Cleat Position

[samson99]

I recently changed my old cleats for new ones but now my feet are getting sore. i have deduced that my cleats are in the incorrect position. is there a way of determining where the cleats should sit for each foot (both mtb and road)?

 

 

 

appreciate any help.

[turtlek]

as far into the middle of your foot as possible and on the ball of your foot

[SwissVan]

 

Turtlek sums it up in one sentence, I got a whole chapter for you...

 

There are a few different theories regarding cleat positioning and basically boils down to experimenting and finding what works for you. You don?t say where your feet are hurting (sides, toes or bottom of foot) but it sounds like your feet are working against your shoes due to the cleats not allowing your feet to move into their natural position.

<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Toe in or out

The cleats need to be positioned so that your feet are in a natural position when pedaling. This may be slightly toe in or toe out (Duck like or pigeon toed) and one foot may not necessarily be the same as the other.

The easiest way to achieve this is with cleats that have some float (a few degrees of movement) instead of cleats which are fixed (zero float). Cleats with float will allow your feet to move slightly towards their natural position and means you don?t have to get the cleat positioning 100% right.

Set your cleats so that a line from your heel to middle toe is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the bike.

Go ride and after warming up increase speed while watching your feet and feeling which way they tend to go, ideally you should feel like they are in a neutral position and there is slight room for movement left or right if you twist your heel slightly.

This may require taking the necessary tools with on a ride and stopping to make adjustments, or riding on  an IDT at home which much easier than making adjustments out on the road

 

Cleat fore / aft position

Start off by finding the ball of your foot and marking this on the side of your shoe so that you can see it while riding. The ball of your foot is found by feeling for the large knuckle joint behind your big toe just where you feel a slight bulge on the side of the foot. The centre of this metatarsal joint or head is the centre of the ball of your foot and this portion needs to be above or slightly forward ( 0 ? 10mm) of the centre of the pedal axle when viewed from above when the crank arm is parallel to the ground and in the forward position (9 o clock).

 

Cleat sideward?s position

Basic rule of thumb is the narrower your hips the closer to the crank and wider your hips further away from the crank.

Try start of roughly in the middle of the range available, your shoe should not make contact with the cranks or chain stays while pedaling.

 

Remember to mark the position once the cleats are positioned correctly with a permanent marker by tracing around the edges of the cleat incase they move later or you need to change them.

 

 

[turtlek]

Swissvan i am the simple minded type why prolong the inevitable if it can be done in three seconds and be right!!!!!!! why waste time in reading a whole page of stuff that confuses you or takes you back to your cleat position is wrong!!!!!

 

 

 

so in short while the toe in and toe out stuff is a good thing to know you will never have it perfect unless you have a millimetrical measure under your foot attached to the pedals that will be attached to your cleat while you ride so that you find the ultimate riding position and cleat position

 

 

 

so unless you know exactly how many degrees your foot will be out at each part of the pedal stroke i dont really think it is worth worrying about the toe in and out thing unless you do the hokey pokey because that is when your toes and legs should be in or out

[SwissVan]

Swissvan i am the simple minded type why prolong the inevitable if it can be done in three seconds and be right!!!!!!! why waste time in reading a whole page of stuff that confuses you or takes you back to your cleat position is wrong!!!!!

so in short while the toe in and toe out stuff is a good thing to know you will never have it perfect unless you have a millimetrical measure under your foot attached to the pedals that will be attached to your cleat while you ride so that you find the ultimate riding position and cleat position

so unless you know exactly how many degrees your foot will be out at each part of the pedal stroke i dont really think it is worth worrying about the toe in and out thing unless you do the hokey pokey because that is when your toes and legs should be in or out

 

These things are worth worrying about if you have a problem with your feet, then you need to have a method to try and find a position which is comfortable and provides an effective pedaling platform.

 

No need to measure anything in mm's or degrees, my suggestions are just a starting point and the correct position is what works for you.

 

You'd be suprised how many people dont know how to find the ball of their foot or think that both feet have to be in the same position.

 

 

 

 

[niterider]

+1 SwissVan

[Bike Mob]

Swissvan i am the simple minded type why prolong the inevitable if it can be done in three seconds and be right!!!!!!! why waste time in reading a whole page of stuff that confuses you or takes you back to your cleat position is wrong!!!!!

so in short while the toe in and toe out stuff is a good thing to know you will never have it perfect unless you have a millimetrical measure under your foot attached to the pedals that will be attached to your cleat while you ride so that you find the ultimate riding position and cleat position

so unless you know exactly how many degrees your foot will be out at each part of the pedal stroke i dont really think it is worth worrying about the toe in and out thing unless you do the hokey pokey because that is when your toes and legs should be in or out

 

It is well worth taking the extra time and setting this up as precisely as possible. Small adjustments can mean the difference between hundreds of happy kays, or excruciating knee pain.

