Does your goofy foot match your handedness?

[Danneaux]

Hi All!

Funny the things one thinks about when riding alone (apparently too much, judging by the topic title!). Yesterday, as I stopped and started periodically up the long 12% grades into Oregon's Coast Range, I pondered which foot I chose to place in the pedal first, and which second. I found I varied from time to time, but the first foot in was usually my left, followed by the right. This seems a bit odd in a country where we "right right", as the road camber/crown makes it a much longer stretch for the right foot to do a toe-dab prior to taking off.

I wondered why (despite the sometimes long stretch) I still seemed to prefer the right foot for finding the "off" pedal -- flipping the trailing plate tab with a toe so I could find and enter the toe clip before the pedal finished coming 'round and I lost momentum.

Of course, there is a Wikipedia article related to footedness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofy_foot
There's a bicycle-related sub-category for BMX: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofy_foot#BMX

Sheldon had his take on it in his Bicycle Glossery ( http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_g.html ):

Goofy Footed
    When you coast with the cranks horizontal, ideally you should have the left foot forward, right foot rear. This way, the stresses on the crank/bottom bracket interface are in the usual direction.

    If you coast with your right foot forward, that's sometimes called "goofy footed" and can contribute to loosening up or damaging the crank, since it applies stress in the opposite direction than the stresses of normal pedaling.

    This term comes from the world of surfing, where left-foot forward is the norm.

In pushing off, I finally concuded my right foot is currently my "educated" foot -- it flips and "finds" the pedal more ably than does the left...but then, the left hasn't had as much practice recently. On my big 2010 tour of the Great Basin, so many roads and tracks were so heavily crowned, I couldn't prop myself up with the right foot 'cos it was too far down, so I switched to the left and that soon felt "normal"...till I got back home and reverted to my old ways.

I'm right-handed, but not wholly right-dominant like my father and sister. My hands are pretty ambidextrous for tasks, but the right is the one for fine-motor skills (writing, precision work). My late mother often got mixed-up as to left and right as a result of her childhood teachers' efforts to "correct" her left-handedness. She could write with either and was neither and both when it came to handedness. One of the surest ways to determine your footedness is to go kick something -- a ball or a rock (I'm a big pebble-kicker on my daily walks), but that has been no use to me...I seem to go for the kick with no preference in footnedness.

So, what foot to you place in the pedal first, and which do you place on the pedal second? And, which foot matches your handedness?

Just curious...it took up a few of my CPU cycles on yesterday's ride!

Best,

Dan.

[Matt2matt2002]

Good question.
I am right handed and right footed.

Is this linked to my own question....
What leg do you throw over first?
And is it linked to being a south paw or rightie?

Again, I am right handed and get my leg over accordingly.

[Danneaux]

Good response, Matt!

I think all are related. My nearly 95 year-old father grew up on a farm, and says the convention when he was a kid was to always mount a horse from the left. You put your foot in the stirrup, then swung up and threw the other leg over and off you went. He adapted to bicycles the same way, placing one foot on the nearest pedal and using his body weight to drive the bike forward as the crank came down and he swung a leg up-and-over. I can still remember when he got toe clips and straps, and how that put an end to the swing-over-and-go-in-one-try thing. Just too hard to catch a pedal properly from the side. Once fitted with clips and straps, he mounted like I do, astride the bike, with one foot already in, he pedals off and catches the off pedal with his other foot.

You asked...

Is this linked to my own question....
What leg do you throw over first?
And is it linked to being a south paw or rightie?

Mmmyeah. That, and perpetual motion without pedaling while listening to Metal. I still think you're way ahead of the rest of us, Matt.

All the best,

Dan. (...trying to catch up...)

P.S. With regard to what leg goes over first, I've found -- especially now I have a Thorn with a generously sloping top tube -- that I tend to throw a leg over the top tube, rather than try to swing it over a piled-high rack-top load and saddle. Much easier when balancing a loaded touring bike weighing the better part of 154lbs/70kg! -- D.

[jags]

has to be my right food and right leg , i always take my left foot off first though  and box with me left not that i box  but you know what i mean  
btw Dan why have you never change to clipless pedals best thing ever .

