Pedal & Foot Position

When I was riding through North Shields today, I passed a woman riding an old mountain bike, with mudguards, paniers and a basket on the front. She was going rather slow, but seemed to be really working hard at it.

As I pulled level, I could see why - unlike the lady in the photo above (and I’m sure she IS a lady. Or at least I have no reason to think otherwise), she’d got her feet in the classic ‘wrong’ position - centre of the pedal just behind the arch of the foot. When riding like this, your calf muscles can’t help out, so you’re pushing the bike along on just the efforts of your thighs. Very tiring. I’m never sure of the etiquette in situations like this - point out the error of the other rider’s ways (”Ooooh, you don’t want to do it like that!”), or ride on by?

Anyway. Do you think you might suffer from this foot’n'pedals all wrong problem?

Then help is at hand - Carlton Reid recently made a 60 second film for the Bike to Work Book to show the wright way to pedal a bike. And it even has a genuine movie star riding the bike:

Filed under: Bike Culture, Bike to Work, Friends, Video

4 Responses to “ Pedal & Foot Position ”

  1. David Hembrow on February 11, 2009 at 11:30 pm

    This is one of the problems you don’t tend to see here. Bike shops are very good at giving people bikes that fit properly. With the saddle at the right height it’s difficult to pedal incorrectly.

    Mind you, they also sell suitable bikes. By the time someone has added all those bits to a mountain bike, I think it’s pretty clear they were sold the wrong bike to begin with.

  2. algernond on February 13, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    Do strangers ever take offence at you photographing them ?

  3. Karl On Sea on February 13, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    Which strangers?

  4. John the Monkey on February 14, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    I’ve seen people in Manchester that pedal with their heels.

    I still can’t figure out how that seemed like the best choice.