General Cycling Discussion - Which foot do you...

unclip or take off of the pedal when you are stopped?

Neither! Track stand baby!! But, wouldn't an intelligent person hook it up with which footed you were or how your foot-brain wiring was arranged?

even at red lights that last more then a min pokey? What about when you first take off for riding from you departure point? Which foot is off the pedal until you get going?

Originally posted by N_C
even at red lights that last more then a min pokey? What about when you first take off for riding from you departure point? Which foot is off the pedal until you get going? Does it really matter? You do what works for you.Or get training wheels for the 'bent'.

Left.
Don't know if it's because I'm left-handed or left-brained or left behind or ... ;)

I've tried the right foot a few times but never could get fully coordinated and almost fell over. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by pokey
Neither! Track stand baby!! But, wouldn't an intelligent person hook it up with which footed you were or how your foot-brain wiring was arranged?

I've only ever seen 1 person doing a trackstand. She was stopped at the cross street as I was driving by. My light was green, hers red. (obviously!) She was trackstanding from the time I could see her and was still there as far as I could still see her in my mirrors. I'm not sure of the time, but I know it is a really long light, she was obviously stopped there well over a minute. Cool. I GOTTA learn how to do that. Now, to find some soft grass...

Which hand do you wipe you nose with?:rolleyes:

I unclip the left because if I unclip the right I tend to touch my calf on the chainring, resulting in a nice black tooth tattoo.

Trackstanding for a few seconds is fine but I'm convinced that when you try to hold it for longer periods you are headed for trouble. Sometime, through years of cycling, it seems inevitable that you will have an embarrassing fall or, worse yet, fall over and hit another rider's bike on the way down.

Bear in mind that track racers have the pitch of the velodrome to work with when they trackstand. Holding a bike upright on flat road is a different animal.

I'm sure that in the next few responses I will see a testimonial from a die-hard trackstander who has never fallen down or into another rider's bike...

Yet.:)

I can't believe how many posts have been about clipless on this forum this week.

When dismounting I usually unclip the left foot. Except in an emergency dismount in which I unclip both feet simultaneously.

I unclip the left because if I unclip the right I tend to touch my calf on the chainring, resulting in a nice black tooth tattoo.

Excellent point.

Also;

Don't most people prefer to start with their dominant foot/leg?

Hmmm... yep, we definitely need the trackstand option.

I have only ridden with one person who is good at doing a trackstand and he does it very well indeed. Don Keenan, who shall remain nameless, is sixty-one, weighs fifty pounds over his best racing weight and has no problem doing a trackstand for two or three minutes at a time, unless we are on a downhill stop. I was convinced that if he could do it, I could do it as well. But eventually got tired of scuffing the side of my saddle when the bike hit the ground as I furiously did all I could to step out of the pedal. That was with either the right or left pedal, depending on which way I was falling over.

When given the time, I unclip on the irght side.

I can track stand for 2 - 3 minutes, if its longer then that, i unclip with my left foot first.

I do a track stand for as long as I can (usually not very long, I have no balance), then I unclip with my left foot. Mind you, we've got some pretty slow traffic lights around here (they're worse still in Brisbane, and the sole set of lights in Beaudesert can take upwards of 10 minutes sometimes), so on occasions I unclip both feet and simply stand to get more comfort.

I was once at a light in my truck, when an older (mid 60's?) man pulled up on a rather nice litespeed bike. Then thing that caught my eye with his sit down track stand, and the sip of water he took from his water bottle! I was absolutely floored. I am sure it took years of practice to get to that point.

When my daughter and I rode 60 plus km on my tandem, we came to a place where the chain got caught between the sprocket and frame and brought us to a quick halt. She (the stoker) unclipped on the right side and I instinctively unclipped on the left. The result --> we landed on the ground on the left side. :)

sit down track stand

WHOA!!! I've got a new goal, baby! but first I've got to learn how to do a regular one, so I guess that's really two goals.

-alex.

I trackstand, and can usually do so until my legs cramp. I use the slope of the roads as they have a slight slope for drainage. If I'm feeling lazy I unclip with the left.

as for unclipping, I have managed to overbalance backwards while doing a wheelie and landed on my feet:D (just don't ask me to do it again)

whoa some of you guys are good.... i work at the LBS and my manager can track stand for a lil wile without hands sitting down.....and hes only been riding road bikes fo less than 2 years....he reckons that you should practice on a mountain bike so that you dont have to unclip. I should learn to track stand though, show up the other rider from school (i have to cause he has a more expensive bike so i have to be better somewhere!)

Brendon
:beer:

P.S. I unclip on the left cause that is the side that the kerb is on, nd i dont have to stretch all the way to the road :p! although i like to hang back at the lights and advance at about 2.5km/h until they change...also there is one set of lights around here with metal rails you can lean on!

Brendon
:beer:

It's LILO (no... not linux - left in, left out) for me. I think it's become second nature for me to get my left foot free under most to all circumstances in the event that I need to dismount and allow the bike to fall on the non-driveside.

It depends. If there is a curb, I unclip the right foot and stand on the curb. If there is no curb, I unclip the left. Since I am "left-footed", it's esier for me.

I have never tried to do a trackstand, I don't see the point if I know the lights are going to be red for more than a minute. I just unlip, sit on the top tube and take a drink, look at the scenery, check which cars are behind me. If I can see the cross lights are changing from green to orange then I will balance for a few seconds and go. Do trackstands use up a lot of leg energy?

The majority of our city is flat so I guess this makes them harder to do, than on a slight incline.

CHEERS.

Mark

Originally posted by Dutchy
check which cars are behind me

This is a very good point. It's all well and good that one knows how to perform a trackstand. I felt good about being able to hold one for longer than a minute too but then I realised that at stoplights, it's better to spend the time and energy checking out the whole situation around me rather than concentrating on the trackstand. For those of you who can do both, I bow to thee. .. I'm not as skilled. I know most of my really close calls have occurred at intersections with a stoplight. I now am pretty careful by looking around at the drivers, checking the cross streets and when the light turns green letting at least one car go through ahead of me before I enter the intersection. It's saved me more than once.

I unclip my left foot first, which perhaps is odd because I'm right-handed? The right foot always gets clipped in first, unless I'm having an off-day and neither foot wants to clip in right away.

I wish I could do a trackstand. Maybe one of these days, I'll get adventurous and first try it out on my mountain bike which has platforms -- once I find a soft patch of grass, of course.

well i track stand most of the time. depending on the amount of space and time i can usually hold for the duration of most lights - say 2 minutes or so with maybe a little forward roll - if i'm WITHOUT my panniers and stuff (i.e. on a rec ride) i can stand longer b/c i can also hop and get back to the right spot if i drift a little - harder to do with the panniers and backpack for commuting b/c of the uneven weight.

i clip and unclip left foot first unless there's some reason to otherwise (like a long light and a curb or rail to rest my right foot on)

also when racing i clip in last with the left foot. and when i cycle-cross mount/dismount i do it on the left side, so left foot last to clip in, last to unclip.

i've really been working on my track-standing the last year and can go about 3 times longer than about 1 year ago. with practice it's not so hard - although fat MTB tires make it easier.

don't really know why left-last... but the chainstay is one of the reasons... i also always mount the bike from the left. i have tried right-side mounting and i can do it but it just feel odd.

Usually both but if I only do one, it would be the left.