Different Pedal Platform Sizes?

alistaird

All,

I am prone to numb toes! It has taken a good few types of ski boots and insoles to be able to ski without numb toes and they even go numb driving with some shoes or in certain positions with pressure on the ball of my foot with no shoes on...

I am wondering if trying pedals with a larger platform might help?

I current ride using the now discontinued M2 Racer Orb pedals:



I'm wondering if a more conventional pedal like these:



might help?

But in my mind (though I could easily be wrong hence my question...) if I have a very stiff carbon soled shoe, does the size of the pedal platform make any difference?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated, but can we please keep this discussion to pedals and not shoes?

peter101cycle

I have always used Look pedals for the last 20 years and swear by them......check out the Keo 2's.

Just one thing about shoes, overly stiff soles will contribute to the numb toes feeling.....check out the Sidi Ergo 2's, expensive and stiff soles, but they are made to flex as well (I ride with these and you can pick up a 2010 model cheaper on the web). Also, don't overtighten the shoes on your feet.

maddog 2

those pedals are cool.

I'd be tempted to look at insoles and shoes, rather than pedals. Numbness is presumably due to restricted blood flow so something needs to free that up somehow.

I run the Spesh shoes and insoles and they are excellent. Even on something tough like the Marmotte where you are climbing for about 6 hours they were nice to my feet.

alistaird

I know from my experience with ski boot fitting, the numbness has two possible causes in my case:

pressure from the outsides of the feet compressing the nerve (too narrow shoes/boot) pressure on the middle front of of the foot compressing the nerve.

I can comfortably wiggle my toes in my shoes and sit in them for an hour without any problem so I think they are wide enough. I have put the insoles from my ski boots in them which were made to stop the arch collapsing. These insoles remove the pressure on the middle front of the foot.

I think the problem stems from the small area of pressure from the pedal being in just the wrong place for my foot. I'm having a bike fit next week which may well move the cleats which I guess could sort the problem out but I was wondering if a broader platform pedal would spread the load on the front of my foot?

thespanishadam

It sounds obvious but have you tried moving the cleat position?

alistaird

thespanishadam wrote:

It sounds obvious but have you tried moving the cleat position?

I have centred the cleats at the moment, initially I had then set much further back. I'm just getting back into this Cycling lark and was only doing short distances with the cleats further back. Now my rides are over an hour (and getting longer) the problem is more obvious. I was going to wait until after the bike fit next week to see where the cleats ended up and to try it. It was just a thought though, that larger platforms might make cleat position less important for the pressure points on my feet.

peter101cycle

A larger pedal should help - think about it this way, all the power from your leg is currently going through a narrow spindle of a peddle. Bigger peddle should equate to distributed power from the leg over a wider area.

If in doubt, get a really cheap knackered Look pedal from ebay for a tenner and try them for a ride or two. If you get on with them and it feels better, you can always get a more expensive brand new version.

LBS may allow you to try but not generally for a long enough time.

alistaird

peter101cycle wrote:

A larger pedal should help - think about it this way, all the power from your leg is currently going through a narrow spindle of a peddle. Bigger peddle should equate to distributed power from the leg over a wider area.

If in doubt, get a really cheap knackered Look pedal from ebay for a tenner and try them for a ride or two. If you get on with them and it feels better, you can always get a more expensive brand new version.

LBS may allow you to try but not generally for a long enough time.

That's a good idea, I'll look into that (no pun intended...)

huuregeil

Alistair,

I think the issue is with your insoles, not the pedal. With a decent road shoe, sole stiffness should be suffiicient to make the platform area a small effect at most. If you have high arches, this is going to be way more significant in affecting the pressure distribution on your feet. I'd look at getting custom insoles done, and be done with it! That was the only thing that sorted out my partner's numb toes issue.

Pending that, the other thing you might like to consider is pedaling style. If you're a stomper, it might be worth trying to develop a smoother and more continuous pedalling style as this reduces the peak load on the down phase of the pedal stroke. Single leg pedalling drills are your friend.

on-yer-bike

Cleats as far back as possible solved it for me. I had custom insoles made, I bought spez insoles, wedges. but moving the cleats back did it. I use Speedplay pedals.

alistaird

huuregeil wrote:

Alistair,

I think the issue is with your insoles, not the pedal. With a decent road shoe, sole stiffness should be suffiicient to make the platform area a small effect at most. If you have high arches, this is going to be way more significant in affecting the pressure distribution on your feet. I'd look at getting custom insoles done, and be done with it! That was the only thing that sorted out my partner's numb toes issue.

Pending that, the other thing you might like to consider is pedaling style. If you're a stomper, it might be worth trying to develop a smoother and more continuous pedalling style as this reduces the peak load on the down phase of the pedal stroke. Single leg pedalling drills are your friend.

I've tried my custom insoles which support the arch really well but they don't seem to make much difference I'm afraid. I will try the smoother pedal cycling though.. Thanks.

alistaird

on-yer-bike wrote:

Cleats as far back as possible solved it for me. I had custom insoles made, I bought spez insoles, wedges. but moving the cleats back did it. I use Speedplay pedals.

I might well try this and see. It certainly feels like the pedal is in the worst possible place at the moment.

alistaird

I've tried moving the cleats as far back as they will go and also with and without custom footbeds and neither helps.

I might try a cheap 'eBayed' pair of Look or Time pedals and see what they feel like...