After thirty odd years mountain biking, I only realised two days ago that I always ride into jumps/berms etc with the same foot leading. And weirdly enough it’s my right foot. Being somewhat knackered in the knees from many km descent over the last fortnight I forced myself to lead with the left foot sometimes to try to balance the stresses, but it felt totally awkward and slightly out of control.

Do you always lead jumpy stuff with the same foot?
Did you previously and have you forced yourself to change?
Do you naturally use both?

Like I say, been mtbing since the Raleigh Maverick and only realised this week after shit loads of jumping. No idea if I also do it on gnadgery tech.

I’m left foot forwards for all board sports. Freewheeling downhill. On a road bike if I’m cruising along and want to start a sprint, I have to wait until my left foot is on the downstroke.
If I took a penalty kick in football, I’d be balancing on my right foot and kicking it with my left*

The only exception is that I can always put my outside foot down on any right or left corner. But pedals level, I’m left foot forwards.

*actually I’d be falling over in an uncoordinated heap of limbs but we’ll pass over that minor technicality for now.

i’m goofy on the bike and boards…
Right foot forwards all the time…
I literally cannot do boards the other way, but if need be can on the bike.

DrP

Im left foot forward on all bikes, outside foot down on berms etc.. but then back to left foot forward

On the bmx left foot forward and riding ramps left to right is normal and riding right foot forward and riding ramps right to left is also normal

Goofy footed on a bmx is when you ride with a particular foot forward but ride the ramp the opposite way

So goofy footed would be left foot forward and riding right to left or Right foot forward and riding left to right

Feels very odd to do but that’s how some people ride bmx

Never thought goofy footed would exist on a mtb

I am right foot forwards on bike, also surfing & skateboarding although not done either for few years & left foot forwards for snowboarding although can ride switch I am much faster left foot forwards

Well you can do tricks ‘switch’ in bmx skating etc I.e non-natural foot forward, Regular riders spin into their rear foot and vice versa with a goofy stance, but you can spin the other way , mix it up etc

Regular on snowboard & surfboard, doesn’t seem to matter on a bike – I’m rubbish whichever foot points forward 😂

Left handed (if that’s relevant?).

Naturally ride right forward if pedals level. Had no idea of this until Jedi pointed it out to me. Often so dominant with this that I struggle to drop either outside pedal in corners unless I’m properly concentrating.

Only done a little snowboarding but ride left foot forward, although I do get confused a bit as right foot forward feels just as OK.

VERY right-footed on the occasions I play football.

I always lead with my right foot and it feels really unnatural to lead with my left – I expect it throws my body position out and makes me imbalanced. I’m not too bad on the road bike but still prefer right foot leading.

Keep at it.
17 years back I had a really bad injury. 9 months in plaster and many years of physio) and had to learn to ride switch. Almost fully recovered I’m now ambi footed. Jumps, drops and turns.
Regular is still stronger though.

i forced myself to ride with my weaker foot forward, both on the bike and on the board.

i consciously started doing it on long fire road descents, just to get used to it, then on easier bits of trail.. especially when guiding, just to mix things up a bit. years later and i don’t now have a problem leading with my left even though my right feels more natural.

it really helps with tight technical trails when you don’t have time to think about which foot to lead with and tight switchbacks when you preferably want your inside foot to be trailing (helps get more weight over to the rear inside of the bike).

i used to kiteboard lots where you obviously have to lead with whichever foot depending on which way you are going unless you want to ride toeside half the time (which i love doing). because of this i naturally set up my snowboard to have both bindings at the same angle. the GF rides with both feet pointing in the same direction. she is crazy fast, but can’t ride fakie.

I’m goofy on a snowboard and, according to the scuffs on the left chainstay, also goofy on the bike. I can ride left foot forward but only if I consciously make the effort and it doesn’t feel as good.

I’m pretty bad at riding switch on a snowboard.

On a kiteboard and can happily ride either way but my jumping sucks left foot forward.

It’s something I need to work on.

I find this fascinating.
I am right footed kicking a ball, Right handed for any kind of racquet sport but left foot forward on a bike if there is anything jumpy or rough coming up. If i were to ride a ramp it would be a with a left hand rotation, ie. up ramp and rotate anticlockwise.
Makes no sense to me at all.

