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How Important Q Factor is in setup and kudos to Cyclelab


Paul Ruinaard

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So here is the story.

 

I bought a new tandem for the wife and I to ride together and got a setup thrown in as well , all from Cyclelab. As per usual I had been setting all my bikes up myself for years, so i decided, what the hell, lets do them and the wife's bikes.

 

Now up until this I had been having endless hassles with what can only be described as a crushing feeling on the outside of my feet on longer rides. After an Argus, 94 or ride like that I would hobble for days. It was really painful, like my feet had been clamped in a shoe too tight. But it wasnt the case. Shoes were loose. 

 

What to do? I changed shoes and went back to the older shoes (Specialized Sworks MTB) and that didn't seem to work. 

 

Oh and BTW I also had major hassles with my right achilles tendon - it had thickened and was causing something similar to Plantars Fascitis in the heel. Every night when sitting and in the morning when getting out of bed, my heels were painful and tender, like they were burning. I would hobble the first steps every day.

 

I learned to just live with this and kind of accepted it was age. And it was over a 12 to 18 month period that it had happened. I couldn't work it out - i tried everything - shoe build ups etc, physios, massage etc.

 

So to me i was doomed to hobble in the mornings.

 

Now back to the setup.

 

As soon as I was on the bikes he noticed that the Q factor (Width of the pedals/axle length) was wrong. Running Cranks pedals on my bikes you cant adjust this on the shoes. So we put some spacers in behind the pedals. All of about 2 mm on all my bikes.

 

The difference is amazing. After 4 to 5 months - pain is gone, in all forms. I have no burning sensation in my heels, the Achilles tendon on the RHS is normal size and I have no pain in my feet when riding.

 

What i learned is that a very small adjustment in pedal width can have a huge consequence both positive and negative over time, and that a professional setup properly done and one where they take time to listen to what you have as problems and how you ride.

 

So kudos to Cyclelab as well for fixing this and their setup guys for seeing it and fixing it.

 

And whilst we are on this they sold the wife the Sell Italia ladies saddles which fixed the pain for her in another place (not the feet) so she was a smily bunny (although my wallet was lighter as there were three bikes x Selle Italia ladies L2 which is the only saddle she will use now). But peace and quiet is a valuable thing at the end of a long ride.

 

BTW - I use Cranks across all bikes with Specialized shoes. Its not ideal for road but it limits the amount of really expensive shoes you buy. But I ended up buying new shoes as a result of this problem and it still didn't fix it. Sworks anythings are not cheap, but the prospect of pain free riding was even more valuable.

 

This all makes sense in hindsight - if you are applying force square on rather than inwards will have a huge impact over time. And as most of us need our gait corrected there are likely lots of people with these issues. Simple spacers behind the axle on the crank or moving the cleats inwards or outwards on the shoes will solve most of it.

 

And finally - I had to get those spacers turned up by my brother who has a lathe - they are not freely available. Some pedals and cranks have them in. But i would think that someone should start making them in different widths as there are others out there that would benefit.

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