outturned feet, knee pain and pedal extensions...

optimisticbiker

Been increasing the distance ridden on my new road bike and now touching on the 40mile+ distances but I have a problem. My right foot naturally turns out about 10-15degrees and after 30 miles or so my right knee is aching as the SL cleats are holding the foot parallel to the bike. I have tried adjusting the cleat on the base of the shoe but it makes little difference as i can't get enought 'turn', although the heel now catches the rear stay occasionally because I can't bring the shoe far enough forward.

Apart from re-engineering my leg (which seems a tad drastic) what can I do to correct this?... I have read about floating cleats but that wouldnt stop my heel hitting the stay.

Can you get something that extends the pedal outwards by 25mm or so - a washer wouldn't do it, it would need to be something that screws between the pedal and the crank. I had a look but a Google search turned up nothing suitable sourced in the UK

btw, I found these guys http://bikedynamics.co.uk/ that explain the issue on their website perfectly... but dont help with the bits to address it...

Anyone?

sungod

get a proper bike fit by a professional, they can examine how your foot is turning and perhaps correct/reduce it with footbed and/or shims

with speedplay zero pedals you can independently set heel in and heel out, which might help you, but i'd really advise getting a proper assessment first, no point picking up an injury

for instance, there a bg fit place only a few miles from edgware...

http://www.specializedconceptstore.co.u ... &page_id=6

optimisticbiker

@sungod Thanks for that... i was seriously considering getting a proper fit, but I didnt know about the place in Ruislip... or rather I did know about its previous existence but not in its current guise or as a fit centre... as Action Bikes it used to sell BSOs badly (in my limited experienced) so I wonder how they fare now..

Anyway I shall go in there and ask... was going to cycle past Ruislip tomorrow as it happens, its only a short way off my usual 30mile Sunday ride.

sungod

bg fit is a specialized-owned program

they set the standards/training and test/qualify people, so it *ought* to be done properly

Cakegirl

Hi Optimistic

+1 for the Specialized BG Fit.

Also - and apologies if you have thought of this already - would it be worth seeing a physio about the foot turnout? I have about 5 degree turnout on my right and therefore do not recruit my leg muscles evenly on each side, leading to glute and lower back pain. This affects me walking and driving too. My physio (sorry not in your area) has been briliiant about deconstructing muscle movement patterns and strengthening and stabilising me from the ground up. It can be slow, painstaking work but will be more and more worth it as you look to increase distance ad speed. Good luck!

optimisticbiker

@cakegirl - had a BUPA wellman thing (company requirement) in January and the doc there was a sports physio said she could sort that but I never went back to her to find out what it entailed, how much, etc. I might have to do that...

Erudin

I use Kneesavers Pedal Adaptors on my road bikes as my feet need to be toe-out.





http://www.kneesaver.net/

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/kneesavers-pedal-adaptors-prod14725/

These look good, cheaper than Kneesavers:

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/specialized-bg-pedal-item156427.html

optimisticbiker

@Erudin - thats the beasties... thanks for the links... wow they aren't cheap are they.... oh well, needs must....

Peddle Up!

I have this problem too and have investigated various solutions to it, including a full bike fit. I settled on pedal extenders and haven't looked back.

optimisticbiker

@Erudin - the cheaper one should theoretically be available from the Specialized store in Ruislip that do the BG bike fit tho i cant find it on thier website - I wonder if its cheaper because its made of alloy rather than stainless steel

Sadly the store is closed today, but open tomorrow ... just means I'll need to go for another ride tomorrow!

@Peddle Up! - did you actually get a bike fit? If not, how did you set the right cleat angle and what cleats do you use?

Peddle Up!

OptimisticBiker wrote:

@Peddle Up! - did you actually get a bike fit? If not, how did you set the right cleat angle and what cleats do you use?

I have very flat feet and this is the cause of my "toe out" on one side. I have had a full fit, but this only confirmed my solution which was to fit extenders to prevent my heel bashing against the crank. I could get a clearance fit by adjusting my cleats (SPD SL) but while this was OK for rides up to 25 miles, any longer routes would leave me with knee pain the next morning.

After fitting the extenders, I adjusted the cleats to give me a good cycling position, then tweaked them on subsequent rides. During the dynamic bike fit we looked at the effect of further changes, but I had "hit the spot" with my experimentation.

My extenders came from Highpath Engineering (http://www.highpath.net/index.html) and are good quality stainless steel.

Bike fit was undertaken by Mike at Bike Dynamics (http://bikedynamics.co.uk/). Strong reccomendation.

alistaird

Peddle Up! wrote:

My extenders came from Highpath Engineering (http://www.highpath.net/index.html) and are good quality stainless steel.

