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Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manAt ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snjstar's birthday party last Saturday, snjstar instroduced me to a keen cyclist friend of hers, and we cycle geeked for a while. We were talking about SPDs (clip-on pedals), and I mentioned that I hadn't seen the benefit out of them I had expected. He said they were really worth it going up hills. I said possibly I was using them wrong.
He was right. I experimented the next time I commuted to work; and discovered the thing to do, when going uphill, was not to try supplementing the normal downwards force on them with upwards force, but to abandon the downwards force altogether and concentrate on pulling the pedals up. This gets you up the hill a lot more efficiently.
The corrollary of this, of course, is that there is a crossover point at a certain incline where "pull" pedalling becomes more efficient than "push" pedalling. I find the existence of this crossover point fascinating. Is it constant, or does it depend how tired you are of the pedalling style you've been using? Is it hysteretical, or is it the same on the way "up" (increasing incline) as the way "down"? And, of course, what does it feel like to cross this point as you cycle?
There we go: scientific entertainment on my commutes to work for the next while. :o)
snjstar's birthday party last Saturday, snjstar instroduced me to a keen cyclist friend of hers, and we cycle geeked for a while. We were talking about SPDs (clip-on pedals), and I mentioned that I hadn't seen the benefit out of them I had expected. He said they were really worth it going up hills. I said possibly I was using them wrong.He was right. I experimented the next time I commuted to work; and discovered the thing to do, when going uphill, was not to try supplementing the normal downwards force on them with upwards force, but to abandon the downwards force altogether and concentrate on pulling the pedals up. This gets you up the hill a lot more efficiently.
The corrollary of this, of course, is that there is a crossover point at a certain incline where "pull" pedalling becomes more efficient than "push" pedalling. I find the existence of this crossover point fascinating. Is it constant, or does it depend how tired you are of the pedalling style you've been using? Is it hysteretical, or is it the same on the way "up" (increasing incline) as the way "down"? And, of course, what does it feel like to cross this point as you cycle?
There we go: scientific entertainment on my commutes to work for the next while. :o)
