Spinning Circles: How to Maximize Your Pedal Stroke Power

Here are their top tips to pedalling properly.

• Get your bike set up correctly. To see this content you need to update your cookie settings.
• Play with cadence.
• Aim for even power distribution – and try mountain biking.
• Practise single leg drills.
• Pull your pedals in semicircles.
• Work on your core.

The Pedalling Effectiveness Score has simplified this to a score out of 100, with 70-80 being the optimal range. “Most people, if left to their own devices, will develop a pedalling technique that is quite energy-efficient but isn’t always very effective at generating high amounts of force,” says Wainwright.

1. Align your legs. Cyclists often refer to their legs as “pistons,” and with good reason.
2. Drop your heel over the top. You produce the most power at the top of the pedal stroke, when your foot is in the 12 o’clock position.
3. Scrape your shoe.
4. Bring your knees to the bars.

intransitive verb. 1 : to ride a bicycle. 2 : to use or work a pedal. transitive verb.

Values of 60–100% are common. Pedal smoothness measures how smoothly power is delivered to the pedal throughout the revolution. A value of 100% means that the power is delivered constantly throughout the revolution. Values of 10–40% are common.

You should position your foot over your bicycle pedal so that the ball of your foot, also called the metatarsal, is directly over the pivot arm of the pedal. The pedal’s pivot arm is the axis, which runs through the body of the pedal.

The height of your saddle is important for the most comfortable position and safe riding style. When you sit on the saddle, both feet should reach the floor and the balls of your feet should be touching the ground. The handle bars on your bike should ideally be in line with your saddle or slightly above the saddle.

You should place your foot on the pedal so that the axle of the pedal sits just behind the ball of your foot. This differs to how you would place your foot with clipless pedals and will help to prevent you from springing up and off of the pedals if you extend your foot downwards.

The Average: – The most common way people pedal, with the foot almost looking flat on the pedal stroke with a slight heel dip on the down stroke. There is no proven improved efficiency in any of the three it’s simply a matter of rider style so don’t get beat up that your colleague dips his toe and you dip your heel.

Using the same muscles as in the power phase, but to a lesser degree, this phase acts as a transition to the backstroke. As you come through the bottom of the stroke, the toe should be pointed down 20 degrees.