if you duders are moving your cleats around be sure and readjust your saddle.
on that note, i moved my cleats forward a bit
climbing out of the saddle, feels good man.
[quote=zombie]"If you want to position the centre of the ball of the foot over the pedal axle, almost all shoes on the market will allow that. Remember though, that while your foot is a lever it is an inefficient one because the fulcrum of that lever is back at the ankle. Most riders will perform better and feel more solid and stable on the pedals if they position the ball of their foot slightly in front of the pedal axle.
Basically, the further back the cleat is positioned on the shoe, the greater the ability to maintain an effort because the torque curve of the rider becomes flatter. But like everything else in life, you don’t get something for nothing. The further back the cleat is on the shoe, the less your ability to jump really hard in a sprint.
For most road riders, Audax riders, triathletes and others who ride long distances, a rearward cleat position is usually the better option. If you are a speed demon in the local crits, then it is your sprint and ability to jump hard that needs to be maximised and so the converse is true."[/quote]
This is what Sheldon and even Rivendell have been saying for years. I’ve always put my cleats back as far as possible and never had any problems or suffered a lack of speed. I’ve definitely messed around with putting my cleats further forward, but always felt like I was losing power. I also use 172.5 cranks on my 50cm bikes because I strongly believe that it increases my power on the down-stoke, but that’s irrelevant here.
weird i feel like i have the most power with the cleat slightly in front of the ball of my foot
then again, i do mostly short rides, and sprint a lot (or do big ass hill climbs these days)
Very nice post you’ve made here, very usuful information. thank you.
EPIC FIRST POST!!!
This “nike”… tell me about it.
and Shox Rival, is that a new SRAM group?
I ride with my cleats ever so slightly behind the ball of the foot, but it varies from left to right foot cuz different foot lengths/differing leg lengths.
subtle spam post
I love how spammers get us re-hashing old conversations. It’s like using a prompting robot at a social mixer.
seems like you should solve this with shims under the cleat.
There’s a school of experts who would say that, and then there’s a school who would say if it doesn’t cause you pain or problems, don’t do anything.
I’ll probably eventually get it shimmed, but only by a fitter. I’m not trying to fuck shit up real bad doing it myself. No dinero para bike fitter right now though.
Have my cleats all the way back, works well for me.
The best roadie shop in town suggested that if you’re having numbness, move the cleat such that the platform of the pedal is more centered under the area going numb. So if your outer toes are going numb, for example, move the cleats outwards on the shoe to get the pedal more under the toes.
This assumes you have cleats allowing this kind of adjustment.
I also find that how much I spin (or not) greatly influences whether or not I have knee pain after a longer ride, or a ride with mostly hill climbing. More spinning = less pain every time.
i have my cleat as forward as they can go. i feel a little more agile in traffic when i’m on my toes. that and i had a little bit of toeverlap when i still had a front fender.
I have my cleats slammed to the back, FGM but i do have toeverlap with my 32s and fenders.
Cleats further back for me, too. I miss the power that comes from the engagement of the calf muscles, but I don’t miss the plantar fasciitis.
^ plus a milli
Now that I’ve gotten one side shimmed (6mm added under one foot), I have a lot less knee pain. Mostly just hurts when I ride in the cold, esp rainy cold, but I’m pretty sure that happens to just about everyone.
I put clips and straps back on my other bike though, which is kinda fuckin’ me up because cuz throwing me back out of alignment.
Only had pain on cold rides when I rode without knee warmers, personally.
Knee warmers aren’t always enough for me I guess. I haven’t ridden bare-kneed since early cross season.
Just ride for a week on BMX platform pedals and experiment with where you like your feet to touch the pedals. That’s what I did, and I adjusted my cleats accordingly and, with a bit of extremely minor tweaking, have never felt better on my road bike. This is after messing around a lot with cleat positioning and it never even occurring to me that I would like them pretty far back. Also, apparently, not caring enough to do a google search.
I had a (somewhat literal) journey of discovery when I rode some fire roads and some singletrack on the Stumpjumper last Saturday, this time paying careful attention to where I was putting my feet down on the pedals. My observations were pretty much in line with what everyone has been saying in this thread. Also confirmed my love of BMX platform pedals for mountain biking. The terrain is always changing and when you need to spin and spin and spin on a long-ish climb, you might want your feet in a different position than when you’re charging hella hard up a short climb or through fast sections. Makes bunnyhopping a little bit harder, since you actually have to try, but the Stumpjumper’s not much of a bunnyhopper to start with.