I don't seem to understand the bicycle gearing analogy.

First of all, the examples given were at a standstill/dead stop. Of course if you have a smaller gear in the front and a larger in the rear it would be hard to get up to speed. I would assume that if you are shifting from fourth into fifth, you'd be at speeds of 45+MPH. The analogy doesn't work anymore does it? Because now you are at speeds, shouldn't the larger gear in the front put more stress on the motor/you?

Please do explain...

PS. I'm not trying to advocate using nitrous in 5th gear. Just trying to make sense of some facts given.


[Modified by iloveracing, 11:28 PM 4/3/2002]