I (like in snowboarding) are better at sharp turns to the left than the right.

Apparently its a thing, and to do with foot placement.

I vary.

Bike – goofy (right foot forward) but I can just about ride regular if I need to.
Skate – regular (left foot forward), despite my best efforts can’t do knack all switch.
Football – kick with the left.
Duck Hunt on the NES – happy with either hand. Probably slightly right dominant.
Mouse – right hand.
Writing – left hand.
Eating Cornflakes with a spoon – left hand.
Pretending to be knife fighting Fat Mean Steve – right hand. But I can do left too.
10 pin bowling – either, right is probably slightly dominant. Shit with both.

Never thought about this in bike context.

I’m right-footed, but ride a skateboard goofy and have always been right-foot forward for the bike, which I guess is goofy too. The other way on either seems very unnatural.

Also started on a Maverick as first mtb. Maybe they were goofy bikes?

Right handed and right footed here.
On a board, Snow or skate, I’ll lead with my left foot.
On a bike I’ll have my right foot forward unless I’m track standing weirdly.

I’m goofy on a snowboard, but only realised I was the same on my mountainbike during a holiday in New Zealand. I’d hired a Cannondale Rush, I think (this was a good ten years ago), and although it was a lovely light and responsive bike, it fairly blew through its travel with a big lad like me on it and I had quite a few ‘moments’ due to pedal strikes.

Didn’t think anything of it though until I returned the bike to the hire shop a week later and the guy looked at the bike, then me and said, “So you lead with your right foot on descents then?”. The right hand pedal was mashed into the middle, it was practically ‘V’ shaped on both sides.

Yep, I’m goofy on a bike, in more ways than one!

Right handed and I’ve always ridden left foot forward, same on a snowboard but then took up kitesurfing in which you have to be able to ride equally both ways and found that may be I should have been riding RFF all this time – the difference is that you are more back-foot biased on a kite board, rather than front foot / equal on a snowboard. I tried biking with LFF though and it feels really awkward.
Football wise – pretty evenly terrible with both feet.
There must just be a natural preference though, my son is right handed, footed and rides LFF on bike and scooter. I suggested he tried RFF on his bike, just to see how it felt and he didn’t like it so some things already get programmed in early on.

Left foot forwards on pretty much any non-pedally situation except cornering is natural for me.

I can cope to some degree with right foot forward, and do this sometimes on longer descents where the trailing leg takes all the strain and needs a bit of a rest. But it feels pretty funky and I wouldn’t want to go into anything too gnarly like that.

I do occasionally try to ride right foot forward just to get used to it though. Probably should do this more to get better at it.

I’m an ambi-turner. 🙂

But I ride regular.

So whats mongo on a bike?

I’m regular on a snowboard, skateboard & surfboard.

Can ride switch on snowboard ok, but not as confident as riding regular.

But like others I’m also ‘right-foot-forward’ on the bike for track-stands, drops, berms and jumps.

Also much better as doing lefthanded switch-backs. Been trying to get better at left-foot-forward but it doesn’t seem to work in the same way as riding switch on a snowboard does …

So whats mongo on a bike

Getting on and scootching along from the drive-side? 🙂

Trackstands I’m ambifooted, as I had some toe overlap on a previous commuter, so put my right foot forward (which works the way I can trackstand well, to the right, suitable for most UK road cambers at lights – I’ve definitely been working on trackstands the other way and I’m getting there..)

Don’t Ski or Board but right footed but always ride left foot attack
Can’t for the life of me ride right foot forward,so weird it drives me nuts

I ride boards goofy, but have put a lot of time into riding switch. On the bike I deliberately try to mix up my leading front when riding straight in to things or coasting. (For corners I always try for outside foot down.)

Regular on both bikes and boards.

After many, many years of guiding bikes in the Alps and encouraging people to “switch feet” for switchbacks, I’m now almost ambifootstrous on the bike. Likewise, after many years of both training myself and teaching snowboarding (and hence riding the same way as goofy clients!) I’m pretty equal on the snowboard as well.

