I've been riding with road shoes and pedals for close to a month now and I think I'm doing it wrong. From what I've read here on BF, the proper technique is to pedal in complete circles, pulling up on the opposite foot as you're pushing down with and alternating. Thing is, when I push down with one foot and try to pull up with the other, there's little to no resistance on the foot that's pulling up, so in reality, I'm not doing any real 'pulling'. The only time I ever find myself 'pulling up' is when I stand and sprint or when I'm climbing hills out of the saddle.

What am I doing wrong?

Try pulling back, like you were scraping something off the bottom of your shoe. If you are truly apply 360 degrees of pressure you will go faster with less effort.

Proper pedaling form is something that doesn't happen overnight. It takes practice. A quick google search turned up a few good articles that may help. Read much and practice much. It will come if you put in the time.

https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=2417

https://www.active.com/cycling/Articl...efficiency.htm

Of coarse the short answer is to try to "scrape the mud off of the bottom of your shoes" as your at the bottom of you're pedal stroke.

I believe it's Chris Carmichael who says that you shouldn't pull up on a regular stroke, but rather just lift the foot up so there is no pressure (and you're not pushing one foot up with the other).

At the bottom (6:00) of the stroke? So from say 6:00 to about 9:00? Or more like from about 5:00 to about 7:00?

(edit - someone answered this above as I was posting.)

I know that I have found that if I concentrate more on the pulling up and not the pushing down aspects I have a much easier time climbing hills. When I pull up I do not even think about pushing down with the other foot it just flows naturally and does not take that much effort to pedal.

Don't think in terms of pulling and pushing. Just make circles..you'll get it, don't worry.

try riding a bit with only one leg.

seriously.

it will be clear what "pedaling in circles" feels like.

alternate strokes on your rides. some days i will go out and train by only pulling on my peddles, never mashing. you can really feel the different muscles when you ride one way or the other. once you have worked up your other muscles a bit with a few rides, try spinning circles again.

this is how i learned

The "scraping mud off shoe" technique is helpful, otherwise, just keep riding and you'll improve. Fatigue is painfull...your body knows this. Ride hard and your body will naturally seek out efficiency.

in the saddle it's sitting and spinning, i focus on the 360 stroke on flats. the way i practice this is on flats is to big ring and go all the way down to the toughest gear and rotate slowly in saddle, the resistance helps me keep my legs rotating more so then pushing or pulling. once you're familiar with the 360 rotation with tough resistance, you'll be able to pick it up and apply it to whatever you are riding. out of the saddle during climbs is when i really work on pulling up instead of focusing on pushing down. this makes climbing for me more fun as it seems like the job is requiring me to sprint up hill. watch my cadence and gear ratio for the longer grade climbs, 12%+ for 1-2 miles is more like a light standing jog up a stair master.

+1 to this. Well said.

Listening to the wrong people.

The real advantage to clipless is in the pull through at the bottom part of the stroke. (You can get this from BMX pedals with pins too.)

You seem to be one of those wrong people.

I think the "pulling up" thing is a bogus as the "counter-steering" technique I have read about. I certainly believe you can do it (especially if you think a lot about it) but to me it just came with a lot of riding, miles, and fast pedalling training.

Clipless pedals, to me really only give the advantage of keeping your feet from moving around on the pedals...which probably gives more consistent pedal strokes. That said I no longer use mine.

When I first rode a bike I remember 80 rpm being difficult and feeling "fast"....now I can turn 120 rpm without much stress (190 VERY briefly in a super intense sprint). I think your muscles just accustom to the quicker movement and you find your own pedal stroke naturally.

Once you're pedalling over 130 rpm or so, I don't think pedalling "circles" even comes into play, since your muscles are firing so quickly you really are taking only short little jabs with your legs.

The same thing with counter steering: you just learn how to do it naturally - it's not something you have to think about, you just start to do it by yourself. (Sheldon says a little about this).

In the old days -- 70s riding for me, I remember books I read called the technique "ankling". Essentially making a complete circle with each rotation and flexing the ankle at the bottom of the stroke to get the "mud scrape" analogy. Think circles. One legged pedaling is supposed to help train for this.

x2. When I ride with the wife and kids, I unclip one foot for a while, then switch. I am not a pro, but I feel it has helped me understand what "pedaling in circles" feels like.

It is a great training technique to do one legged pedaling. This will help tremendously with you pedaling technique. If you do it on a trainer you want the sound to be constant; not a whoosh whoosh sound. If you do it on the road you want to make sure you feel like you have a constant speed and that the bike is not surging on your downstroke.

Also think of pedaling like you are walking up stairs on your downstroke and pulling across the bottom of the pedal stroke. Not pulling up but more pulling across.

To learn, t's more like pedaling in a triangle. The big part is the pulling back across the base or bottom. Then think pulling up towards the apex and pushing down towards the base.

As others have said, do this with one leg. A trainer is perfect. Then works towards seeing how smooth you can be and up the cadence. You'll soon realize what pedaling in circles is all about

I heard of sliding your feet instead of pushing, it seems to work for me.

I read an article posted here that said the muscles that are used when pulling up are not strong enough to aid the muscles used in pushing down. Also, studies showed that people who focused on pulling up actually became slower. The article stated you should make a motion like scraping gum off your shoe at the bottom of the stroke, this will allow you to get the other leg in a possition to take over the stroke and eliminate dead spots. NO ONE LEG DRILLS!!!!

For a moment, I had found my way.


...after this post, I seem to have lost it.

I really only significantly find myself pulling up while sprinting or climbing out of the saddle, mostly as a consequence of my body changing positions relative to the pedals. While I think there is some degree of conscious upward motion during the latter portion of my pedal stroke, I'm not really putting power through the pedals. The practice of using the clipless system to apply power through more of the stroke happens more on the forward, down, and back parts of the stroke.

Overall though, just think circles.

"When the pedal comes up, push it back down."
Jack Simes III

Correct...the muscles that are used to lift up on the pedal are very inefficient. Try doing a legged drill by only pulling up and not pushing down. It will show you how weak pulling up really is. Ride more and you will spin smoother. No need to over think it.