Dorsiflexion when pedaling. Not efficient. Photo: Kevin G Saunders
When I am helping people find their perfect position on the bicycle, saddle height is one of the many dimensions we discover in a BalancePoint™ session. While people consider the knee joint as the only significant articulation, the ankle is in fact an articulation as well. This makes a single joint movement a compound movement, so to speak. The goal is to stabilize the ankle and depending on saddle height, that is sometimes easy and sometimes not so easy.
While power is generated with your quads and glutes (assuming you are in a position to be able to engage your glutes), all the ankle does is transfer the force from the leg to the foot. Your calf muscles are supposed to resist the effort, but in many cases, your foot dorsiflexes which means the energy is going into the calf, not into the pedal.
Many folks say that the effort is easier when they drop their heel (dorsiflex) because it seems easier to extend their leg. With a stable ankle, the force is going to the pedal instead and you can feel it! This is one of the kinesthetic tricks that your body plays on you.
This is why we find the most efficient angle for your ankle before figuring out saddle height. It is different for everyone, but generally, it is toe down (plantarflexion) and close to the angle you would have when at the bottom of the pedal stroke when standing, or when climbing stairs after you have put all your weight on the leg that is on the step in front of you.
This is very hard to feel, but easy to see with training. That is why we use video to help ascertain the real biomechanical position rather than pull an approximation from an equation.
Do you pedal toe down or heel down? You might be surprised to see what happens when it is optimized.