I was going to suggest these people, I've got some of their chainrings (not fitted them yet) but they look great bits of engineering.

alithinar

OptimisticBiker wrote:

Been increasing the distance ridden on my new road bike and now touching on the 40mile+ distances but I have a problem. My right foot naturally turns out about 10-15degrees and after 30 miles or so my right knee is aching as the SL cleats are holding the foot parallel to the bike. I have tried adjusting the cleat on the base of the shoe but it makes little difference as i can't get enought 'turn', although the heel now catches the rear stay occasionally because I can't bring the shoe far enough forward.

Apart from re-engineering my leg (which seems a tad drastic) what can I do to correct this?... I have read about floating cleats but that wouldnt stop my heel hitting the stay.

Can you get something that extends the pedal outwards by 25mm or so - a washer wouldn't do it, it would need to be something that screws between the pedal and the crank. I had a look but a Google search turned up nothing suitable sourced in the UK

btw, I found these guys http://bikedynamics.co.uk/ that explain the issue on their website perfectly... but dont help with the bits to address it...

Anyone?

Hi OptimisticBiker, I signed up to this forum just now to ask how your setup worked out. I have a similarly severely toed-out right foot and just bought kneesavers online. It looks like you were able to continue using Shimano SL road pedals? How? I turned my cleat all the way out but I can only get about 9 degrees of rotation from that. Im thinking of getting SpeedPlays?

Peddle Up!

alithinar wrote:

Hi OptimisticBiker, I signed up to this forum just now to ask how your setup worked out. I have a similarly severely toed-out right foot and just bought kneesavers online. It looks like you were able to continue using Shimano SL road pedals? How? I turned my cleat all the way out but I can only get about 9 degrees of rotation from that. Im thinking of getting SpeedPlays?

You might be interested in my experience of SpeedPlay pedals. Summary of posts here.

Bar Shaker

I'm going to need these after my leg break. My left foot is now quite turned out.

I use SPD cleats so can get quite a lot of rotation and have a reasonable amount of float too.

Those extenders look perfect!

styxd

alithinar wrote:

OptimisticBiker wrote:

Been increasing the distance ridden on my new road bike and now touching on the 40mile+ distances but I have a problem. My right foot naturally turns out about 10-15degrees and after 30 miles or so my right knee is aching as the SL cleats are holding the foot parallel to the bike. I have tried adjusting the cleat on the base of the shoe but it makes little difference as i can't get enought 'turn', although the heel now catches the rear stay occasionally because I can't bring the shoe far enough forward.

Apart from re-engineering my leg (which seems a tad drastic) what can I do to correct this?... I have read about floating cleats but that wouldnt stop my heel hitting the stay.

Can you get something that extends the pedal outwards by 25mm or so - a washer wouldn't do it, it would need to be something that screws between the pedal and the crank. I had a look but a Google search turned up nothing suitable sourced in the UK

btw, I found these guys http://bikedynamics.co.uk/ that explain the issue on their website perfectly... but dont help with the bits to address it...

Anyone?

Hi OptimisticBiker, I signed up to this forum just now to ask how your setup worked out. I have a similarly severely toed-out right foot and just bought kneesavers online. It looks like you were able to continue using Shimano SL road pedals? How? I turned my cleat all the way out but I can only get about 9 degrees of rotation from that. Im thinking of getting SpeedPlays?

Try some different cleat bolts with a smaller head, these should allow you to rotate the cleat further round.

cattytown

I am similar - right foot points out. Speedplay zero, I was using extenders but have dropped them as I don't seem to be needing as much width.

Paul.

alithinar

Peddle Up! wrote:

alithinar wrote:

Hi OptimisticBiker, I signed up to this forum just now to ask how your setup worked out. I have a similarly severely toed-out right foot and just bought kneesavers online. It looks like you were able to continue using Shimano SL road pedals? How? I turned my cleat all the way out but I can only get about 9 degrees of rotation from that. Im thinking of getting SpeedPlays?

You might be interested in my experience of SpeedPlay pedals. Summary of posts here.

interestingly, I could only get 7.5 degrees of rotation from the speedplay zeroes. I need at least 15.

jgsi

Go retro.. back to track pedals and clips

markp80

alithinar wrote:

Peddle Up! wrote:

alithinar wrote:

Hi OptimisticBiker, I signed up to this forum just now to ask how your setup worked out. I have a similarly severely toed-out right foot and just bought kneesavers online. It looks like you were able to continue using Shimano SL road pedals? How? I turned my cleat all the way out but I can only get about 9 degrees of rotation from that. Im thinking of getting SpeedPlays?

You might be interested in my experience of SpeedPlay pedals. Summary of posts here.

interestingly, I could only get 7.5 degrees of rotation from the speedplay zeroes. I need at least 15.

Have a look at Speedplay X5 pedals, which have unrestricted float.
Cheers,
MarkP