This isn’t “eyeball”, it’s geometric fact.
@old_but_not_dead_yet you understand that a stick figure does not serve (well) to support your unfounded assertion. I know you understand this because your first inclination was to look for research to support your assertion. You didn’t find any but you still posted two unrelated research papers.
Your personal authority on this matter does not rise to the level of proof. Regardless of your mastery of 8th grade geometry (which I applaud you for, of course, good job!). An assertion is baseless without some data to back it up…and so far your assertion is roundly baseless.
I hope in the future that you are able to produce some proof that heel drop during the pedal stroke activates the glutes. I’d be interested to read it. But you just don’t have sufficient gravitas in this field to skate on your assertions alone.
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That’s exactly what everybody said back then! Ha! 
How to unify two crotchety factions, I guess. Make them both feel wrong.
Have you got any inverse dynamics data to support the unfounded assertion that lowering the heel during the pedal stroke activates the glutes? I’d go for that, too.
You know what also opens up hip angle? Raising the saddle. If the angle of the ankle is remaining static (relatively since we know it will move) then raising the saddle will open the hips. Why force a rider to drop their heel to open the hip angle when it’s likely totally unnatural for them to do so?
You’re also totally forgetting torso angle which changes the hip angle. Riding is totally dynamic, position is changing depending on the demands of the moment meaning hip angle is also going to change. Unless the rider is on a TT bike in a fixed position we can’t assume these angles will remain constant.
There appears to be a consensus (excluding [old_but_not_dead_yet]) that heel dropping won’t achieve anything other than possibly injury. Can’t really see why the topic’s dragged on for so long.
Well, you need to understand that I was doing TTs from 10s and 25s to 50s, 100m and 12hrs last year, came top 50 in national 12hr (236m) and top 60 in the BBAR, as well as third in 3 regional TT competitions. I was 61 and it was my second proper year of TTing. I reckon if I can hold a TT position for 12 hrs and come that far up in those competitions I was pretty reasonable. I am not slim so not a aero as many, but i can keep going 
And if you were to look at the before and after pictures, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. He started at the foot and ankle, got the saddle height right, returned to the foot and ankle and cleat position, adjusted that slightly, then fore aft of saddle, then checked ankle and cleats again. When athat was all sorted, he made some very simple changes to the way I was supporting myself at the front end.
Net effect was quite dramatic. I was spinning far easier and felt more aero. To the extent that (despite having 4 months completely off the bike this year) I did a 45m ride on the TT bike and was 8 minutes quicker after the fit than before, for a similar power, and within 1-2 mins of the time I was doing last year (at a lower power). So more comfortable and more aero. I wish I had found him before I did last year’s races :).
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It appears that you have not read the whole thread. Multiple times I have stated “all else being equal”. You will also note that I drew the stick figure with the torso represented by overlapping blue and red, i.e., purple, lines for the torso.
That said, thank you for helping to make my point. As anyone who has ridden in a TT/triathlon position knows, the more you bend over (and move forward), the harder it is to engage the glutes. Conversely, anyone who has ridden an MTB bike, or done any extended climbing on a road bike, knows that sitting up (and sliding back) has the opposite effect.
Many thanks . Certainly gives me something to think about.
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I read the thread. My point is why drop the heel when it’s not natural when you can correct the hip angle by easier and more effective means. If the rider is focused on dropping the heel during the pedal stroke then odds are other areas of their stroke and position will suffer.
I understand what you’re trying to say but I think the method of achieving the more open angle is wrong.
Again, you clearly have not read the whole thread. As I said before, I am generally in favor of pedaling how it feels best (unless that’s on your tippie toes). The point of my original post was to show that there is support for the standard coaching advice to “drop your heel to engage your glutes”. Most people who have been riding a while or since they were young figure that out on their own, but there are still lots of overly analytical MAMILs who can benefit from such advice. After all, if people are going to overthink things, you might as well point them in the right direction.
The advice I got and position i was put in does not “Drop the ankle”. It was “relax the ankle”. So I am not forcing my ankle into any position. I really feel the difference, for my style of riding.
Good point. For sure there is evidence suggesting that raising saddle height increases activation of glute muscles. So there is that.
I hesitate to bump this topic, but…I searched google for any info on heel dropping and glute engagement and found this thread. The reason is that I just by accident discovered that i could substantially increase glute engagement by dropping my heel at the the 6 o’clock position. Some background. I use flat pedals outdoors on my gravel bike, but recently bought a Kickr Bike for indoors, so I’m using Look pedals. I’ve been having a problem of tiring my left quad, right around the right side of the left knee. After 30 minutes of hard pedaling, the knee (quad?) feels like it’s tiring. If I stop for a minute, it goes away. No problem with the right leg though. My thought was that I wasn’t engaging the glutes on the left side enough, hence overworking the quads. I tried all sorts of adjustments, cleat shim, nothing seemed to work well…until I lower the saddle a tiny bit, maybe a quarter inch. To compensate i found myself dropping my heal…and I really substantially increased left leg glute contribution. I searched to learn whether this was something ill-advised…It seems like some think it’s a good technique! I did one ride trying to develop the technique. I find the technique works best if I imagine I am thrusting the entire lower leg with the heel leading, behind the bottom bracket, pushing, rather than “pedaling in a circle.” I’m not sure how low the heel is actually going using the technique. I’ll video it next time. So…anyone else doing something similar?
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