[Danneaux]

btw Dan why have you never change to clipless pedals best thing ever

They probably are, jags, but I have such an investent in SunTour Superbe Pro quill pedals and Detto Pietro Article 74 cleated shoes for my skinny feet...I'll have to wait awhle before going clipless. Gotta use these up first, and given how long the pedals and shoes last...it could be awhile!

All the best,

Dan. (...mighty tempted, mightily!)

[JWestland]

The manfriend uses proper technique (eg clip in left, then swing over) but as I can't...

I'm right handed and...cycling goes like so:

Right leg over, clip in right, then clip in left.

I lean on my left foot at the traffic lights and coast...em it depends really! Sometimes right (if I want to coast standing up, which I sometimes do on mixed cycling/pedestrian areas) but usually coast left.

Not on the fixie though, any attempt to coast results in a beautiful "donkey's kick"

[wildrover]

I'm right handed and...cycling goes like so:

Right leg over, clip in right, then clip in left.

Me too.  When I started riding again, I had a sore left "ski-knee", and favored it. seemed safer.

Holly

[Relayer]

My nearly 95 year-old father grew up on a farm, and says the convention when he was a kid was to always mount a horse from the left. You put your foot in the stirrup, then swung up and threw the other leg over and off you went. He adapted to bicycles the same way, placing one foot on the nearest pedal and using his body weight to drive the bike forward as the crank came down and he swung a leg up-and-over. I can still remember when he got toe clips and straps, and how that put an end to the swing-over-and-go-in-one-try thing. Just too hard to catch a pedal properly from the side. Once fitted with clips and straps, he mounted like I do, astride the bike, with one foot already in, he pedals off and catches the off pedal with his other foot.

Hi Dan

When I was a wee boy I sometimes put my left foot on the pedal, pushed off with my right foot on the ground, and swung my right leg over .... haven't done it in adult life, toe clips, luggage, and SPDs I suppose; something like your dad.

I used to know a chap who swung his leg over the handlebars!  I found I could do that as well, but just a wee bit unsteady if my foot accidentally caught the bars, which occasionally happened when tired.

I am right handed and right footed.  I swing my right leg over, stand astride the bike and clip my right foot in, pedal off with right foot and left foot finds the other SPD.  I do it this way because I imagine I have more power in my right leg for that first pedal stroke, another factor is probably because with cycling on the left side of the road I look over my right shoulder to check for traffic - not sure I'm supple enough to do this with my left foot clipped in at 12 o'clock!

Jim

[Danneaux]

Hi All!

Well, this is fun stuff from my perspective! I appreciate hearing from you all, and look forward to more weigh-ins on how you mount the bike and start off.

Jim, I think we both do much the same, except as influenced by the opposing road use (driving/riding on the left vs right). That road crown has something to do with it! Plus, I think if a person is dominant on one side that has to do with preference as well (and if one is favoring an injury, just as Holly said).

I'm really challenged for a smooth liftoff on exceptionally steep hills with a 70kg touring load. I love getting it right on the first go, but every once in awhile, I am reminded of just how hard a Brooks saddle nose can be -- ouch! If it is a long hill, then I will inevitably take it in stages with rest breaks on the way up. I'm usually in my lowest gear, which means something in the 17-19 gear-inch range, and the offside crank comes around awfully fast after that initial lunge. The soles of my old Detto Pietro Art. 74 cleated cycling shoes are hard, slick nylon, and they don't always catch the pedal-tipper on the first go, so I flail around a few strokes on the back of the pedal (my SunTour Superbe Pro pedals are single-sided) until I can get up enough momentum to do a proper job of it, but it is a near thing at times. Oddly, I am having a much easier go of it with the same cranks and pedals on the Nomad, the only difference being the Rohloff hub. I can't see why that would make a difference (yes, the cog moves relative to the hub, but the gears are essentially the same...).

I've sometimes done the leg-swing-over-handlebars mount...and with similarly mixed results! Sometimes when it has worked particularly well, I've paused to congratulate myself...and paid for my hubris by having the front wheel spin 'round on me leaving a nice chain tattoo on my leg. If I remember my King James Proverbs correctly, it's "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." I've had a few of those!

I really must try SPDs someday. The day is coming, and my laid-in supply of old Dettos will surely come to an end.

All the best,

Dan.

[JWestland]

E-bay/second hand sites might be your friend, I got a pair of secondhand SPD shoes (worn 5 times) with cleats and a pair of used trainers (flat one side, SPD one side) and never looked back!

