I recently visited Jake Mestre, a friend and racer on the University of Nevada Reno Cycling Team for a bike fit. Jake just got a new replacement Cervelo and wanted to have his position dialed in for max power; I told him that our fits are dialed in for max comfort which leads to max power. Jake rides Specialized BG shoes and when I saw him riding I noticed that his knees where way in close to the top tube. The handy FFMD gave the the indication that Jake could benefit from having 1 or 2 wedges placed under his shoes. When he took off his shoes what did I find? A 1.5mm valgus wedge in there, but wait the FFMD indicated he was a varus!!! Was the Specialized valgus wedge placed in there to offset the 1.5mm of varus that the shoes have? Was the previous fitter's idea to bring back the foot to a 0 degree tilt without even measuring the actual fore foot tilt?
Once the wedges were placed under his soles, he got back on the bike and voila`, the knee was tracking pretty much perfectly. Unfortunately due to Jake's size 47 shoe, going for a shorter Speedplay spindle length is not an option as the width of his shoes offer no clearance between the inside of the shoe and the crank arm. We were able to fine-tune the tracking by moving the cleat outwards to allow the foot to come further in and get even a better alignment.
Furthermore this adjustment changed his fore/aft position on the saddle - he moved backwards, which allowed us to move his saddle forward on the rails and made his reach even better. Before the bike fit Jake was contemplating moving to a 120 stem, but now he did not have to. With this slight move forward his arm/shoulder/back angle was a nice 90 degrees vs 92-94 before hand.
While placing 2 wedges is a drastic adjustment for someone that pedals in a completely different fashion, a short adaptation time will be key to make sure that his body gets used to the new foot/pedal position. Keep you eyes open if you are going to be competing against Jake in any of the collegiate races out West or during the 24 Ore di Feltre in Italy this summer.
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Hi Paul,
ReplyDeleteThe varus wedge built into the Specialized shoes outsole is this 1.5 degree tilt just at the front of the shoe or does it run the whole length of the shoe?
The reason I ask is my podiatrist has created me custom orthotics footbed for my very high arches (the green specialized soles have not enough support). He wants to cancel out the varus wedge for now to see the affect of orthotics so I suggested to use the specialized valgus shim to do this but he seemd to think this wasnt the right way and to fit one of your bike cleat wedges which Cylefit in the UK supplied to me recently.
So which method will cancel the varus wedge so the sole and foot are now flat/neutral?
Just to let you know I am a speedplay pedal user and have just examined both sets of speedplay pedals one set on my winter bike and
the other on my summer bike and have found their is later rock/play of about 3-4 degrees. The yellow spring housing of the cleat can tilt and touch the pedal housing.
I have had both sets for 3 years used 6 months each year and they both have 15,000 miles on them. I change my cleats regularly.
I am currently having phsyio due to sore qauds, tightness in IT band and numbness in foot. Issues started to appear slowly over a one year period when I swapped from my 200O model Time Equipe shoes to Specialised 2009 S works shoes in Feb 2009.
Cheers
Hello Cyclists,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the e-mail. First regarding the shoes, Specialized tells us that the tilt in their shoes is 1.5mm. I will not even attempt to say what that really means in degrees. The area of the shoe that you mention is indeed the forward portion or front of the shoe.
What really has my interest is why did the podiatrist want to cancel out this tilt? Your e-mail gives no reason or indication. This would be a rare approach so I would prefer to know why before giving a response.
Regarding your pedals - I am guessing much of the reason you now have rocking is because you do not have a neutral forefoot (as is being indicated to some degree with the limit amount of information presented so far). Equipment wearing out unevenly is a classic sign of forefoot tilt. We see it EVERYDAY. Most importantly it is clearly time for new pedals. Once you put them on have a look at the inner circle of the cleat after one ride. Make a note about where you see the wear marks on the inner circle of the cleat. I am betting you will see more wear toward the outside – not even wear and not toward the inside of the foot.
My guess if your IT issue has nothing to the shoes Specialized shoes are fine and perhaps one of the better shoes on the market. I would prefer the Specialized over the Time shoe most days. IT bands are often tight on most people. I don’t think I have ever seen a loose one.
You also mention numbness in the foot – when? While you sleep? I am guessing that is not the case but when this happens might be helpful. Also where does it go numb? The outer portion on the bottom of the foot or some other place? One foot or both? Which makes me wonder if one pedal rocks more than the other? Knowing this may help and could possibly give us a clue for the solution.
Hello again and thanks for the reply.
ReplyDeleteYour right my post on the bloke is limited so wlll generate questions. ;).
So to answer your first question why does my podiatrist want to cancel out the varus wedge? From memory his answer was to start from a neutral position then to examine
me whilst riding to seethe affect the orthotics are having on me regarding my toe numbness/hot spot in ball of foot and the position of my knees whilst cycling. The feet issue were happening in both feet plus the soreness in my quads and inner/outer thighs in both legs.
At this point of time my physio and podiatrist were not aware of the later rocking in my pedals nor when my physio took me to have Phil @ Cyclefit look at my cleat positioning. To be fair I only had 30 mins with Phil. This lateral play was not also picked up during my 2 hour Retul session. The fitter never looked at my pedals or cleats for wear. The wear was spotted by me this week after looking on the web and i found some info on peal wear for Speedplay zero's.
I have spoken to Jules @ Cyclefit on the phone and agrees there is a misalignment with my body so i will feed this info back to my physio and podiatrist who work with Cyclefit and hope to have my next session with all three.
I've been able to borrow a set of Speedplay zero pedals with 1000 miles on them and will look at the inner circle of the cleat.