Foot angle on the down stroke?
 

What is the proper angle of the foot on the down stroke? Toes pointed down? Toes and heel level? Heel pointed down?

People vary. Heel down is recommended, but some can't do it. It's best to avoid being too much on your toes, it transfers too much of the strain from quads to calves, which reduces power and can lead to cramping and Achilles problems.

There are several good videos on proper pedal stroke. Here's just one of them.

http://www.ehow.com/video_6204015_ro...technique.html

How about.....level.

It is generally considered efficient to use your ankles for added power. Mine don't flex much, unfortunately. If you watch a pro peloton, there is a difference in the range of motion from rider to rider.

The best advice I ever got on pedal strokes was that it should be like scaping mud off your shoe at the bottom of the stroke, and to ride a Fixed gear to develop the habit of spinning in circles. Both served me well.....

The foot angle on the push over the top depends on how far back in the saddle you are. The angle of the foot on the down stroke follows. If you are back in the saddle you can drop the heel and get additional force from the hip flexors then push on the down stroke by flexing the ankle. That position takes some of the force from pulling up on the other pedal. When I am doing long climbs I move back and drive, when sprinting I move up and generate additional rpms by utilizing the complete pedal stroke for power.

I move all over the saddle depending on road conditions. If I'm back, I tend to drop my heal more. If I'm forward I tend to be more neutral. If I'm in the drops, it depends but if I'm forward I will point my toes more and turn a higher rpm. On really steep grades I'm forward and I drop my heal. So it depends. Generally though I don't think about it. Just do what feels right. Saddle height will have some bearing on what your ankle does. As AJ said, within the pro peleton there are all kinds of pedal stokes. They all seem to get down the road just fine.

Cute little parlor trick that demonstrates one of the curiosities of bike geometry:

With your bike on a trainer, bring one pedal to the 12 o'clock position with your foot toe down, and relax; see which way your leg naturally falls.
Now, do it again, but this time with your foot level or slightly heel down; again, see which way your leg naturally falls.

Unless your saddle's in a really weird place, you will probably find that with a toe down position, you leg naturally falls backwards...whereas with a level foot or slightly heel down position, your leg will naturally fall forward.

And since the goal of cycling is to keep the cranks turning forwards...

This is my opinion. It's nothing more than that:

I'm firmly convinced that the best ankle angles throughout the stroke are the ones that happen for you naturally, without thinking about it. Consciously ankling* has been demonstrated (by Italian coaches) to be not only ineffective as a means of adding force to the pedal stroke, but has also led to injuries.

* As I define it (there's some controversy about the term), ankling is consciously pushing your toes down on the downstroke to try to add power, and dropping your heel as you near the top of the upstroke so you're better positioned to push down again with the toes on the next cycle. This is different from the practice of "scraping mud off your shoe" at the bottom of the stroke, which is more about using your whole leg to try to apply even force all around the stroke, a technique that can actually be effective.

My Retul fitter told me that it is best to have the foot level throughout the pedal stroke, which is natural for me to do. I have tried heal down and toe down, but seem to have problems and always end up with the foot being level.

Due to the requirement that I must be able to put my feet down flat footed my feet are flat footed when I ride my Cruiser.

I'm still moving towards an improved pedal stroke (see earlier threads I started on my progress), but I find that nearly level works best for turning good circles. I had a bike fitter warn me against too much ankling as being tiring. I don't really buy that, but I've found my stroke to evolve to just a small amount of ankling during normal riding. But that's just me, perhaps. On short hills I sometimes move to the back of the saddle and have my heels pointed down, but that's definitely not a normal stroke for me. Sometimes a little variation is a good thing.

That's something I'll do occasionally when I'm tiring on a climb. It kind of turns each pedal stroke into a mini-leg-press or squat, and can bring some welcome short-term power (and a little relief) to the task.

Jacques Anquetil was a toe-pointer. Eddy Merckx was a heal-dropper. And while most of today's top pros pedal with level foot, Tom Boonen's stroke always struck me as one of the clearest examples of this.

I tsay go with whatever works for you, just make sure your position on the bike works with it.

Folks, "heel," not "heal."

IMHO, foot angle should be neutral. Hang your feet off the side of your bed and relax. That's the neutral angle. I use a teeny bit of ankle flex to help smooth my circles. Too much toe-point and you're running a greater risk of Achilles injuries.

This might be difficult to visualize, but with my flat feet, I find it better to create the arch that's missing. Not even my hard plastic molded orthotics really help to maintain that arch. In doing this, the distribution of the power on the down stroke is more "even". That is, the outer edge of my feet and going across to the ball of my feet touch the speedplay pedals "just right". By this, I mean compared with a flat foot approach, I get more perceived power from that down stroke.

From this and as a natural consequence, my feet are pointed slightly down. Another thing and maybe this is in the realm of bio mechanics, it seems that too much flexing of the feet and ankles may be inefficient, a loss of energy.

Thanks for reminding me. This oldtimers disease is affecting my spelling.

Guess that totally invalidates my point.