I mean in your mind. Do you think of the pedal stroke more like spinning continuous circles or do you think of it more like ‘push down right, push down left’, repeat?
I’ve always been a spinner, thinking of the pedal stroke as more of a circle though you certainly push harder on the down stroke. I’ve also never had problems with higher rpms. 120-130rpms on a hard start interval is no problem.
I was recently doing some threshold intervals and tried to consciously ‘push down right, push down left’ and I ended up with more power at the same RPE. I’m pretty sure this has partly to do with having a left side only power meter.
But I also think I’m right side dominant. The sensation I was feeling was that my left leg goes on autopilot and is just along for the ride doing 70-80% of the hard work at higher powers.
Another data point is that I did some lower cadence threshold intervals and after consciously doing ‘push down right, push down left’ my left quad was more fatigued in the days following. I think this further confirms that if I let my left leg go on autopilot, it’s not getting as good of a workout.
Final thought - Colby Pierce did a podcast 2-3 years ago titled "How to pedal a bicycle’ and I seem to recall that he described the pedal stroke as push down right, push down left kind of thing rather than spinning circles.
I don’t really think about it at least not in that way. I think more about my powering my downstroke and relaxing on the upstroke. I don’t know where I heard or read it, but a smooth cadence that stays smooth at the higher rpms has more to do with the muscles being trained to relax when they aren’t pushing down. I check myself by seeing if I can wiggle my toes when spinning at higher rpms. When it comes to lower RPM’s, I’m definitely using more of full circle type of effort because I need that extra torque to keep the pedals turning over.
As for you and your leg dominance, I’d suggest investing in dual sided power meters to see what’s really going on. I’ve varied from 46/54 and am now always 48-49/52-51 after making some minor tweaks.
Don’t give it much thought most of the time. The exception is when climbing steep stuff in the saddle, I go into “electric motor” mode where I try to apply more continuous torque/force. If I don’t do that, my pedal stroke tends to be a bit choppy when it gets really steep. Particularly helps on loose terrain where you can spin out if you aren’t pedaling smooth.
The literature says smashing your pedals is better for power output. But when I see the pros, particularly the top riders, they seem so smooth. So I want to be like them. I am trying to do more of a smooth pedal stroke and I think/hope its helping me be more efficient moving fwd. There’s a difference between putting down power and moving fwd efficiently. I like to think I am working on the latter, but maybe I am wrong.
In ye olden days, when in-ride text was a thing in TR-workouts, in some workouts there were cadence drills, where you focused on the three thirds (or was it quarters) of the pedal stroke. There were single leg drills and I believe other cadence drills as well. I remember “knees like pistons” and other quotes from Chad when I’m on the bike. All this was probably to help make your pedal stroke smoother. So this thread will be interesting to read, once some more people chime in.
Personally, I don’t think about my pedal stroke most of the time or not in a different way others have already posted above. When you need high torque, it’s more like the full rotation in both legs has power. Otherwise I’m pretty confident to say that I press down from 1 o’clock to 4, maybe 5 and switch. But it’s still smooth and my cadence is usually in the low 80s. I guess you can be smooth at low and high cadences. It’s certainly interesting to experiment!
Generally I’m a masher, but I try to be smooth on the upstroke so I’m not just pedaling squares. A smooth masher perhaps, LOL? But I don’t think about it very often.
I do both, depending. I seem to naturally be a masher, but on smoother, flat surfaces I’ll spin.
6 or 7 years ago, there was lots of discussion in my group ride about spinning, and it was the faster people saying that was their secret on hills. So, I worked on upping my normal cadence and spinning on all the hills. I got better at spinning and feel more comfortable at 10-15 rpm higher, but I noticeably lost power. So, now I work on both, and use what’s appropriate for the terrain I’m on. And, I did a lot of work on standing climbing last year…had to get the core and glutes stronger… and now I can stand up on the steep stuff (MTB mostly) and easily cruise away from those fast guys.
One thing I figured out is that when I’m mashing hard I tend to be focusing on my feet pushing on the pedals (very specifically the pressure on the bottom of my feet as they push on the pedal), but to work on spinning it helped me to focus on my knees smoothly going up-down-roundly-round.
IDK about others, and everybody is different, but when I’m fit and fast, I pedal 85-105 rpm. When I’m out of shape after being off the bike for a long time, I mash. I’ve gone through this a fair number of times having started riding many years ago.
Blast from the past … I remember those power cranks from my early days in triathlon.
I have to admit, back in the day, if they were easier to come by I would have given them a try.
I still have a pair of PowerCranks….not installed, but still own them.
I used them for rehab purposes while I was doing tri’s and kept getting injured running. So I would do some rides with those cranks to help with rehab and strengthening my glutes. They were great for that, IME.
As for the idea they increased your actual power output……pffft.
Back in the day, PowerCranks were a hotly contested subject on Slowtwitch and the founder of the company was eventually banned because he was kind of an a-hole. Even the topic of the cranks was forbidden for a long time.
The only times I actively think about pulling up on the pedals (or even unweighting really) are lower cadence sprints or slow low cadence climbing (like up a 15+% wall). Other than that I think I have a decently ‘smooth’ pedal stroke but I’m focusing on how hard I’m pushing.
I think the ‘smoothness’ you see in other people’s pedaling has less to do with whether they are producing power more evenly around the pedal stroke and more to do with the coordination of ending their downward push before the absolute bottom of the stroke. If you push all the way down to the 6 o’clock position (as opposed to stopping just short at like 5 or 5:30) then there will be an awkward stall point where you are still pushing through the bottom with one leg while the other is trying to start pushing.
But I’d confidently wager that even the smoothest of pedalers are still producing the VAST majority of their power on the downstroke.