Cornering Techniques

I found a great article for tips on cornering and also a YouTube clip to reinforce it.

http://www.bikesplit.com/bsa7.htm

A Tip for Smoother Pedaling

One-leg pedaling is another approach to adding strength (and variety to your indoor training at the same time). Normally, when you pedal with both legs, the leg that pulls the foot through the bottom of the stroke and back up to the top of the 360 degree “cycle” is under used (as the other leg, when pushing the crank through the downstroke has significantly more power and thus allows a bit of slacking).Learning to pedal a complete, 360-degree circle with both legs working together will make you a better rider. Practicing with one legged drills will embed this idea into your pedaling style. 

1. Warm up on the trainer for 20 minutes while pedaling with both legs.
2. Unclip one foot from the pedal. Rest it on a chair or stool just outside the left pedal circle.
3. Pedal at 90 rpm using your right leg, using an easy gear until you get accustomed to the feeling of one-leg pedaling. The muscles that lift your thigh and push the pedal over the top will fatigue quickly at first, but you’ll improve rapidly.
4. After a few minutes, switch to the other leg.

Perfecting your pedal stroke

I found a good article for better pedaling technique.  To read the full article, please find it here; http://www.bikesplit.com/bsa4.htm

 

 

 

So I’ve talked about the possibility of increasing efficiency and power by pushing forward over the top of the pedal, stroke, and lifting the weight of your leg on the recovery or backstroke, but there’s one more crucial point of the circle where we can generate energy output. This is the range of motion between points (4) and (6) on Figure 2. At this point of the pedaling action we can use our well-developed runners’ hamstring muscles. I know many of you with cleated bike shoes already utilize this part of the pedal stroke to your advantage. This motion should be the second most powerful part of the stroke when you get it right, after the dominant downward push from your quadriceps muscle group. The sensation of pulling backwards from an extended leg should feel like scraping something off the bottom of your shoe.

 

Each range of the pedal stroke contributes a different amount of force with inherent muscle strength limitations. I estimate that the forward push over the top contributes about 10%, the down stroke about 65% (including the small calf push near the bottom), and the pull back about 25%.

 

To get the most out of your cycling, you need to analyze your pedal stroke and identify the weak spots. There’s more involved with efficient pedaling than just pushing downward with a lot of force. I’ve identified three points of your pedal stroke where you can gain energy output: Pushing forward over the top, pulling back at the bottom, and lifting the weight of your leg as it moves back up to the top during the ‘backstroke.’ Cycling isn’t a natural motion that we’ve repeated every day since childhood. Try to develop this pedaling power flow as I’ve described; it will be worth the effort. Without any extra work to increase aerobic capacity you can gain speed by perfecting your pedaling technique.