 

Ask me. I know.

[djvr]

Had the same problem on my new shoes. I am no guru but what worked for me was,

 

 

 

Yes determine the ball of your foot and mark on shoe

 

Go for a ride. While rideding lift your toes and feel where the presure is while pedeling. Abjust till you feel the pressure on the ball of your foot.

 

 

 

Like I said no guru but my toes went numb and since Ive done this no prob.

 

 

[samson99]

Thanks guys. tonight is dedicated to fixing the problem.

[turtlek]

Swissvan i am the simple minded type why prolong the inevitable if it can be done in three seconds and be right!!!!!!! why waste time in reading a whole page of stuff that confuses you or takes you back to your cleat position is wrong!!!!! so in short while the toe in and toe out stuff is a good thing to know you will never have it perfect unless you have a millimetrical measure under your foot attached to the pedals that will be attached to your cleat while you ride so that you find the ultimate riding position and cleat position so unless you know exactly how many degrees your foot will be out at each part of the pedal stroke i dont really think it is worth worrying about the toe in and out thing unless you do the hokey pokey because that is when your toes and legs should be in or out

 

 

 

 

?

 

These things are worth worrying about if you have a problem with your feet' date=' then you need to have a method to try and find?a position which is comfortable and provides an effective pedaling platform.

 

?

 

No need to measure anything in mm's or degrees, my suggestions are just a starting point and the correct position is what works for you.

 

?

 

You'd be suprised how many people dont know how to find the ball of their foot or think that both feet have to be in the same position.

 

?

 

?

 

?

 

?

[/quote']

 

 

 

thats where float comes into play as explained in your first post (toe in and out)

 

 

 

and yes the correct position comes over time and you cant just go ahead and change them from one extreme to the next as many individuals do so very often

 

 

 

and if someone does not know how to find ball of thier foot is they needed to listen more when they were in grade one (no offence meant to anyone at all)

 

 

 

 

[SwissVan]

Swissvan i am the simple minded type why prolong the inevitable if it can be done in three seconds and be right!!!!!!! why waste time in reading a whole page of stuff that confuses you or takes you back to your cleat position is wrong!!!!! so in short while the toe in and toe out stuff is a good thing to know you will never have it perfect unless you have a millimetrical measure under your foot attached to the pedals that will be attached to your cleat while you ride so that you find the ultimate riding position and cleat position so unless you know exactly how many degrees your foot will be out at each part of the pedal stroke i dont really think it is worth worrying about the toe in and out thing unless you do the hokey pokey because that is when your toes and legs should be in or out

 

These things are worth worrying about if you have a problem with your feet' date=' then you need to have a method to try and find a position which is comfortable and provides an effective pedaling platform.

 

No need to measure anything in mm's or degrees, my suggestions are just a starting point and the correct position is what works for you.

 

You'd be suprised how many people dont know how to find the ball of their foot or think that both feet have to be in the same position.

 

 

 

 

[/quote']

thats where float comes into play as explained in your first post (toe in and out)

and yes the correct position comes over time and you cant just go ahead and change them from one extreme to the next as many individuals do so very often

and if someone does not know how to find ball of thier foot is they needed to listen more when they were in grade one (no offence meant to anyone at all)

 

Is that what they teach in Grade one now? What happened to Engleesh??

 

"and if someone does not know how to find ball of thier foot is they needed to listen more when they were in grade one (no offence meant to anyone at all"

 

[turtlek]

hahahahahahahahahaha swiss do you want me to answer that (my sister is studying to become an engleesh teacher)

 

 

 

and what i meant by that is your basic motor skills require the use of the ball of your foot and when i was in grade one i sure remember the teacher doing stretches and stuff with us so that we learent the different parts of our bodies

[SwissVan]

 

Did they also teach cleat relacement 1.0 ?

 

 

[turtlek]

?

 

Did they also teach cleat relacement 1.0 ?

 

?

 

?

 

 

 

nope my teacher in that regard was someone that works at cycle lab that people were all complimenting the other day namely Richard lee

[APJ88]

for whom it may concern - i replaced my dura-ace pedals a few weeks ago with speedplay zero pedals, and im very happy with them, had a slight left leg problem, and that is solved now.

[Overlord]

From old cleats to new then there should be marks on his shoes from the old cleats.

If he is using the same pedals and with the old cleats he had no problems could any of you 2 wise guys tell me why his new cleats should be placed on a different place on the shoe?