Joe67

is a ft lb torque actually the equivalent of 1 lb over 1 ft span? if that makes sense the way im explaining it...

would that mean if i had a bicycle with 1 foot pedal cranks, and i weighed 250lbs, i would have more power at the crank than a 289?

JHPSTANG

"As a unit of torque, one foot-pound is the torque created by one pound force acting at a perpendicular distance of one foot from a pivot point. When used to describe the output of an automobile engine, this unit is usually called the pound-foot (lb-ft)."
(wikepedia)
Not sure how that conversion works, but I wouldn't enter any drag races on the bike!

69mach1377

No...power, or HP, is torque multiplied by rpm and some other constant.
If you could place all your weight on the foot pedal, you are generating that amount of torque until the crank rotates and your foot falls off the pedal, but you have produced very little power at all because your rpms are going from very few to zero very quickly.