Pedal from... the heel?

[jeff-o]

I wonder, would it be even more efficient, and perhaps easier on the ankles, to pedal a recumbent with the pedal only slightly forward of your heel? That way, you basically have the pedal lined up directly with your leg. You would no longer have to keep your ankle tensed up (or at least, not as much) on the powerstroke. We already know that moving the clip as far towards the heel as possible helps with numbness and such, so why not push it all the way?

It would be mighty hard to clip in though, you'd have to twist your whole body to get out!

Apologies if this is a well-known fact already... ;)

[BlazingPedals]

It sounds like a reasonable question, and one that I don't have a good answer for. I *suspect* that we use our ankles more than we realize, and pedaling from the heel would be very choppy and inefficient. The trick is to normalize the pressure so that the foot gets the right weight distribution between the ball and the heel. Otherwise, we could end up eliminating hotfoot in our toes but cause it in our heels. Other ideas?

[jeff-o]

Well, you could chop off your feet and have special prosthetics made, that couple directly to the cranks.

[Mild Al]

Well, you could chop off your feet and have special prosthetics made, that couple directly to the cranks.
Question: Is this something I could do at home, or should I get my LBS to chop them off for me?

[sch]

You would find that the muscle group on the outside of the tibia in front of the calf will quickly let you know this is going to take a lot of acclimation. To push with your heel the rest of the foot has to be held in fairly rigid neutral position, you can't effectively push without more than usual tension in these muscles. After a short distance (10-20miles) the muscle group would be screaming. Eventually it would adapt but not completely. Use of the heel would also shorten your leg stroke by 4-5".
Steve

[keith-pam]

It has worked for me to pedal my recumbent low under the arch . Bike shoes don't have clips that go that low so I got rid of the clips . This allows for the power stroke that is what makes a recumbent go.I have been riding a recumbent for 20+ years this way. You definately will go further with less injury with no clips but maybe not faster. :eek:

[jeff-o]

Question: Is this something I could do at home, or should I get my LBS to chop them off for me?

You can do it all at home. You will need a standard hacksaw, some wood screws, a 2' length of 2x4, a quart of super glue, and three rolls of duct tape. You weight weenies my want to substitute carbon fiber or some other fancy-schmancy material for the wood. Or yeah, and maybe some whiskey (disinfectant, pain killer and courage all in one bottle!)

Shall I continue?

;)

[Redrom]

I ride clipless, and adjust to a lower (more towards the heel) position when climbing. I like to think of it as a "natural" way of shifing gears.

On the flats or downhill, I can get a lot of additional "spring" (and speed) from placing the center of the pedal just above my arch. Going uphill, I feel like I'm more directly (or efficiently) transfering more of the force to the bike when the center of the pedal runs across the center of my arch.

All that said, I've had some knee pain after doing this, which I think that it's due to over reaching, since it changes your x-seam dimention to change where your foot is placed on the pedal. I've pulled in my seat 3/4" to accomodate this, and not had trouble since. You can also get a little play to help out by changing just how far back you sit in your seat.

[nakota]

You can do it all at home. You will need a standard hacksaw, some wood screws, a 2' length of 2x4, a quart of super glue, and three rolls of duct tape. You weight weenies my want to substitute carbon fiber or some other fancy-schmancy material for the wood. Or yeah, and maybe some whiskey (disinfectant, pain killer and courage all in one bottle!)


Can I get all that in a kit somewhere?