There was a lot of discussion on UseNet about this a few years ago (RecBicyclesTech). Jobst explained why Octalink was a problem for goofy footers and hinted that Shimano knew it was a flaw and that's why they scrapped it.
Anyway, I was mostly wondering about the psychology of teaching yourself to do this. Seems few people have tried, and fewer yet have succeeded.
What are the situations where right-foot forward coasting is advantageous? Approaching a left turn maybe, to be able to get the outside foot down quickly without pedaling backwards. I think I'd want the foot nearest to obstructions to be trailing. I'm just spit-balling since I don't actually do those things, but do they seem reasonable?
rdtompki
08-04-13 09:40 AM
This is exactly the sort of intellectual discourse not be be found in the addiction thread(s)!
jimmuller
08-04-13 10:36 AM
Originally Posted by DiabloScott
(Post 15923635)
Anyway, I was mostly wondering about the psychology of teaching yourself to do this. Seems few people have tried, and fewer yet have succeeded.
I trained myself (and it wasn't too hard because I'm very suggestible, I guess) to level the pedals left foot forward. When we started riding a tandem my sweetie was comfortable only with right foot down, never leveled at all unless I announce it. (There are several reasons, one of which involves how we start and stop.) So I started doing that on the tandem. Now I screw up occasionally on both solo and tandem bikes occasionally, but generally it isn't hard to "do the right thing" when I think about it. The most likely screw-up happens when unexpected things come up on the road, bumps I didn't see in the shadows, cars entering suddenly, etc.
