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I've managed to break my bike frame, and after doing some reading, it is possible that I'm not pedaling correctly by putting too much into my power stroke (see the related question I keep breaking my road frames - why?).
What is the correct technique to pedal, and what is the best way to get up to speed without causing too much stress to the bike frame?
Short answer: It sounds pretty unbelievable to me, but you could try pedalling with easier gears and spinning legs faster instead of applying lots of power.
There's a lot of theories about correct ways to pedal and different ways to do it, and different equipment setups that can either help you do it right or help you learn to do it right. But unless you're worried about small differences (like for competitive riding), it can be kept relatively simple. I'm sure we have some users who can talk more about specific pedaling techniques.
The easier gear thing should be fairly obvious. You can get the same power by pedaling faster in a lower gear. This should reduce the strain on the bottom bracket area. Don't power through a tough gear when starting up, downshift while slowing down.
There's a tendency for some people to "mash" the pedal from a bit in front of the top of the stroke down to about the bottom. Often with a substantial side-to-side weight shift. That will always be the most powerful part of your pedal stroke, but try to also use the top of the stroke and the bottom. That kind of mashing seems likely to be harder on the frame. Try to push the pedal over the top and scrape it across the bottom.
As far as fighting your own pedal power: on the back side of the stroke, try to lift your foot a bit. Don't lift so much that your foot actually comes off of a platform pedal (this is an advantage of clips or clipless systems). Most people leave a fair amount of weight on the back pedal and they're pushing against it with the front pedal. If you provide some lift to the rear foot you'll go faster and produce less total downward force on the bottom bracket. Especially if you're clipped in, it might feel like you're pulling the rear pedal up.
Standing puts your weight all on the bottom bracket and handlebars. The bike is designed to have a good portion of your weight on the saddle. Occasionally standing shouldn't be a problem, but doing it too often is a common bad habit and hard on the bike.
'Spinning' is the idea that the momentum of the legs is maintained through using a slightly higher gear than you might be able to push it with. So you'll be trying to maintain an almost constant rhythm, you don't push explicitly - or if you do, you're matching it with a pull on the other side. By constant I mean both rev to rev, but almost within the revolution, pushing harder (even on both sides) is going to be accelerating and slowing down within each stroke - maintenance of speed and momentum is generally easier than creation.
Too much power is a slightly bizarre, but completely credible idea: if you're pedalling 80 or 100 revs per minute, or even slightly higher, you should be trying to keep each rev the same. Pushing significantly harder for a few revs (or parts of revs) won't make a massive speed difference, but will hurt you and possibly your bike!
Straight away, a quick observation is that these styles will only really work if you're clipped in (or maybe with straps).
You are going to break you before you break a bike frame - with bad pedaling !
