraphy(EMG) measurements were simultaneously performed for estimating the muscle actions of the leg. In this work, four muscles are considered including Gastrocnemius muscle(GM), Vastus lateralis(VL), Tibialis anterior(TA) and Soleus(SOL) while the uphill slope is varied from $0^{\circ}$ to $6^{\circ}$. Raw EMG signals were first processed through the root-mean-square(RMS) averaging and then ensemble curves were derived by averaging the EMG RMS envelopes over 50 consecutive cycles. Results show that both the kinemactic characteristics and the muscle actions are significantly affected by the pedaling direction. The crank speed of the forward pedaling is higher but the difference in speed is reduced as the slope is increased. The ensemble curves of the :ac signals clearly exhibit some differences in their patterns, peak values and the corresponding locations with respect to the crank angle. The peak values of most EMG signals are higher for the forward pedaling regardless of the slope magnitude. However, the averages of the EMG signals are not observed to have a similar relationship with the pedaling direction, which seems to be affected by several factors such as less experience of the participants' backward pedaling. inappropriate bicycle design for the backward pedaling. These limitations will be further considered in future work.