VosBike

https://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...s/11504.0.html

Now, its only one little paragraph taken from one lecture given by one man, but still pretty interesting. The research on pedaling efficiency seems to be varied and dynamic.

531Aussie

I've been saying stuff like this ^ for years. I reckon "perfect circles" and similar techniques are some of the biggest myths going around. They've never made sense to me. We'll NEVER get any worthwhile force on the pedals between 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock, or 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock, and the whole pulling up this is being shown to be overemphasized.

Here's a thread about similar stuff from a little while back:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ghlight=colson Danno's posts (#81 and #82) are about the only worthwhile 'counters' to what I was trying to get across

there's also some interesting stuff here:
https://www.cyclingforums.com/t233514.html Check out the posts by 'coach to the stars', Ric Stern

and here: https://www.topbike.com.au/pdfs/colso...ly_aug2002.pdf



I'm gunna regret all this, but this is me quoting me quoting someone else:

Cycling News contributor:

"The idea of losing power due to a presumably inefficient pedal stroke is not supported either. Research comparing the abilities of state-class and national-class cyclists (Coyle, 1991) showed that the national-class cyclists had what is often incorrectly referred to as and "inefficient" pedal stroke. In a 40k TT test, the national-class cyclists put more of their power into their downstroke, while the slower, less powerful cyclists distributed more of their power in all directions of the pedal stroke. Yep, the more powerful cyclists mashed (at least more than the other cyclists) their way to 40k times that were 10% faster. One way to potentially change the efficiency of your stroke is by manipulating cadence. This is where it gets interesting, because if you pedaled with the intent on being as efficient as possible, you would ride around at a cadence that is much slower than the typically freely chosen cadence of most cyclists (~90rpm). As cadence increases, so does the oxygen demand for a given power output. I personally don't know any top cyclists who pedal all day at 60rpm, so one has to wonder why having an efficient pedal stroke is a desirable goal at all.

While many cyclists, and coaches, will talk about having an "efficient stroke", that concept is really not supported when the variables of cycling efficiency are directly studied. There still might be some good reasons for you to work on your pedal stroke (e.g.: limiting the work done by the rest of your body), and I've yet to find a better way than by using a good old set of rollers"

https://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?...4-11#Pedalling

GuitarWizard

Sometimes when sprinting really hard, I have a tendency to pull up really hard on the pedals....you'd think a few times of popping out my cleats I'd learn. Almost wiped out at 33 mph once....foot hit the pavement.

531Aussie

well, sprinting is very different, especially jumping from a slow speed

EventServices

I'm stuck on trying to think of who we can "knock a rider out cold, clip him into the pedals, tape him down to the saddle and handlebars and crank up the pedals up to 90rpm"

I have a few ideas.

DrPete 

COUGHR600DuraAce!!!

Sorry, guys, can't seem to shake this cold.

Squint

Let me try to compile a complete list of cycling myths:

pedaling in circles
base
weight lifting
vibration dampening
light wheels
tubulars
cadence

I'm sure I left something out.

VosBike

There is questioning dogma and there is non-conformity for non-conformity's sake.

hiromian

Going fast.

Snuffleupagus

You're going to hell

merlinextraligh

Not exactly scientific, but when I'm trying to hold a wattage out put doing steady states, my perceived effort and HR will drop for a given wattage output if I remind myself to scrape the dog poop off. So while the importance of pedaling circles may be overstated, I still thinkthere's something to it.

May be mental, but what's wrong with the plecebo effect if it works?

El Diablo Rojo

There are 'perfect' circles and then there are perfect circles. It would be next to impossible to pedal a perfect circle however if you ever watched pro's warm up and listen to the sound their trainers make, it's not wup wup wup of a guy just mashing down on the down stroke. The sound is more or less smooth and constant. To me that is what a circular pedal stroke means.

Snuffleupagus

Lots of wheels and framesets are made of placebo too

531Aussie

up until I've felt so alone
I'm so happy

asgelle

In all the thousands of miles I've ridden, I've never been able to pedal anything other than a circle. I've tried to do otherwise, but the cranks were always too strong for me to distort them. Now what are we really talking about?

Voodoo76

This is always an interesting debate.

The old school feel of pedaling in circles has produced a few fast riders. At the same time I don't think there is any doubt that when you go fast you are pushing hard on the pedals, research has shown this time and time again. There isn't any real contradiction here, during a lot of athletic movements what you feel is often not precisely what you are doing (try teaching or learning the feel of swinging a golf club).

Kinesthetic sense can be misleading.

EventServices

Anyone who has ever ridden the Kilo knows that it's possible to pedal in squares, usually at the 900m mark.

Vinokurtov

Physics?

Squint

Hey, did you know that the Earth revolves around the sun?

jfmckenna

Well darn it thats it then. I am going back to platform pedals.

merlinextraligh

Alanbikehouston was right!

DrPete 

Finally someone exposing that crap for what it is. I'm adding the Germ Theory to the list.

recneps

yeup, one of the most painful experiences of my life.

Compressed

I've been riding powercranks since mid October, since these are designed to force users to pedal circles I might be able to share my experience which I think is meaningful even though sample size is admittedly n=1.

When first riding these my assumption was that I would be able to ride much faster once adapted due to training myself, no being required to apply force all around the stroke, i.e the classic circle. I must say that at first I could probably only ride around 1 min continuously at first due to extreme hip flexor and neuromuscular fatigue. Now that I am adapted to them and have done some LT work on normal cranks I find that the main benefit to powercranks is that they have taught me to get my opposing leg out of the way for my downstroke leg. They essentially lead to smooth mashing if that makes sense.

I can't say if it's Powercranks or my more committed training but I am doing hour sweet spot intervals at the same wattage that I could muster for 15 minutes last year, I suspect both.

DrWJODonnell

Ok, I go with germ theory...