Took a long, long time though! Still some things which don’t feel right switch. Powder on a snowboard is just wrong switch. On a bike, my jump skills are sketchy enough the right way round…

Glad I found this thread. Right handed, right footed (although I could use my left reasonably well when I played football) and I ride right foot forward, and turn way more naturally and comfortably to the left. I also have been having a bit of an issue with my back, lower right side.
I recently read an article about switching your stance as often as possible whilst riding to “balance up” the muscles, so I gave it a try. Quite a bizarre sensation, a completely unnatural feeling and a rather rapid realisation that the muscles I need to ride that way were nowhere near strong enough! I’ll be trying to ride this way as often as I can now, but only when it’s safe as I don’t feel in control! Hopefully it will help with the back pain too..

Isn’t it called your ‘chocolate foot’ on the bike, or in BMX talk anyway?

I tend to ride with my right foot forward on the bike, but am regular (left foot forward) when snowboarding*, surfing or skating. I’m also right handed/footed if that makes a difference.

*I can ride switch though, but nowhere near as well as I can the right way round. Always set my bindings up duck footed (equal angles front and back) and ride a twin tip board at the moment.

I can ride boards (snowboard set up symmetrical, I was taught/learned that way) regular or switch but am regular on a bike. I try to switch over on the bike on trails I know (Chopwell) to balance it up a bit, it does feel really weird though, like I’m one panic away from an emergency dental appointment 😆

Left foot forward, left ball hangs lower. This is the way.

Regular on a snowboard. Massively prefer frontside spins (spinning off heels) which I think comes from riding bikes and spinning in the direction of my back (left) foot as described above.

So IMHO I don’t think snowboarding regular/goofiness is related to chocolate footedness (related: that phrase MUST be said in a German Hans Rey accent) but spins are related to chocolate foot.

I am comfortable on a bike right-foot forwards but when I try and ride with left foot forwards I feel like I’m doing the splits – my feet feel a mile apart! Goofy snowboarding feels OK to me. But then there’s a ‘point’ to goofy snowboarding – there’s very little benefit in being able to ride bikes ‘wrong’ foot forward.

Thing is, you can be a regular footed surfer and be front foot dominant or back foot dominant. I imagine that it is the foot dominance that affecting biking more than natural or goofy footedness?

I’m a regular foot surfing, used to be very front foot dominant, less so now. always start a race with left foot clipped in and ready to go. I’ve not noticed otherwise, will keep an eye out next time I ride.

Question for the snowboarders just out of curiosity; do you ever use chair and draglifts switch?

And another question for all the bikers who are regular footed for board sports but lead with the right foot on a bike: Is your brake setup UK or Euro?

Switch on a draglift only when the base station is set up so that normal would be awkward, which isn’t often, or if I’m doubling up on a narrow T bar.

I’m right handed & footed, for skate and snow I’m goofy, comfortable riding and landing switch but don’t do it unthinkingly, if that makes sense. For bikes my left is my chocolate foot. Trackstanding I could stand all day chocolate foot forward, with my right forward it’s fine but I find I have to think about it.

Brakes on MTB and CX bikes is UK, road bikes are all Euro.

Goofy on a skateboard, Right foot forward on a bike, but goofy on a bike (BMX at least) is top foot back when you turn in your favoured direction. On a bike you can be goofy or regular for both left and right foot forward…
I’m regular on a bike, so prefer to turn left with right foot forward.

I’m goofy, right chocolate, RH rear brake so all wrong but can ride switch, fakie and reverse chocolate but NEVER GO MONGO.

All my brakes are uk.

Try to avoid drag lifts generally bit wouldn’t fancy one switch, although it could be good practice..

Yes always seems to be left foot at 9o clock position

I save my right leg for max kicking leverage against loose dogs

😜

Bike left foot forwards is my default. I can do tech switch (but as a conscious decision, either for the challenge or on a long alpine descent, for the respite in the muscles.) Jumping and landing, 100% left forwards.

Flat corners is outer foot down, berms I’ve always done left forward but i’m trying to correct this by going inner foot back. Still got to really think about this, and almost always involuntarily transition back to left forwards when back on the straight.

Would always ride a board goofy (right forward) and noticeably prefer this side on a windsurfer.

was equally bad with both at football, a rugby ball would always be on the left foot.

And another question for all the bikers who are regular footed for board sports but lead with the right foot on a bike: Is your brake setup UK or Euro?

I’m the opposite of this, but my bikes are UK and always will be. Learned behaviour since age 3 (though not proper MTBing until my mid 20s) is going to trump any slight dominant handedness.