Cornering

There is more than one way to corner on a bike. Which method you use will depend on a range of factors including -

• Your level of skill
• Visibility of the road ahead
• Cambre and consistency of of the corner
• The sharpness of the corner
• Speed and other riding conditions

Cornering is all about shifting weight but there is of course numerous ways to do this – we’ll cover these below but as general advice for all cornering methods you should

• Drop your torso to lower your centre of gravity – this will usually mean getting into the drops
• Anticipate the safe speed you can take the corner at before you hit it and slow if necessary. This will be dependent of a range of factors outside of the corners sharpness – the road surface, wetness, other riders around you will all have a bearing.
• If possible cut into corners late – this outside-inside-outside method ( see video) cutting through the apex of the corner  allows you to see more road going into the corner ( and so better able to judge it) and give you more road to ride on coming out. Obviously if you’re riding in traffic then that will have a large bearing on how to approach the corner.
• Look where you want to go not down at the road surface. Looking where you intend to go will help your control.

The most common method of cornering is leaning where you angle both yourself and the bicycle. This method is suitable when you can choose your line around the corner, the road is relatively wide and your have good visibility. To lean through a corner effectively

• Move slightly back  in the saddle
• Ensure your inside pedal is up and outside pedal is down – if the corner is sharp and the inside pedal is down you risk hitting it on the road.
• Put your weight on the outside pedal
• Pointing the inside knee toward the apex of the corner will shift  your centre of gravity inside the tire line.

Countersteering is a great technique for when you may need to correct your direction within the turn. Good for descents and uncertain, changing corners or where ever conditions may change suddenly. The idea is to lean the bike more than your body – if the lean is large this can interupt pedaling which is why it is especially suitable for descents where gravity will be providing much of the speed. To countersteer effectively

• Keep your body vertical and incline the bike beneath you. This is most easily done by extending your inside arm and pressing on your inside hand.
• Changing the downward weight on the inside hand will give you great control – push down more to increase the angle of the turn, lighten it to reduce.
• You may find your inside knee touching the top tube when cornering tightly with this technique.

Steering is less commonly used but is useful to learn for conditions with a slippery or uneven surface where leaning the bike could result in slipping. Essentially you’re keeping the bike vertical and turning the handle bars to  cornerIt will feel awkard and slow to begin with but, as with all skills, worth developing as it will give you a better understanding of how your bike works and how you work with it.

• Keep the bike itself relatively vertical
• Shift your weight forward and slightly to the inside
• Push down and forward with your outside arm so turning the handle bars into the corner.

I know we say this with almost every post – but it bears repeating. Practice and playing with these techniques will give you added skills, abilities and awareness on the bike. Whether you’re racing your just getting to work this will keep you safer, more aware and more confident.

Let us know your thoughts.

 

Gearing Basics

Arguable  your drive train is the most important part of your bike. It includes the crank, chain rings, the chain and the cluster of gears on your back wheel. To most beginners the ratios between the chain rings at the front and the cluster at the back sound like deeply geeky gobbledegook but it is vital to understand what’s going on down there.

Typically  road bikes have two  chain rings ( the larger cogs on the crank set). Each is referred to by the number of cogs it has on it – the larger  the ring the more  teeth.  So the front chain ring may be referred to as a 34/28 meaning the  larger ring has 34 teeth the smaller one 28.

At the back the cluster of gears on your back wheels will have a range of teeth from the largest to the smallest and the cluster is referred to by the largest and smallest  - a 12/25  for example.

The difference in effort it takes to turn the pedals in any particular gear is down to the ratio between the  chain ring chosen and the gear at the back  - put simply the higher the ratio ( the more difference between them) the more power it takes to turn the pedals and consequently the faster you’ll go. Low ratios are used for climbing hills and spinning, high ratios for speed, power and sprinting.

