Originally Posted by
Broctoon
Fair enough. I don't disagree with anything you're saying here.
My "False" claim was in response to the overstatement that "
Nobody really pulls on their pedals unless they want to injure themselves."
I think what I want to work on is the pedaling in circles technique you described here, which 79pmooney also mentioned a few posts up. Last night during my interval workout ride, I focused on not just pulling up hard, but continuing to exert force as the pedals reached the top of their arc and started back down. The next step will be disciplining my muscles to give smooth, constant power through the full circle. I assert that foot retention of some kind is extremely helpful, if not critical, to this technique.
* All my claims are related to road biking specifically. I am not a mountain biker, and I get that some of the rules are quite different for those disciplines.
Yeah fair enough. I mentioned injury only really because you can cause issues if you really exert yourself pulling on the upstroke, but pressing down is far less likely to cause problems. Simple biomechanics of the leg and its relative strength/weaknesses. If you are curious have a read of this link below again.
Since I ride both mtb (flat pedals now) and road (always clipless) I can observe directly for myself how being clipped in affects my pedalling technique. I just don't see a big difference, but clearly I'm not pulling hard up on my pedals. It's not something that even pros can do when pedalling at a high cadence and power.
https://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/bik...-upstroke.html
As an aside, I find the best way to improve your pedal stroke is to practice riding at a cadence 5-10 rpm above what you would consider normal. This idea of applying constant power through the full circle is simply not going to happen. I refer you back to the above link and the size of your glutes vs your hip-flexors. Smooth pedalling does not mean applying constant torque around the whole circle - you could only achieve that at a trivial power output anyway. It just means being more co-ordinated in unweighting on the upstroke and not over-mashing on the downstroke. Neither of these require being clipped in. Pros don't give a monkeys! They just do whatever it takes and if you observe a pro peloton you see many different pedalling "styles" on show. What makes them faster than mere mortals is more the fact that they have enormous engines. They pedal enough all day long to naturally find their own most efficient pedalling style.