Cycling UK Forum

I've always gone with the 30 degree knee bend when the pedal is on the down stroke... that's a flat pedal

Knees holding up.

531colin wrote:

thatsnotmyname wrote:…. others (me, for example) might pedal with more or less level feet..... There is no particular performance benefit to any of the above....

There, you see, that wasn't too hard, was it?

Great response. If I ever need to be patronised in future, I'll know who to ask..

thatsnotmyname wrote:…. If I ever need to be patronised in future, I'll know who to ask..

Sauce for the goose.

Mick F wrote:

cycleruk wrote:Heel on peddle at 6 o' clock, with leg relaxed, then adjust to account for sole/pedal thickness etc.

Yep.

I still point my toes though.

Same for me - heel on pedal measurement at bottom of pedal stroke.
I point my toes a lot at the bottom of a pedal stroke. I can ride with toes flat, but it feels all wrong, lacking flow. That's 40 years of doing it one way, rather than another.

Jacques Anquetil had a pronounced toes down style.
Eddy Merckx didn't.
They both won the tour de France five times.
I think it's very much a matter of preference.
There is of course as discussed in another thread whether pedalling with the ball of the foot in the traditional manner is more efficient than pedalling flat footed.

peetee wrote:I’m mid fifties and returned to cycling last summer after about ten years out. For the first couple of months it was very hard to ride out of the saddle, my thighs would just scream at me within a few revolutions. Now, about 1500 miles later I can ride for a minute before it gets uncomfortable and then it’s usually my arms and shoulders getting tired first.

Whilst touring in the Alps the bolt holding my saddle on to the seat post snapped.After on hour and half of riding out of the saddle almost all up hill we stopped for lunch in a village. Fortunately there was a bike shop and the owner drilled the broken bolt out of the seat post clamp and fitted a new M8 bolt for five euros, I gave him ten and was very glad of it.

ANTONISH wrote:Jacques Anquetil had a pronounced toes down style.
Eddy Merckx didn't.
They both won the tour de France five times.
I think it's very much a matter of preference.
There is of course as discussed in another thread whether pedalling with the ball of the foot in the traditional manner is more efficient than pedalling flat footed.

Interesting you used those examples. Another I will cite is Chris Froome - he always (IMHO) looks uncomfortable on the bike, but the performance indicates otherwise! Who am I to question . BTW Colin 531, I mentioned on another thread about numbness - I put my saddle 10mm forward and (to compensate for moving thus) 4mm up. I felt a lot better (no noticeable 'sliding forwards') and as a welcome aside my right calf felt better. I maintain that it's difficult to set a 'modern shaped gel' saddle level, so took a piece of ply balanced across the saddle with spirit level in place to see what that does. At least I have a known starting point to work from. Thank You.

A lot of the reason you cannot comfortably ride out of the saddle is that you don't really need to.
When I started riding normally the lowest gear was somewhere in the 30"-35" range.
This meant that even on a moderately steep hill you had to get out of the saddle to climb it.
Now it's fairly easy to get a first gear that's in the 20"-25" gear range.
This means that unless a hill is silly steep or you want/need a sudden burst of power, you don't ride out of the saddle.

YMMV ..............