Heel Strike and Knee Interference on Strada

"stratrider" skrev ...
> I dumped my Strada (no damage to bike) yesterday while "confidently" making a "U" turn. I dropped
> the bike after turning the front wheel into my foot. It was a slow turn and hurt only my pride.
> Question. How do you make tight turns without handlebar/knee and or wheel/heel interference? Do
> you turn towards the fully extended leg or towards the fully retracted leg? Advice would be
> appreciated.

The one where your wheel don't hit the foot of course. On mine its the fully extended. Did the
same once. Got the two mixed up and ended up on the ground... fast. ouch!

M.

turn towards the fully extended leg It works for me

SW ..
> I dumped my Strada (no damage to bike) yesterday while "confidently" making a "U" turn. I dropped
> the bike after turning the front wheel into my foot. It was a slow turn and hurt only my pride.
> Question. How do you make tight turns without handlebar/knee and or wheel/heel interference? Do
> you turn towards the fully extended leg or towards the fully retracted leg? Advice would be
> appreciated.
>
> Jim Reilly Reading, PA

"stratrider" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I dumped my Strada (no damage to bike) yesterday while "confidently" making a "U" turn. I dropped
> the bike after turning the front wheel into my foot. It was a slow turn and hurt only my pride.
> Question. How do you make tight turns without handlebar/knee and or wheel/heel interference? Do
> you turn towards the fully extended leg or towards the fully retracted leg? Advice would be
> appreciated.
>
> Jim Reilly Reading, PA

My Haluzak Hybrid Race has substantial heel-wheel interference on turns. Just takes some practice
(and a few falls) to learn to rotate your heel out of the way when turning. No big deal after
~4000 miles.

<Chas

What happens if you have to pedal while turning? I have a couple of tight uphill turns where I ride
and I have to keep pedaling or stall out. I am not anxious to dump my new Giro when I get it.

"Steve Watkin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> turn towards the fully extended leg It works for me
>
> SW ..
> > I dumped my Strada (no damage to bike) yesterday while "confidently" making a "U" turn. I
> > dropped the bike after turning the front wheel into my foot. It was a slow turn and hurt only my
> > pride. Question. How do you make tight turns without handlebar/knee and or wheel/heel
> > interference? Do you turn towards the fully extended leg or towards the fully retracted leg?
> > Advice would be appreciated.
> >
> > Jim Reilly Reading, PA

"Don" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> What happens if you have to pedal while turning? I have a couple of tight uphill turns where I
> ride and I have to keep pedaling or stall out. I am not anxious to dump my new Giro when I get it.
>
In this situation you could use a ratchet stroke where you pedal to the point just before heel
strike, back pedal, and repeat the stroke. It's a cool thing to do, but unclipping first would be
smart. Practice some slow speed turns in a safe open area and let your heel hit the tire in an
expected and controlled manner just to get the feel of it. After a bit of practice heel strike
avoidance became second nature to me. In fact it's so ingrained in my psyche that I go thorough the
avoidance routine when riding a riding a lwb where wheel strike isn't possible.

I don't think this will be a problem for you.

skip

Don -

I've found that I can pedal while turning on a Giro if I angle my heel outward. If you use
clipless pedals you need some rotational float in order to do this. I can turn and pedal while
clipped into SPDs.

"Don" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> What happens if you have to pedal while turning? I have a couple of tight uphill turns where I
> ride and I have to keep pedaling or stall out. I am not anxious to dump my new Giro when I get it.

When doing a ratchet stroke it also helps if you preshift into an appropriate gear -- too small and
you can't ratchet fast enough, too big and you stall. I routinely do U-turns on an incline at one of
the spots on my daily training rides. After about 6000 miles now on my V-Rex, ratchet stroking on
turns is pretty second nature. I learned the technique without falling, it's not really that hard;
but it helps me to previsualize a new skill before attempting it.

I find that on my V-Rex I can ratchet stroke with either foot forward while turning, but when I
ordered my Volae Team, I started routinely doing turns with the inside foot forward, which feels a
little more awkward, but is necessary if you have a bike with "tweener" bars.

Rick Moll RANS V-Rex Volae Team

skip wrote:
> "Don" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
>>What happens if you have to pedal while turning? I have a couple of tight uphill turns where I
>>ride and I have to keep pedaling or stall out. I am not anxious to dump my new Giro when I get it.
>>
>
> In this situation you could use a ratchet stroke where you pedal to the point just before heel
> strike, back pedal, and repeat the stroke. It's a cool thing to do, but unclipping first would be
> smart...

"Don" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> What happens if you have to pedal while turning? I have a couple of tight uphill turns where I
> ride and I have to keep pedaling or stall out. I am not anxious to dump my new Giro when I get it.
>
> "Steve Watkin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> > turn towards the fully extended leg It works for me
> >
> > SW ..
> > > I dumped my Strada (no damage to bike) yesterday while "confidently" making a "U" turn. I
> > > dropped the bike after turning the front wheel into my foot. It was a slow turn and hurt only
> > > my pride. Question. How do you make tight turns without handlebar/knee and or wheel/heel
> > > interference? Do you turn towards the fully extended leg or towards the fully retracted leg?
> > > Advice would be appreciated.
> > >
> > > Jim Reilly
> > >
I find that unless I am making a tight U-turn that I can keep pedaling and counter steer like you
would on a motorcycle, with a good lean you are barely turning the wheel.

Bill Vrex Reading, PA

Thanks everyone. I am familiar with the rachet stroke but I have never had to deal with tweener bars
or any other OSS bar for that matter. Even though I had heal overlap on my Leprechaun, I could
usually wiggle around an uphill tight turn by twisting the outside heel out. I could never turn the
Zak bars far enough to worry about trapping the other foot when I straightened out.

I sure don't want to drop my new Giro with its custom powder coat. My LBS showed me how the Giro
bars could be turned 180. That is scary to someone who has ridden a Leprechaun for four years and
has the seat down and bar rotated up so very little bar turning is possible.

I will just keep repeating -- turn toward extended leg, turn toward extended leg. It has only taken
me 50 years to learn the opposite on a DF

Thanks everyone. I am familiar with the rachet stroke but I have never had to deal with tweener bars
or any other OSS bar for that matter. Even though I had heal overlap on my Leprechaun, I could
usually wiggle around an uphill tight turn by twisting the outside heel out. I could never turn the
Zak bars far enough to worry about trapping the other foot when I straightened out.

I sure don't want to drop my new Giro with its custom powder coat. My LBS showed me how the Giro
bars could be turned 180. That is scary to someone who has ridden a Leprechaun for four years and
has the seat down and bar rotated up so very little bar turning is possible.

I will just keep repeating -- turn toward extended leg, turn toward extended leg. It has only taken
me 50 years to learn the opposite on a DF

I use speedplay frogs which greatly help, but on my 20" front wheel, if the turn isn't REALLY tight,
I just momentarily steer straight, then back to hard left. It is a bit odd, but rather useful.

Another tip: Get a tandem recumbent with independent pedaling. Then coast as your stoker pedals..
But wait, I can't make wide turns on a Tandem... OH no, the grass!! BAIL!!

Chris Champion Vision R40 SWB OSS Double Vision R85 USS really LWB ;-)