QUESTION: After several years of riding with flat pedals, I finally bought a clipless pair. I’m still getting used to them, but one thing I can’t seem to do well is pull up with one leg while the other leg is pushing down. A friend tells me doing so will increase my pedaling efficiency. Is there some secret about how to do this right? —Alf L.
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: Yes. The secret is: Don’t do it. Actually, that’s not a secret any longer — if it ever was — but your friend is passing along outdated advice. After the introduction of toe-clip pedals and their clipless successors made pulling during the upstroke possible, some riders insisted that push-down, pull-up was the most effective way to go. But that has since been proven to be incorrect.
In fact, actual testing of pulling on the pedal during the upstroke has shown that while there was some increase in mechanical effectiveness, there was a loss in gross efficiency (see, for example, this report of one such study).
It can be argued that pulling up takes some weight off that side of the cranks and thus removes a small bit of resistance on the opposing side. But even if that is true, it’s countered by the leg-muscle fatigue you experience by asking those muscles to perform in a way that is at odds with how they naturally work in a pedaling motion. That fatigue, in turn, makes you more prone to cramping or injury.
Since pulling up on one pedal while pushing down on the other is not a natural move, it requires extra concentration, introducing a “walk and chew gum at the same time” demand to the procedure — a multi-tasking we don’t need on top of all the other factors we should stay alert about while cycling.
So don’t worry about pulling during the upstroke. Pedal the way your legs are hardwired to work when spinning the cranks. That’s the only “secret” you need to know.
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.
I agree with Stan regarding pulling up when you’re pedaling while seated. However, when out of the saddle and really honking on hill, pulling up does work, for me anyway. I assume it’s due to the biomechanical differences between the sitting and standing positions on the bike.
That said, if you’re out of the saddle and sprinting, pulling up can cause the rear wheel to skip.
I have found that when my legs are pretty exhausted and I’m trying to keep up on a hill, switching to pulling up for a short time helps me speed up. I assume it is because a less fatigued muscle group is being used for this.
On occasion, I have unclipped one leg to give a sore Achilles tendon a rest. There’s no way to do this without pulling up on the leg that’s still pedaling. Obviously, this isn’t something I can keep up for long, or at a high speed.
oh – now they tell me – pedal how ever it works best
Why are we spending big bucks on cycling shoes and pedals if you aren’t supposed to pull up?
I can share why I have expensive shoes and pedals.
They aid in position and alignment of the foot. This is where most professional bike fitters that I know start with a fitting. Proper alignment does wonders for efficiency, power and injury avoidance. I put in more than 500 hrs of riding a year. When I buy a new pair of shoes, my first stop is my bike fitter to assure proper placement fore and aft, side to side and angle of the cleat with my shoes. He has a laser system that tracks the movement of my knee, and when my cleats are properly aligned, when viewed from the front, the knee goes up and down with no side movement. And for even more refinement, the “float” allows the foot to flex without stress from a completely static position when riding for long periods.
All true and thanks for reminding me. I have to admit my comment was a knee jerk reaction prior to morning coffee. However, I do believe many novice riders that will always be novice riders spend unnecessary money on shoes/pedals from which their benefit is minimal to none. Toe clips would probably serve them fine with some of the benefits you mentioned.
Good explanation, Bob.
George, I just curious. Was your “knee jerk reaction” on the down stroke or on the up stroke? Ha!
I smiled…
Bottom line, one of our neighbors here in Bend, OR is Chris Horner. I asked him this question and his reply
was … “Yes, the pros pull up.”
Greg Lemond’s recommendation is more of a pulling back motion, not pulling up. He recommends pulling your foot back as you get to the bottom of the downstroke like you are scraping mud off of your shoe. It is a more natural motion as you finish the downstroke, plus the other foot is getting to the power portion of the downstroke.
Now THIS is cycling wisdom . . .
Whenever pedaling forces are measured, they show that good riders do NOT pull up.
I first saw this in a book in the 1970s.
Next sighting: Shinpei Okajima, nine-time Japan national sprint champion and an engineer at Shimano, measured his own pedaling forces and published the information in Bike Tech some time in 1983. (Sorry I can’t nail the date.)
So, yeah. Toe clips and/or pedal binding systems keep your foot on the pedal, in the right location, and allow you to spin faster. That’s plenty of benefit.
There is no such thing as pulling up. No matter what people want to believe. It’s been disproven many times and our physiology is not even capable of it.