Leg Length - To Shim or not to Shim?

It is not every day I really see obvious leg length issues. However, anytime someone comes to us and says they have this issue, I ask several questions to absolutely make sure. I prefer to have many signs showing the issue so I can build a case before adding a Leg Length Shim of any size.


This person presented one of the most obvious cases I have seen in some time. So just for kicks in our training we decided to look at this from all sorts of views. One of the views we had the cyclist stand against the wall. We projected a laser line direct splitting his legs in half and upward past his head. You will see most people try to get their head back to center. Here his head indeed does that but it is not even close to being centered.

It can be interesting to look at people and seeing how symmetrical or balanced they appear to be. This cyclist pedaled for over 20 years without a Leg Length Shim. For the first time had a heel lift put in his walking shoes only a few weeks prior to these photos (standing photos are without his heel lift).



Here is his Leg Length shim in white - LL Shim complements of Steve Hogg - we like to call the Hogg shims "Hoggies"
Here are the notes from this bike fit. Some of the buzz words he used during the major changes in his fit were: WOW - CENTERED -EVEN

When you hear these comments and buzz words in a bike fit you know you are going in the right direction!

Happy Pedals