Ok maybe Im thinking about it wrong but I always thought that the early tension had nothing to do with recurve angle but how far foward of the back the tips are regardless of design ,strait,recurve etc. I think Tim Baker did some writting on the subject !
I think I was wrong when I thought bracing eliminates all pre-brace stored energy. I think bushboy is right in that it's like a pre-stressed spring. Even though its braced and that's its new starting point, the limbs still want to return to their unbraced profile.
Threrfore I would say early tension is based on how far the working limb has to travel to brace. When you brace a recurve you don't get the tips moving to brace height, just the end of the working limb. The tips may still be hanging back a bit at brace, especially if it's a sharp static. However, with a reflex you do have to make the working limb travel further to brace therefore you get eary tension greater than a straight limb. If you had reflex and recurve you would have both an increase in early draw weight and a decrease in final draw weight due to the lever effect Aaron and DC said. Thus you get a nice fat force curve.
Sorry PatM i'm going to have to disagree with you in that recurves do decrease final draw weight. If you increase the lever length (moment arm) you need less force to produce the same torque. Just like a longer wrench is easier to loosen those lugnuts on a tire. You get more torque for less force. So if we have less force near the end of the draw due to longer moment arms, we thus need less force for the same bend. In other words we have less draw weight at the end than if there wasn't recurved tips.
