Perfect Pedal Stroke | The Bicycling Show About Bicycling | Episode 78 - video Dailymotion

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Bicycling's gear and cycling experts talk about an overlooked but important cycling skill: your pedal stroke and how it affects everything from comfort to speed to power.

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00:00Doing low cadence work is another really good way to practice your pedal stroke

00:04because one of the best ways to get doing get good at doing something fast is to do it slow.

00:08Welcome to the bicycling show about bicycling where our experts and enthusiasts talk all things

00:13training fitness nutrition style technique and of course bikes. We have a story all about pedal

00:22stroke that you guys are finding super informative it's a great story written by Molly Hereford and

00:27it got me thinking about how little I think about my pedal stroke except for one tip uh that I was

00:35given in my first uh month of cycling is is have that have your pedal motion be of that where you're

00:42scraping gum off the bottom of your foot and that's mentioned yeah that's actually in the story um

00:48I gotta be honest like I've been riding for 20 years and I notice people's pedal strokes when

00:55I'm riding behind somebody that has just like a phenomenal pedal stroke we happen to have Bobby

00:59right here I ride behind Bobby all the time because he's going faster than me and he's a great draft

01:05but your pedal stroke is just like you're rock solid on the bike and like it almost looks like you're

01:10putting in no effort into the pedals but which I know is not true but do you ever like work on pedal

01:16stroke? So that was one of the interesting things about this article for me too is that you know I

01:22appreciate the compliment but I realized that I don't consciously think about pedaling that much

01:28as well and so we had this conversation and I went and rode my bike and I tried to think about

01:32what I'm actually doing when I'm riding and pedaling and the interesting revelation to me is it may be

01:39counterintuitive to what you might think instead of focusing on the downstroke what I found that I was

01:44doing was actually paying attention to the upstroke interesting but there's not it's not like you're

01:50doing drills for your pedal stroke efficiency it's just it just is included in the dynamic of

01:58a fit yeah I mean one of the things that uh I sort of took away from this article was like

02:04you know pedal stroke can be like a a warning sign right like if you're like rocking and rolling on

02:11the bike and this is in the story this goes more in depth in the story but like if you're rocking and

02:15rolling if your hips are rocking and rolling on the bike it feels like one leg is doing one thing

02:20and the other leg is doing something else it's like maybe that's a sign that you need to work on

02:26your pedal stroke right because you complimented Bobby on his how great his pedal stroke is I don't

02:30notice that I notice a bad pedal stroke or like you're behind somebody and maybe their hips are

02:36rocking or things seem I know I'll pick up on that as you know someone who hasn't been riding nearly as long

02:42as you combined but I'll pick up on that way before I'll pick up on a really great pedal stroke but

02:50with a great super efficient pedal stroke what is there really to be gained the big gain is efficiency

02:56but like you know Bobby like one of the I mean you raced on the track for years like I think

03:00efficiency is the name of the game there like what's uh do you have ways you've worked on pedal stroke

03:05there yeah and of course like fixed gear riding riding on a velodrome is a really great way because that

03:10exposes all the inefficiencies in your pedal stroke but like most of you don't have access to

03:16a velodrome you can build a fixed gear road bike but that takes time that takes more money riding on

03:22rollers is a really great way to work on your pedal stroke if you're inefficient there like that'll show

03:28up but probably the simplest thing that you can do right now is just go out for a road ride and stay in

03:33the little chainring just force yourself not to use the big chainring and it gets pretty stinking

03:38uncomfortable at times but if you do it for a few weeks like that'll start to smooth out your pedal

03:43stroke a little bit yeah high cadence work I kind of forget about that sometimes but I remember like

03:48trying to hit like 120 rpms like that'll really like if you're bouncing at this in the saddle or if

03:54you're moving in the saddle at 80 90 rpms and you try to do 120 you will really start to balance and if

04:01you're rock solid and you have a good pedal stroke you'll stay pretty rock solid so besides the high

04:06cadence work in the little chainring counterintuitively doing low cadence work is another really good way

04:12to practice your pedal stroke because one of the best ways to get doing get good at doing something

04:17fast is to do it slow so find a hill ride at a low cadence maybe 60 or 65 rpms and just really focus on

04:25doing a full pedal stroke focus on the upstroke focus on the downstroke doing it that slow lets you

04:31really feel like the entire circumference of the pedal stroke yeah I mean if you want to get really

04:37nerdy and if you're somebody that loves tech a pedal based power meter unlocks a whole new world of

04:45metrics for pedal stroke specifically that are not really available on any other kind of power meter

04:51you know I'm talking about like pedal platform offset which is just like a thing I'd never heard

04:56of until I got a pedal based power meter which tells you how far off center your feet are pressing

05:02on the pedals but then there's also like super granular data based on like the degrees at which

05:09point you're making power in the pedal stroke for each individual leg I mean it's almost too much

05:15information but if you're somebody that like needs to see that visual feedback of how even or uneven your

05:22pedal stroke is like a pedal based power meter is kind of like it's the peak nerd peak cool for me

05:31so that can tell you graphically exactly where your weak spots are and then you can figure out some

05:35drills from there to to try and work on exactly those places where you're inefficient right yeah I

05:41mean that's almost like uh there's a lot of there's a lot of simpler methods to get your pedal stroke

05:47better in the story this is definitely like we're at the point of diminishing returns in terms of how

05:53much money you have to spend on your pedal stroke but if you're time or time but it is very cool that

06:00you know that kind of data is all of a sudden available and I think one thing that could be

06:06super useful for people is coming back from injury right like injury prevention or recovering from

06:12injury like if you have a big injury to one leg and you're trying to rehab and get back to where

06:19you were with your pedal stroke I think that can be really helpful for some people I actually like

06:23that just seeing the power balance uh in my own power meter yeah and like just when I'm fatigued I

06:28see like a really big shift one way or another and like I've had nagging knee injuries that have come

06:33from those kinds of pedaling imbalances yeah so I really think of like the pedal stroke as sort of being

06:38like this warning light indicator like when uh when your pedal stroke is good it's great but when you

06:44feel out of balance or something feels off it's it's like that first sign that like maybe you should

06:49address it so whether your warning lights are going off or you have an impeccable pedal stroke uh Molly

06:56Herford wrote a great story that's linked above for pedal stroke pedal stroke efficiency and everything

07:02you need to know about it

Perfect Pedal Stroke | The Bicycling Show About Bicycling | Episode 78

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