How to Position Your Feet to Start Pedaling a Bicycle or EBike: Start Riding Your Bike Easily

How to position your feet to get your bike or e-bike going.

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin, I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry, and today I'm going to show you how to position your feet on the pedals to get your e-bike and bike moving.

All right, so I see a lot of riders getting back into riding or first-time riders actually, and there are some struggles sometimes with how to position the pedals and your feet on the pedals to get a bike or e-bike moving and to get riding. Now, a couple of things I see, if you want to bring them in for a close-up here. Number one is a kickstand. So one thing I want to say is, if you've got a kickstand, a lot of times it's going to jam your pedals up, right? So in this situation, you can see I can't do anything with my pedals if I just try to kick them backward and they can't move forward unless I move the entire bike forward, okay? So if you're getting on, make sure the kickstand is up. I would say get your kickstand up before getting on, that's going to make it a little bit easier. All right?

Also, we do have a freewheel here so we can pedal backward freely, but we just have it blocked by the kickstand. So in this case you have a few options. Number one, you can roll the bike forward and pedal forward like this, or number two, if you want to, you can get on and you can push the pedal forward like that, at which point you can move the kickstand up.

Okay. Now from here, if you have a free wheel, you can see that the pedals can move freely backwards. Okay? Now we're probably stuck in between gears back here, so it's not going as freely as we want it to, but from here we can get the pedals by moving backward. Now, what I also see through, is a lot of people, they struggle and all of a sudden they put their foot here and they're going like this and they keep creeping forward and by the time they creep forward, they've moved the pedal to the down position, right? Okay. So if you do that, if you have a freewheel, you can just pick it back up. But remember, don't keep moving forward because you're moving the pedals. Okay?

So you want to get the perfect position, which is right about here. You could go maybe a touch higher, okay, right about there. Okay? From there, you're going to be able to get... Now, you have to decide also what your dominant leg is. I like to get my right foot going. I'm a right-handed person, so I feel like I can get the most power with my right foot but if you like your left foot, you can come over here and get a position like this.

Now, this is a little bit higher than I had on the right side, so my knees a little bit up, so if I want it just a little more down, so I want it a little bit more down, with my knee slightly below parallel, and at that point, I've already got weight going down on it so I can thrust it forward, okay? So let me show you here. Now, I'm going to switch it again to get it back to my right, okay? Okay, so my knee is slightly below parallel here.

Now, the key is to get moving, when you make that push, you've got to commit to picking your legs up and turning the pedals. If you don't, you're going to have to put your feet down and stop, right? So a lot of times I see this where there's this kicking forward like this and then they go like this and the pedal's down here, and then at this point, there's no momentum, right? So you end up putting your feet down.

So when you get this pedal in that position, you have to commit from this pedal position, to that push, to be up and going, okay? So as an example, my pedal's there, my foot's there, I'm going to push and just go, okay? And at that point, I could pick my feet up.

Now, you don't have to go superfast to even keep the bike balancing as long as you keep the handlebars straight. Get my pedal back one more time, push, okay? And I don't even need to start pedaling. If you get enough of a thrust out of having your feet in the correct position, you don't even necessarily need to get pedaling right away. You just want to make sure you get a really good initial thrust here.

Okay, I'm going to turn this way now. Let's come over here.

All right, so I've got my foot here. My knee is slightly below parallel, downward, so I've already got that momentum, right? It's right here and I don't have my helmet on, but I'm just going to keep it nice and slow. Usually, I would wear my helmet. Okay, so I'm going to push, thrust, pick up my feet, okay? Right here, thrust, I'm up, and now I can easily continue to ride.

Now, I've witnessed a lot of riders getting back into riding and I've watched a lot of riders getting used to getting the bike on two wheels again and for the first time, and honestly, if you don't have the right pedal position, it's going to be very difficult. If your pedal's all the way up here, you want to push the pedals down and forward. But in this position, I can't even get the pedal, I'm pushing down more, and then if it's too far down here, your leg is almost too extended to get the power you need, so it's right here. There's a sweet spot where my knee is just past parallel, downward a little bit. You can see where the crank is here, just up a slight bit, and that push is going to make it so easy to get that momentum, and then you'll pick up your opposite leg and get it on the pedals. All right.

So there you have it. That's the correct pedal position to get yourself up and riding. If you need anything else or have any other questions at all, please email us, at TheTeam@sixthreezero.com or call us at (310) 982-2877. Now, if you're in the market for a bike or an e-bike and you're looking for something, maybe that's easier for beginners, we have a great selection. Check out our website, sixthreezero, or take our proprietary body fit quiz on our website, answer a few questions about your body and your life, and we'll recommend the perfect bike or e-bike for you. We also have a 30-day test ride on your e-bike policy. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, you can send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. We'll also warranty the bike or the e-bike for the first year. If anything goes wrong, we'll take care of parts and labor to ensure you keep riding.

Lastly, join our Facebook group. We have thousands of riders there. You can ask them questions in advance of purchasing. You can also ask them for assistance or questions regarding getting riding again and what their experience is like. So go ahead and join. And then once you have a bike, also post in there, and make friends, it is tons of fun. And lastly, then you can download our app, track your rides, and compete on the leaderboard, it's so much fun. Find the app in the iOS or the Play Store. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience, enjoy the ride.