Originally Posted by 79pmooney

Much of this research says that what experienced racers taught me 40 years ago was wrong. (Learn to spin circle, dont just push.) I've seen links to research that says pulling up on the upstroke in reality doesn't happen, that all we do is lessen the weight on that up coming pedal. Apparently it is my imagination that I have lifted my cleat off the pedal so many times when I forgot to tighten my toestrap (while seated). And that feeling of my cleat hitting the pedal when I start my downstroke because I lifted it on the upstroke - also my imagination. So is my pedaling not using the downstroke at all to give my knees a break (4 decades of chrondomalacia patellae).

Toeclips were one of my early revelations when I started riding. Pulling the straps tight an even bigger one.

Ben