All simple enough but it is important to pay attention to how you’re changing up and down the gears. Generally you need to avoid having your chain forming an angle between the chain ring and cluster at the back. So when changing up through the gears you should avoid changing all the way to the smallest gear on the back and then changing up to the large chain ring. Conversely when changing down don’t change all the way down at the back and then drop down to the small chain ring. Doing this not only causes undue wear to the most commonly replaced part of  your bike  - it also represent a substantial loss in transferred power.

Instead you should be changing chain ring while in a middle gear – this will ensure less wear, better power transfer and lessen the chances of your losing your chain. If you’re new to riding you may have to pay closer attention to  which gear you’re in as you change up and down until yo develop a sense for when to change your chain ring. Using your gears like this man your combination of gears is effectively halved – but looking at the ratios that each combination represents you’ll find that there is the same spread – some of the inefficient gear combination have the same ratio as the  correct ones making them redundant and ineffective.

You may want or need to change your crankset and cluster dependant on the kind of riding you’re doing. Typically if you’re  riding a lot of hills you would opt for a more forgiving cluster with larger gears at the top end and possibly a compact crankset – with less teeth in the chain rings – this combination obviously lowers the possible gear ratios and will give you somewhere to go when the inclines start to bite.

Pay attention to your gear combinations and your drive train will last longer and work more efficiently for you.

Pedaling Action

There’s is more to pedaling than just turning them. This seemingly simple action has far more subtlety to it that you would expect if you’re just beginning. To be clear here we are talking clipped in pedaling with  cycling shoes and a cleat system – if you want to get the most out of those legs this is the only way to do it.

Put simply the most efficient pedal stroke is one that applies a constant pressure right around the pedal stoke in the direction of the stroke – a smooth consistent spin around the crank or ‘pedaling the full circle’ – what is called the ‘souplaise’ in France. While this my sound straight forward the bio-mechanical action is in fact very complicated taking in multiple muscle groups and joints all needing to co-ordinate in an efficient way. It is only after extensive experience and awareness that an really efficient pedal stroke can be developed.

First you’ll want to just bring your attention to your pedaling and exactly what your legs are up. If you haven’t spent some tiome on this or are new to cleated riding your legs will be doing whatever default, habitual action seems to work – you can no doubt improve it. The full pedal stroke is usually divided into four parts for the purposes of talking about the stroke -

• The down stroke – Your foot pushes the pedal down in the front part of the stroke. Typically it is here where most of the power comes from – your large gluteal and thigh muscles are fully engaged and you have the legs weight and gravity on your side.
• The under stroke? – The underside of the stroke – your foot finishes the down stroke and pushes backward.
• The upstroke – The foot lifts up at the back of the stroke.
• The overstroke? – The foot travels over the top part of the pedal action to reengage with the downstroke.

While we divide the pedaling action into these four parts to more a easily talk about them the action we’re trying to achieve is a seamless integration of these – a circle not a square.

There are various pedaling techniques which are said to improve pedaling efficiency. For many of these the jury is still out about their effectiveness when matched against metabolic cost – yes it does get geekier.

Ankling is a pedaling method that seeks to better engage the calf muscles in the stroke ( see video). The foot is angled slightly upward to the front of the bike in the down stroke and then slightly downward in the up stroke as the foot is pulled up to the top of the stroke. It has been shown that this very deliberate pulling up stroke increases the power through this section of the action however their is also much evidence to show that the metabolic cost of this does not justify it. The action of pulling up the foot engages the muscles on the underside of your thigh which are not nearly as strong as your gluteals ( the largest muscle in your body)- these tire easily with this kind of demand put on them and use vital resources that may be better spent getting you over the next kilometres. That said obviously if you’re sprinting to the finish then it is time to use everything you have – practicing ankling will give you the ability to do this when it will count and will also give you a greater awareness of the movement your leg and foot in enagaged in.

