Ambipedalism
 

Today I tried to train myself to descend with my right foot forward (crank horizontal). I've long noticed that I always have my left foot forward and that doing it the other way just feels really awkward. So I figured this would be a skill I could train myself to do, even if it never comes in handy or necessary... I had a long, familiar descent, so lots of practice time.

I just couldn't do it. When I forced myself to do it I was unable to do all the subtle weight shifting and handling moves that make me a confident descender. And when I let my reflexes take over, my left foot always wound up in front.

Has anyone else been able to learn this or do it naturally?

I probably tend to have a lead foot as well, but am able to quickly get each pedal in the correct position on curves on descents. I assume you do the same for curves?

Oh yeah, either foot down as appropriate around corners, either foot down with crank vertical. The only awkward position is right foot forward with crank horizontal.

Are you a left foot starter? i.e. your first quarter turn is with your left foot? I descend like you with the left foot being the lead foot as well, and I always just thought it was because I prefer to push off and get started with that foot, but then I see a lot of right-handers starting with the right foot being their lead foot, and now I'm all ambiconfused...

Yeah, but that's mostly because I'm a right foot planter... to avoid the chainring tattoo... not always successful. You're right though - I feel funny on those rare occasions that I plant my left and start cranking with my right.

It would be interesting to find out which foot people put down when they stop (or which they put down first if they take both feet off the pedals). I put my right foot down ALL the time. I always find it interesting that about 75% of the people I see put their left feet down first. At first I thought it was a gender thing, but it's not.

Diablo--my left foot tends to be in front on downhills, but I can go either way without a problem--it's the planting of the foot that is one sided for me.

train safe-

I'm not sure about descending but when stopping I always put my right foot down first. That way I can lean away from any traffic next to me when at a stop light. Then when resuming I start pedaling with the left foot while clipping in with the right.

I'm the same way. Can do right forward on easy stuff only.

And I thought this was a discussion of a new sexual phenomenon. :)

I think I mostly lead with my right foot on downhills. - oops [EDIT] tried today, and left foot forward. I'm just a mess :)
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Right foot planter.

And, when I am going around kids or something like that where I mght have to take a sudden stop as a defensive maneuver, I unclip the right foot until I feel it is safe.

I switch forward foot forward on the inside of the corner, I pedal down hills to escape velocity though, before coasting. I'm a right foot down first all the time don't want my down foot in traffic, and no chain mark please.
Pirk

I'm left foot forward, and usually take fast corners with pedals level rather than outside down and knee out. I have tried putting the right foot forward and it was OK, but I'm more comfortable left forward.

IMO, there's no benefit from from putting the outside foot down instead of level or hanging out a knee for either clearance or dynamics (or specious CG rationales). I used to race motorcycles, which of course had no option of putting the pegs anywhere than where they were, and where hanging out knee could be of value.

I don't share your opinion, and apparently most or all of the pros do not either.

My natural inclination is to put the left foot forward and plant the right foot at stops. Perhaps due to many years of playing basketball, where there are real advantages to being able to use either side, it was easy to train myself to split the duties about 50-50. This has been particularly handy on severely crowned roads, especially on a tandem where one foot holds up two people. You really don't want to be leaning the bike to reach the ground.

It surprised me but you're right DiabloScott. Left foot forward on coasting feels natural but right forward felt awkward. Out of the saddle balanced with right foot forward was even worse. I think it's just habit, just what we're used to, and can be trained out.

I know that in martial arts, the small amount of experience that I have, we're trained leading with either foot. After a short while it's natural and you don't even think about it. On sprinting or jumping I lead off either foot interchangeably, but not cycling. I believe it's because I've done it one way for years ... but now I'll switch out.

(looigi, I find that outside foot down is more stable in turns because all my weight is in one spot, not shifty between pedals. And also I get more stroke when I start to straighten up and pedal again)

Interesting discussion.
I have a very weak L knee but it's always the L foot that is forward when coasting in an aero tuck; and it's always the L foot that is down when coasting non-aero including standing.
I always unclip the R foot at stops. The only time I unclip the L foot is when I dismount.
On long descents I will switch to my R foot down/forward to rest the L leg, but it tires easily and feels awkward.
When cornering, Outside Pedal Goes Down. I had an incident of Pedal Strike and an incident of skidding out on a corner. Teachable moments.

I was a goofy foot water skier and, judging by most of the responses above, I am again in the minority by preferring my right foot forward and usually disengaging my left foot at a stop. I don't have a problem going left foot forward or right foot down when circumstances call for it, but I naturally tend to do the opposite.

Mostly left forward but sometimes right. At all times grabbing top tube with knees.


+2

Outside pedal down with weight added, inside knee out and pressure on inside bar or hood for stability.

i am right handed, but I clip out on my left always due to having 4 pins in my right foot and not a lot of flex to clip out I also lead with my left almost all the time. In fact I was trying to lead with the right a bit today, and like you, found it uncomfortable.

This is the same for me, but note that if you join club Tombay, you will be falling into the traffic lane (as I did once).

Handedness/dominance applies to lower extremities and to most activities. Ambipedalism (love the term, plan to steal it) can no doubt be trained, if you really feel it's a worthwhile skill, I guess. Your preference is likely a manifestation of your dominant side. I'm curious, are you right handed?

goofy foot, me too.

Oh yeah - I'm strongly dominantly right-handed. But somehow I learned to shoot pool left handed (didn't even realize I was doing it until someone pointed it out to me) - and I've taught myself to do some things left handed like baseball batting as a kid (we handicapped ourselves to adjust for the small back yard). But if I try writing left-handed it would be clumsy and barely legible.

That's what it felt like descending with my right forward - it was really surprising how clumsy it felt and how hard it was to learn. I found an MTB forum where a guy said it took him a year and a half (!) to train himself to be comfortable doing it... maybe more useful in MTB'ing.

And as someone who loves words and language, I'll note that ambipedalism just means "both feet" - and ambidexterous means "both right" so it would probably be more descriptive to say pedi-ambidexterous or something.

But "handedness" varies among individual's paired systems (feet, hand, eyes). Some people, like my son, are totally cross wired on dominance. People who are good right handed basketball shots are usually right eye dominant (Michael Jordan), but make poor baseball hitters, where righties need to be left eye dominant (the eye with unobstructed view of the pitcher). Most righties jump off their left, dominant foot, but some use right, and a few can only jump using both feet simultaneously. Etc. But I agree, most people can be trained to use non-dominant side effectively.

DS, you are doing it the right way for physical reasons, at least if you're running a square-taper crank. This is discussed a bit in one of Sheldon Brown's articles.

Torque from your right foot goes directly into the chainring, but not the crank spindle. Torque from your left foot goes into the spindle, then into the right crank and chainring. What this means is the square-taper joint on both ends of the spindle is normally stressed in the direction of the left side driving the right for half of the pedal cycle, and nearly unstressed for the other half. If the crank arms deform any from the load the deformation is always in the same direction.

When you level the pedals left-foot-forward, you torque the taper joints the same way as pedaling. When you level the pedals right-foot forward you reverse-torque the joints. That can make them displace "backwards" slightly. Then when you pedal again you force them back into normal position. This repeated movement can increase the deformation of the arms and make the displacement get worse over time.

Which is just to say that you should level the pedals left-foot-forward.

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.