How to pedal perfectly, according to Wattbike

Cycling weekly did a study on this a good few years back looking at the top riders of the time. They all had different techniques. They were all champions.

Cycling weekly did a study on this a good few years back looking at the top riders of the time. They all had different techniques. They were all champions.

Cycling weekly did a study on this a good few years back looking at the top riders of the time. They all had different techniques. They were all champions.

It Wattbike are using the ratio of radial force to total force, as the article suggests, then this is fundamentally flawed. It assumes that all of the forces being applied to the cranks are being generated by the muscles. This is not the case. If you put the bike on the turbo with the resistance unit not engaged. Then place one foot on the pedal with the crank forwards at 90 degrees and the rear brakes held on locking the crank in that position. Completely relax the leg then let the brakes go. The pedal will drop because it has the weight of your leg sat on top of it. This would generate propulsive force at the cranks but your muscles don't need to do anything, gravity and the sizeable proportion of your mass that is in your leg will do the work.
Equally, if your leg is just resting on the pedal at the bottom of the stroke, the weight force of your leg will be substantial and all radial to the crank and therefore the ratio method would suggest as being inefficient, but your muscles are doing nothing.
The method is also flawed in that it examines the mechanical efficiency of the crank system but it is the mechanical efficiency of the rider that we are actually interested in. Another experiment for you to try. Put one foot on a chair so that you're hip and knee are at about 90 degrees and try to stand up onto that foot. Hopefully, you should find it quite easy. Now try the same thing with one foot on a table. You may be able to do it, but it will be much harder. In both cases you are lifting your body weight. what is different though is the position your legs are having to work in. So optimising mechanical efficiency at the cranks does not necessarily maximise the efficiency of the system driving them, ie your legs.
I really hope that Wattbike are doing a lot more than this article would suggest as all of this and more was known about when I finished my PhD on this stuff ten years ago! Then, taking these measurements was only really possible in the lab. The technology is now emerging that will make these measurements accessible to many riders. However, the challenge that remains is to interpret the numbers in a scientifically rigorous way and translate it into something that riders can make sense of and use.

Surely, it would just be cheaper to buy a fixie. Any deficits in pedalling style would pretty soon be ironed out.

For actually using this in practice try using the "Elements of Style" Sufferfest, really helped me smooth out my pedalling

I focus on phases 1 and 3. 2 just happens, and I merely try not to have any weight on the pedal for 4. I've practiced but don't really see how you can also apply a strong 2 while also maintaining a fluid cadence. 

Duplicate post 

Didn't Computrainer do this exact thing about a decade ago?! Did Wattbike just buy the rights to it after Racermate went bust?

Using trainer road, they describe 4 phases to pedalling.
1 push forward over the crest, down stroke, pull back and lift.
When you get the timing spot on, you can see power output increases by 3-5% for same cadence.

I tend to spin at higher rpm these days and use lift as part of unloading quads to rest them slightly. On long rides 60 miles or more I find my glutes and hamstrings ache more than quads the day after. But this technique of pedalling allows me to maintain a high cadence throughout the ride.

I have a few problems with this:

1. some of these techniques - especially pulling up - require you to be attached to your pedals. When (afaik) it has not been definitively concluded that being clipped in gives you any performance advantage.

2. I would contend that if you need to change your pedalling technique to such an extent, that the most powerful part of the stroke - the downward pressure exerted by your major muscle groups - would suffer. Or, as covered here:

Quote:

The “light upwards pull” is interesting in that some researchers have suggested this in the past while others have suggested simply unweighting the pedal and still others have said that pulling up on the pedals compromises the ability to maximise power at the 3 o’clock/ 9 o’clock position and have advised against it.

3. 'Pulling up' is potentially damaging to your joints on a long-term basis. Unlike the above, I have no specific evidence for this apart from my own experience: when I've tried, I've experienced pain in my knees (parts of me that usually function well), hips and ankles (not so reliable, apart from telling me not to do things). 

Though IIRC from my degree days, runners wearing weights on their ankles was discouraged due to the chance of injury.

Pulling up to me seems almost like encouraging joint dislocation or sprains. If you have exceeding stable joints, you may be able to get away with it. However, if you have unresolvable weaknesses, there's a chance of exacerbating them.

I would be interested in anything which addresses the above points, especially clinical research.

But my cranks aren't peanut shaped.

So what’s the secret to the perfect pedal stroke?

We don't really find out from the article.

You might have included a link to wattbike.com since they provided the content for the article.