Pedal Stroke-Cycling is a skill, like other sports… basics help.
Cycling is a full revolution of power. I marvel at the theories of Biopace or Elliptical Chain Rings and Compact Cranks. Each will increase your ability to transfer power. From an engineers perspective they seem brilliant. But to a cyclist, who has developed full rotation, they are not always effective or a great advantage.
When you pedal, you should exert an equal amount of force all around. New devices like a power tap, can actually map the force exerted in full rotation and map it out on a graph or plot.
To reach your optimum goal, requires practice on technique and a conscious thought about the delivery of power to the pedals. Imagine the pedal in the up most position is 12 o’clock and the pedal on the drive side (right) rotates clockwise. Imagine the pedal as a clock, the upper most position being 12 o’clock. While riding, on a trainer or on street, concentrate on different areas of the power delivery of this clock. First, think about the stroke from 4 o’clock -8 o’clock, then think of 7 o’clock -12 o’clock and so on. A good analogy of this is like someone cleaning mud from the bottoms of their shoes as they cycle the pedal through that portion of the pedal stroke. This seems like a simple demonstration, but when you concentrate on one portion of the cycling stroke, the rest seems to take care of itself. By doing this, you develop more power around the stroke of the pedals. This is the first step in developing your cycling technique.
Now you can combine this with different leg muscles as you ride. When seated and pulling up, think about the shin or calf muscles and how they help contribute to the power delivered. Utilizing full “cycle” will enable you to increase speed of the pedals, by providing good balance of forces exerted. You offset the down force with an equal force in the upward direction, your body will remain stable and not bounce on the saddle at the higher pace.
Spin
The faster someone can spin the pedals, the more versatile they will be. This is easy to see in newly developing cyclist, versus experienced rider. Riders who have mastered the spin, can accelerate and maintain in a group ride, which allows them to ride closer, more efficiently for a longer duration. This spinning technique utilizes muscles that are more for endurance or red muscle cells carrying oxygen.
When you have the basic spin down, there are two other techniques you’ll want to utilize, climbing and sprinting.
Climbing: Climbers are a special kind of cyclist, the kind that suffer better than others.
When climbing, your spin is your best asset. Climbers position themselves differently on the bike. When approaching the climb, you will want to put your hands on the top of the bars, and slightly pull back, you push your feet forward while in the saddle. You can see this when watching the Tour de France, on classic stages like Mt. Ventoux or L’alpe Duez. The riders, when moderately riding, will be seen rocking front/back. This is because they are climbing with slightly different muscle group, and utilizing their entire legs and lat muscles of their torso to get additional power.
When this muscle group fatigues or grade increases, they will change positions. This time, standing on the pedals and rising to their feet. With hands on the hoods of their brakes, they will now concentrate on the upstroke of the pedals. Pulling up, with their leg hamstrings, and the front of their shins, they have a new fresh muscle group to tap.
Finally, they have a 3rd muscle group as a full cyclist, when they attack. The rocking action of the saddle, and the side to side rocking is now replaced with concentration on the downstroke. The cyclist arms now pull up on the brake hoods, and combine this with the downstroke of the pedal cycle. This specific cycle technique, is where elliptical rings and compact cranks may have an advantage. Thus the, use of these cranks/rings sacrifice the previous techniques leading up to this point. But if this is your strength as a rider, they may be beneficial.
Sprinting : Sprinters are about acceleration, matching spin, power and technique.
This is a skill that is as much technique, as well as physical composition of the cyclist. Red muscle is the power muscle fiber in the sprinter. Look at Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Tyler Ferrar, these are powerful sprinters and they look the part. My idol during the 1984 olympics was track specialist in the Kilo… Nelson Vails, a silver medalist with 34 inch thighs. When invited to race at the Pro/Am National Criterium, he was first to DNF, but if the race were only 2 laps…. My money was on Nelson.
The skill of sprinting, involves rocking the bike. Pulling the bike toward your chest, as you leap on the pedals. You’ll want you body in a horizontal position. With your legs over the pedals, and forward so that you have even distribution of weight front and back, you power the pedals to your spin limit. Because of this, you’ll need to consider the elevation and gear appropriately. When accelerating you will give a slight turn of the bars, the bike will radically swing from side/side, and then level out as you trim your power to the pedals at full tilt . The catch is that while all this violent activity is happening, the bottom of the wheels and the path that they follow is straight as an arrow.
To practice this, involves visualizing the above and mimicking it as best you can. Once the acceleration is met, the spin the sprinter holds is what makes them the best at what they do. They maintain a 125, 135 or 150 cadence for the remainder of the effort. Obviously, this doesn’t happen without practice. And determining your spin maximum will need to be coupled with the gear you can push during this exercise. Training and practicing this technique can only be done on the road, and is great fun.
Group rides, will often involve city limit sprints. Your ability to sprint, will add another level of challenge to the fun of the group ride.
Cornering ; Confidence in the corner, makes big difference in efficiency of your ride.
