Originally Posted by
bbattle
Pulling up on the pedal will give you a bit more power but it's not as efficient as a regular circular pedalling motion. As long as your feet and knees aren't hurting, your pedalling technique is fine.
Bicycling magazine reported on a study done on pedalling techniques and the researchers found little to no difference in differing styles except that about pulling up on the pedals.
People in the anti-clipless pedal crowd (mostly retrogrouch types) will argue that clipless pedals are not needed because cyclists don't pull up on the upstroke. This may be true for most normal pedalling, but if you accelerate hard, or sprint up a hill with clipless pedals, I guarantee you that you will be pulling up on the backstroke. No, its not efficient, but thats not the point, the difference in power is immediately obvious when you switch to this pedaling mode for short spurts. You can't pedal like this with platforms and I doubt that you could get the same amount of power out of clips and straps...I could be wrong, I haven't ridden with them for years.