If you want to explore this movement further and develop a smooth souplaise you can try  unclipping one foot and pedaling – this will force the engaged foot to apply pressure right around the circle and give you a greater awareness of how that feels, which muscles are enagaged when and where to bring your attention to turn your stroke into a habitually efficient movement.

 

 

Track standing

 

If you’ve been riding on the road for any length of time in any city with a reasonable cycling population you’ll have seen some ‘pro’, likely in white lycra balancing perfectly at the lights with out any need to put his or her foot down – seemingly unaffected by the gravity that the rest of the population have to contend with. Your initial reaction may vary any where from amazement to barely concealed  jealousy or more school yard reactions – like ‘what a smart arse  show off’. However you react you’re just going to have to suck it up and admit that you’d like to be able to do that.

Whatever the ‘cool’ or intimidation factor track standing ( yes – that’s what it is called) has – bottom line is it demonstrates a level of skill, balance and ‘oneness’ with the bike that no doubt would make us all better and safer riders. So how do you do it?

As with everything, practice is essential – you can do this while out on your everyday ride but it usually results in edging slowly out in to the intersection as you move forward slightly with each clumsy correction. So in the interests of aesthetics and your own safety we suggest you spend some time getting it down where there is no traffic and then go show off.

Here’s some pointers to pay attention to.

• Come to a stop slowly
• Point your front wheel up the camber of the road at about 45 degrees to the rest of the bike
• Focus some distance ahead of you – about 15 metres – find some fixed point and lock onto it
• Move your weight forward -most easily done by standing on the pedals and shifting your weight
• Keep the crank on the uphill side forward at around 3 o’clock
• Shift your hips to the downhill side of the bike
• When you’re learning start with your hands in the drops – this will lower your centre of gravity
• Your balance is an equation between the forward force of your pressure on the uphill crank, gravity pulling you down the slope and the angle of your front wheel -use The Force, Luke.
• Most important is to relax so you can sense and react easily to the subtle changes in balance. If you tense up and over react to what you perceive as imbalance it will be far harder to recover.
• When you start aim to just pull this off for 5 seconds, then ten… building up to a full minute.
• Don’t practice for too long straight away. Start small, sleep on it and let your mind and body process and come back to it – let your unconscious do the work. You’re developing an intuitive sense here so pressure won’t help.

So all that remains is that you go out and do it. With a little forgiving practice you’ll be intimidating the crap out of the commuters in no time-eating a banana in a gale force wind with no need to let your cleats ever touch asphalt.

 

 

Pedaling Technique

Cadence

In High Cadence We Trust

Cadence is the speed at which you turn the pedals measured in revolutions per minute. There have been extensive studies done on which cadence rate is the most efficient and the general current, common wisdom is that a cadence of 90-100 rpm is optimal. If you’re new to cycling training this may seem fast – the reasons this speed has been determined the most efficient over time is linked to the bio-mechanics of the sport. Cycling, in many instances, is an endurance sport with a need for consistent and on going energy output over extended period. A higher cadence will ensure your muscles will tire less quickly and will work at their peak efficiency over a period of time. A great way to develop your cadence in a focused way is to use a bike trainer – a fluid trainer will replicate the feel of the road the best.

Continue reading “Cadence” »

Group riding

Riding Technique with Chris Newman
Chris Newman has over the 15 years of riding, covered all disciplines from Triathlon, Multisport, Track, Mountain biking and Road Racing, however Road Riding and Racing is his passion. Being Part owner and Manager of The Freedom Machine, a leading bicycle store in Melbourne -Australia, has helped to develop his passion, in both him developing in his own sport, and most importantly giving others the opportunity to grow in the sport. Taking regular Cycle Clinics for both beginners and advanced, this helps to pave the way to make cycling safe and enjoyable for others, and hopefully will give them the passion for the sport that Chris has. To further Chris’s knowledge in Biomechanics Chris has also obtained an Advanced Certificate in Remedial Massage to help provide more technical information for sizing customer to bicycles. Continue reading “Group riding” »