Still the same shoes, but upgraded to XTR dual sided mountain bike pedals as the other ones were a tad...heavy and I found I never used the flat side anyway.

Now it's strange when I am on an SPD-less bike...

But if you don't like it, then at least you didn't spend a lot.

[Danneaux]

E-bay/second hand sites might be your friend...

Absolutely right, Jawine! eBay is wonderful for this sort of thing...a chance to try something at reduced cost and if it doesn't work...sell it on to the next person in the same position.

I have to admit I have been kinda looking at these things out of the corners of my eyes...and they look pretty nice. It would be nice to avoid hitting my nailless big toes on the clips (there is a correlation there...I had toenails until I damaged them but it wasn't all the bike's fault), and there are some really nice accessories like cold- and wet-weather shoe covers that work much better with clipless shoes. I guess in my mind, I see clipless vs toe clips in much the same light as threadless vs. threaded headsets and bolt-on vs quill stems. The old stuff still works okay...but there really have been some very nice advances in design that work as well or better. If I wasn't so cheap er, careful, I would probably ditch the lot and give clipless a try. As it is, I figure I'd best use up what I have first, and then I can get "the latest" -- just in time for it to become obsolete! I seem often be a bit late to the party.

All the best,

Dan. (who is really just waiting for the magnetic pedal/shoe interface to arrive...)

[triaesthete]

Hi Dan
You are missing the Rohloff party trick when "in my lowest gear, which means something in the 17-19 gear-inch range, the offside crank comes around awfully fast after that initial lunge".

In this scenario you can (because you can now!) change up to 3rd or 4th, lunge off for one pedal stroke using body weight, then shift down/sit down in short order and then resume pedaling in a dignified manner.

Shimano SPD shoes and pedals work almost like magnets already. False releases are very rare and I never feel trapped in them. Safer walking in shops too, and a "security" angle as any potential thief watching you park the bike will realise that you are now capable off high speed foot pursuit.

Why not sell all the old stuff to the 80s classic buffs, they love new old stock (NOS). I bet that would fund SPDs.

Just thinking about scoot and swing mounting techniques, I wonder if they developed because bikes in the old days had compromise gearing a little high for standing starts, and moreso if they were sporty.

The other thing I've found myself doing on Rohloff, is shortshifting like a lightly loaded truck: ie using lots of low ratios,each easily selected in brisk sequential order from the bottom with just a very few revs in each.Gives astonishingly effortless dignified and amusing acceleration. A series of wee pauses and no heaving and lunging

Go on Dan, give it a try. Most of us didn't know we needed the t'interweb before we had it, but go back to penfrinds and fax??? It worked but.....Now is fab and the future's better, it just might be a bumpy ride, but importantly we're on it.

For Physics
Ian

[Danneaux]

Ian my friend, you've won the argument with...

...For Physics

(!)

'Couldn't turn my back on a battle cry like that!

Further incentive to thin the herd, so I won't have as many clipless pedals to buy. Yeah, there's logic to that!

I really must try the rapid change-up-then-down shifting technique you've described. I know JimK is a big proponent as well, and when two people I respect so much endorse a technique, well, I've got to try it on Good Authority alone (and can, now, just as you say). This really would solve the too-rapid pedal-go-'round problem I've had till now on steep-hill starts wth big loads. Thanks for the kind reminder!

I have tried the sequential short-shifting thing and found it great fun. I uh...I almost had to make "B-R-R-R-R-T! B-R-R-R-R-T! B-R-R-R-R-T!" noises as I shifted to complete the effect. Well, maybe I kinda did. It might be a good thing I so often ride alone?

All the best,

Dan. (who is moving slowly toward the 21st Century pedalwise, wishing I was in the 22nd computerwise...)

[NZPeterG]

Well back to the start, which foot and hand?
I almost always start off pedaling with my Right Foot and like all great people I'm Left Handed!
We all start life Right Handed, But some of Use can over come the Disorder!

If you Unicycle or Like Me? Mountain Unicycle You have to work out which Foot to start off with as it makes starting off easer.

 

Peter.....
 

[JWestland]

I uh...I almost had to make "B-R-R-R-R-T! B-R-R-R-R-T! B-R-R-R-R-T!" noises as I shifted to complete the effect.

LOL that would match some cars then sitting next to the cyclists at the traffic lanes revving up