Originally Posted by Bacciagalupe

OK, I stand corrected.



Well, here's the hitch. Any force that is used to lift your leg is force that doesn't make it to the drivetrain. If you need 100N to pull your leg up, and only happen to produce 90N on the upstroke, that's 10N which doesn't propel the bike.



Yep.... The bike is basically a two-stroke engine. The illustration in post #85 in this thread makes that quite clear.



Heh

Yeah, losing contact will definitely not help. A good pair of platforms will have enough grip for most uses, though it will almost certainly not be sufficient for some situations (e.g. high-cadence high-power sprints).