One-legged wonder Part II

-- Turning the perfect circle

Turns out there’s much more to one-legged cycling drills than just, well, one leg.

Frequent Lunn Ave Blog contributor and Doctor of Bicycle Engineering Mike P mulls a visual display of "the continuous vector" and secrets of the auto brain.

He writes:

Getting more performance mainly comes back to Lance's advice, as one has only so much time. Those who prefer to put a lot of that time into the peripherals look most intimidating on the start line, but that doesn't win. Somewhere in between is getting it right, with pedalling technique the core.

My thoughts therefore are that power can be wasted by way of inaccurate or relatively basically coordinated pedalling technique, and that pedalling in circles can occasionally be exactly right by chance, but mainly not.

So while swimmers pedantically break down every movement, and separately coach and practice, cyclists are somewhat opposite. They just ride the fucking bike. The same approach in swimming would not produce too many Olympians.

I have an objective of getting an electronic display of "the continuous vector". From there components could be seen, and then worked on, but working on that is another area with a whole lot of room for development.

But in the meantime, one-legged pedalling provides a rudimentary guide, and an equally rudimentary solution. I think the whole cycle industry has not taken pedalling technique development very far.

I am trying to use the coordination required in balancing to drive an additional level correctness to my technique, but even that is still rather approximate and hopeful.

Another approach you may be able to use on your wind-trainer is to do very slow one-legged training against a very high resistance that has no momentum for carry-over. If you could get it right while very slow, then do it over and over and over, you could commit it to the same control area of your brain that deals with heartbeat, breathing and balance. Once there, all you need to do is slowly, like very slowly, speed it up, with sleeps between.

The Segway evaluates gyroscopic forces 100 times per sec. I think the auto-brain is doing something similar, especially where the balance is exceptional. Correct pedalling requires the same continuous level of brain activity, maybe more, to drive two legs individually and correctly, at 110rpm. But I think it can be done. Put it this way, pedalling at 110 rpm is done now, but just not necessarily correctly all the way round, or in enough correctly realigned increments.

So... I think now is the time for you to be my Guinea-pig Rich. That shoulder may be what God just done to us so we can get closer to 100% correct power delivery, or put another way, do a whole lot more miles on the same gallon.

One-legged wonder

-- DIY footrest installation guide

One-legged pedalling won’t win you many points for panache but it may improve the coordination and synchronization of cycling muscles.

When you’re down to one leg you have to pull through the bottom of the pedal stroke and lift the pedal back up and over. In demanding consistent full circle efforts dead spots at the bottom and top of each revolution will soon disappear when both feet are clipped back in.

For best results you should one-legged train like this guy.

However, before leaping into one-legged action, first you should find a safe spot to rest your dangling leg – a crate, small child, or family pet might do.

For others who demand more precision, Lunn Ave rider and Doctor of Bicycle Engineering Mike P has designed and assembled a spare-foot-rest kit.

Components:

· Zenith shelf brackets, Placemakers, $10

· Mountain bike handle-grips, Torpedo, $10

· Foam rubber packer

He adds:

The brackets are a bit bendy, but not if you rest your shin on them ordinarily.

No mods required to the brackets or the handle grips.

It works out quite comfortable, with the spare leg well clear, but not too far. Easy enough to move to while pedalling with the other foot.

I can do it on the rollers, but it’s like the early days of unicycling. A few minutes and I’m about fucked. I get tired, clunky and uncoordinated. I’m definitely not pedalling in circles. So room for improvement here for sure.

Forgot to mention – installation is as easy as taking out the quick-release, putting the little springs to one side (not essential, but saves damaging them due to the brackets’ holes being bigger than the hole through the axle), then replacing the quick-release, brackets included.

Of course the brackets need to be rotated to an angle where they don’t foul the ends of the seat stays or chain stays, but I think doing that would come naturally enough for any installer.

The worst-case scenario is that a notch, or maybe two notches, may need to be filed into the brackets if the seat and chain stays come very close to where the quick-release bears on the frame.

Note that the only disadvantage here is that when “the others” enhance their technique this way, you may have some serious competition on Mountain Road.

Unsanitary pads and rim jobs

-- Cycling’s unspeakables under the magnifying glass

Lunn Ave rider and Doctor of Bicycle Engineering Mike P exposes winter cycling’s dark underbelly –

“Wednesday morning’s return in the wet had me hardly daring to use the brakes. The sound was awful, even though I had not long since cleaned the rims and pads. Cleaning up this time required a bit of rag for sure, grey grinding paste even spattering the tyre. The brake pads are now past the slots, but there were still lumps catching the screwdriver.

"With the loose crap gone and the light-magnifier on the job, the real problem came to light: the same shit we dig out of the tyres was embedded in the brake block rubber. Some tiny marks after some digging turned out to be substantial lumps of glass and stone.

"I’m not saying I got it all, but after removing 20 to 30 bits from both brake sets, the sound is much better, and I’m sure the stopping be will be too (it had quite deteriorated). The real cure is new brake pads, but that can only be temporary. It is going to rain again. So while we are thinking a bit more than usual about safety, and if you are riding in the wet particularly, best do brake pad maintenance.

"If you don’t, apart from not being able to avoid things as you might have expected, the big surprise can be splitting the side right out of the rim. That happened to a friend of mine on Ngauranga Gorge (Wellington) where 100kph is on. Coming down to land amongst three lanes of downhill traffic certainly ranks right up there with Richie’s blow-out on Clevedon downhill approach."