Cornering should not involve slowing down, unless the road conditions dictate it. Your tires are not going to slip or cause your balance to be effected, if you distribute your weight correctly.
Weight should be slightly shifted toward the rear wheel and a majority of the side to side weight should be on the outside pedal. When approaching the corner, you should lean into the apex of the turn, and position your torso with your arms in position to move the bike if needed. With your weight on the outside pedal, you want to have your body straight up and down, if the bike begins to slide. With your weight on outside pedal, you can unclip the inside cleat and catch your self or stand slightly, if needed.
Pending the type of corner, you may or may not pedal. You need to keep in mind, that your inside pedal if leaning drastically can lift your rear wheel off the ground. This can be catastrophic, which is why if you are pedaling through corner, you want to not stop pedaling if this occurs. I have seen many cyclists, pedal through a tight corner with pedals dragging, and recover. But I have seen them not recover also when this occurs.
When approaching a corner with questionable surface, you may want to have your hands on the drops, to distribute your weight appropriately, and put your weight on the outside pedal and handlebars to best control the bike.
When descending, it is sometimes preferred to put your weight forward when descending and gaining an aerodynamic position. As you approach corners, you want to return to your saddle and put pressure on the outside pedal and bar position.
If you are descending at a high rate of speed, the bike will corner best if you push the handle bars toward the outside of the corner, which is contradictory to what you would normally think. The best demonstration of why this happens is when you have a bicycle wheel off the bike. Spin the wheel quickly and the gyroscope of the wheel will rotate left / right based upon the force up / down without your turning of the bars.
When cornering, and if the road is rough or rippled, you can put your leg against the top tube, to help reduce the vibration that could cause the tires to bounce and the bike to skip. By putting your leg on the top tube, will help the tires remain in contact with the road.
Another consideration is if the road adhesion is compromised or slick. By positioning your weight toward the back, your rear tire should release first. Should this happen, you can force your weight to the outside, and then steer into the slide, like you would in a car on ice. Once your bike slides, and you recover, you should follow the front wheel and manage it from slipping. Keeping this in mind regardless of what happens to the rear of the bike you have better chance of keeping the rubber side down.
Breaking during cornering should be avoided, to maintain integrity during the turn. Preparing your speed, with brakes, prior to making the turn or approach of the corner.
In summary, your weight should be middle to rear of the bike. You want to be positioned straight up, and weight to outside pedal. Your outside hand should carry most of your of weight and you should be pushing down on the handle bar, especially at high speed.
Cycling is a full revolution of power. I marvel at the theories of Biopace or Elliptical Chain Rings and Compact Cranks. Each will increase your ability to transfer power. From an engineers perspective they seem brilliant. But to a cyclist, who has developed full rotation, they are not always effective or a great advantage.
When you pedal, you should exert an equal amount of force all around. New devices like a power tap, can actually map the force exerted in full rotation and map it out on a graph or plot.
To reach your optimum goal, requires practice on technique and a conscious thought about the delivery of power to the pedals. Imagine the pedal in the up most position is 12 o’clock and the pedal on the drive side (right) rotates clockwise. Imagine the pedal as a clock, the upper most position being 12 o’clock. While riding, on a trainer or on street, concentrate on different areas of the power delivery of this clock. First, think about the stroke from 4 o’clock -8 o’clock, then think of 7 o’clock -12 o’clock and so on. A good analogy of this is like someone cleaning mud from the bottoms of their shoes as they cycle the pedal through that portion of the pedal stroke. This seems like a simple demonstration, but when you concentrate on one portion of the cycling stroke, the rest seems to take care of itself. By doing this, you develop more power around the stroke of the pedals. This is the first step in developing your cycling technique.
Now you can combine this with different leg muscles as you ride. When seated and pulling up, think about the shin or calf muscles and how they help contribute to the power delivered. Utilizing full “cycle” will enable you to increase speed of the pedals, by providing good balance of forces exerted. You offset the down force with an equal force in the upward direction, your body will remain stable and not bounce on the saddle at the higher pace.
Spin
The faster someone can spin the pedals, the more versatile they will be. This is easy to see in newly developing cyclist, versus experienced rider. Riders who have mastered the spin, can accelerate and maintain in a group ride, which allows them to ride closer, more efficiently for a longer duration. This spinning technique utilizes muscles that are more for endurance or red muscle cells carrying oxygen.
When you have the basic spin down, there are two other techniques you’ll want to utilize, climbing and sprinting.
Climbing: Climbers are a special kind of cyclist, the kind that suffer better than others.
When climbing, your spin is your best asset. Climbers position themselves differently on the bike. When approaching the climb, you will want to put your hands on the top of the bars, and slightly pull back, you push your feet forward while in the saddle. You can see this when watching the Tour de France, on classic stages like Mt. Ventoux or L’alpe Duez. The riders, when moderately riding, will be seen rocking front/back. This is because they are climbing with slightly different muscle group, and utilizing their entire legs and lat muscles of their torso to get additional power.
