Foot Placement

Flat Pedals

On Flats you have the perfect situation where you can put the foot in different locations depending on whether you are climbing or descending, but for descending it is essential that the pedal is NOT under the ball of your foot. This position is great for climbing but if you leave it there on the descent and then try to put your heel back to stabilise, the foot will slip off when you hit the forst bump. 

Place the pedal halfway between the BALL OF THE FOOT and the ARCH OF THE FOOT.

See video

Clip Pedals

On Clip pedals you have to decide if you are looking for:

• Strength, torque on steep climbs and stability when descending or

• A high cadence for spinning on flatter trails

If that sounds a bit confusing basically the further forward the cleat is placed in the shoe, the faster you will be able to spin the pedals which is great for enduarnce riding on flatter rides - smooth gravel, road riding, maybe racing cross country.

The further back in the shoe the cleat is placed the more torque you will access, by reducing the dominance of the calf and engaging the glute and quadricep muscles more. This will also depend a little on your physique so some trial and error is always recommended.

But, basically, if your version of mountainbiking consists of climbing up a steep hill, stopping and having a drink then turning around and going back down a tricky descent, you will most likely prefer a rearward position. This will give you lots of grunt and torque for the climbs, especially since the surface is often rough and high in friction and difficult to spin anyway, and then for the descent where you are looking only for balance and stability, there is no disagreement that you are more stable and have better balance with a rearward position.

Check out the video and have a go playing around yourself.