When this muscle group fatigues or grade increases, they will change positions. This time, standing on the pedals and rising to their feet. With hands on the hoods of their brakes, they will now concentrate on the upstroke of the pedals. Pulling up, with their leg hamstrings, and the front of their shins, they have a new fresh muscle group to tap.
Finally, they have a 3rd muscle group as a full cyclist, when they attack. The rocking action of the saddle, and the side to side rocking is now replaced with concentration on the downstroke. The cyclist arms now pull up on the brake hoods, and combine this with the downstroke of the pedal cycle. This specific cycle technique, is where elliptical rings and compact cranks may have an advantage. Thus the, use of these cranks/rings sacrifice the previous techniques leading up to this point. But if this is your strength as a rider, they may be beneficial.
Sprinting : Sprinters are about acceleration, matching spin, power and technique.
This is a skill that is as much technique, as well as physical composition of the cyclist. Red muscle is the power muscle fiber in the sprinter. Look at Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Tyler Ferrar, these are powerful sprinters and they look the part. My idol during the 1984 olympics was track specialist in the Kilo… Nelson Vails, a silver medalist with 34 inch thighs. When invited to race at the Pro/Am National Criterium, he was first to DNF, but if the race were only 2 laps…. My money was on Nelson.
The skill of sprinting, involves rocking the bike. Pulling the bike toward your chest, as you leap on the pedals. You’ll want you body in a horizontal position. With your legs over the pedals, and forward so that you have even distribution of weight front and back, you power the pedals to your spin limit. Because of this, you’ll need to consider the elevation and gear appropriately. When accelerating you will give a slight turn of the bars, the bike will radically swing from side/side, and then level out as you trim your power to the pedals at full tilt . The catch is that while all this violent activity is happening, the bottom of the wheels and the path that they follow is straight as an arrow.
To practice this, involves visualizing the above and mimicking it as best you can. Once the acceleration is met, the spin the sprinter holds is what makes them the best at what they do. They maintain a 125, 135 or 150 cadence for the remainder of the effort. Obviously, this doesn’t happen without practice. And determining your spin maximum will need to be coupled with the gear you can push during this exercise. Training and practicing this technique can only be done on the road, and is great fun.
Group rides, will often involve city limit sprints. Your ability to sprint, will add another level of challenge to the fun of the group ride.
Cornering ; Confidence in the corner, makes big difference in efficiency of your ride.
Cornering should not involve slowing down, unless the road conditions dictate it. Your tires are not going to slip or cause your balance to be effected, if you distribute your weight correctly.
Weight should be slightly shifted toward the rear wheel and a majority of the side to side weight should be on the outside pedal. When approaching the corner, you should lean into the apex of the turn, and position your torso with your arms in position to move the bike if needed. With your weight on the outside pedal, you want to have your body straight up and down, if the bike begins to slide. With your weight on outside pedal, you can unclip the inside cleat and catch your self or stand slightly, if needed.
Pending the type of corner, you may or may not pedal. You need to keep in mind, that your inside pedal if leaning drastically can lift your rear wheel off the ground. This can be catastrophic, which is why if you are pedaling through corner, you want to not stop pedaling if this occurs. I have seen many cyclists, pedal through a tight corner with pedals dragging, and recover. But I have seen them not recover also when this occurs.
When approaching a corner with questionable surface, you may want to have your hands on the drops, to distribute your weight appropriately, and put your weight on the outside pedal and handlebars to best control the bike.
When descending, it is sometimes preferred to put your weight forward when descending and gaining an aerodynamic position. As you approach corners, you want to return to your saddle and put pressure on the outside pedal and bar position.
If you are descending at a high rate of speed, the bike will corner best if you push the handle bars toward the outside of the corner, which is contradictory to what you would normally think. The best demonstration of why this happens is when you have a bicycle wheel off the bike. Spin the wheel quickly and the gyroscope of the wheel will rotate left / right based upon the force up / down without your turning of the bars.
When cornering, and if the road is rough or rippled, you can put your leg against the top tube, to help reduce the vibration that could cause the tires to bounce and the bike to skip. By putting your leg on the top tube, will help the tires remain in contact with the road.
Another consideration is if the road adhesion is compromised or slick. By positioning your weight toward the back, your rear tire should release first. Should this happen, you can force your weight to the outside, and then steer into the slide, like you would in a car on ice. Once your bike slides, and you recover, you should follow the front wheel and manage it from slipping. Keeping this in mind regardless of what happens to the rear of the bike you have better chance of keeping the rubber side down.
Breaking during cornering should be avoided, to maintain integrity during the turn. Preparing your speed, with brakes, prior to making the turn or approach of the corner.
In summary, your weight should be middle to rear of the bike. You want to be positioned straight up, and weight to outside pedal. Your outside hand should carry most of your of weight and you should be pushing down on the handle bar, especially at high speed.