Another indicator of an uneven connection to the bike.

Do you remember to take out the insoles and look for wear when you do a bike fit? You might be amazed at some of the things you will see. In this photo it is extremely clear that this person put a lot of pressure on the outer part of the foot. However, in order to produce maximal force you need to have the first and second toe/ray involved.

Keep in mind viewing someone dynamically only, no matter what system is used or how expensive it is, you might not see any indicators of this uneven wear at the foot. You need to also assess the foot off the bike and of course examine the equipment – insole, cleat and/or pedal.

The Bicycle Fitting System Manual

Do not buy this product at this link
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bicycle-Fitting-System-Manual-New-/160508654241
We offer it much cheaper and we are the source.

Happy Pedals

Famous shoes and 7 BikeFit Cleat Wedges

4 Cleat Wedges right and 3 Cleat Wedges left

Do you know who owns these shoes?

Hint- One of the most influential people in the bike fitting world.
How many wedges do you use?

An ITS Wedge story - question 3 from post below

3) Should I cut your product to the proper size? I have a size 43 shoe and I am using the uncut 10 - 11 size ITS wedge. I am kind of afraid to cut them because I am getting a great result now. Will they work better if cut?


Phil,


In general, the size 10-11 will work for most people that have a 43 shoe size. However, your guide should be where the ball of the foot is located on top of the wedge. If the ball of the foot is behind the thickest area, you would need the next larger size wedge.  The opposite of this would be where the ball of the foot is in front of the thickest part of the wedge. If this is the case, you may need to trim the front or get the next size smaller ITS wedge.

You were happy with results thus far. So, I can understand why you might not want to cut them. Because of your honest and thorough feedback we will be glad to send you an extra set of the original orange ITS wedges to do with as you please. We will also throw in some cleat wedges because the cleat wedge is almost always preferred. Specialized does not offer a cleat wedge…yet!

Who is that?

On my way to Des Moines Iowa for some bike fit education training I had a very brief layover in Denver. I was able to get in a quick hello to long time friend and former competitor Nelson Vails. Nelson and I go way back. He walked me on the plane and talked the flight attendant into offering me a first class seat....about time I might add :-)

Here is a photo just prior to boarding.

Here is one of Nelson in the day – 1984 Olympic Silver Medalist

Foot Length....more

Ok, I mentioned cleat stagger as a way to help with different foot lengths. I then heard from a friend of mine that I should have addressed the foot length, not with cleat stagger, but rather a leg length shim.

On one hand I agree, but I think it may be situational dependent. Look at the following photo from Atlanta when I was working with USAC Coach John Kelly. Now here is a SIGNIFICANT difference.
I believe we did add a leg length shim in this scenario to help. A cleat stagger alone would not be the answer.

In fact my mention of cleat stagger in the previous post even resulted in an insult that I was "Pruitting" this person. Perhaps I am guilty of some influences but I am not someone that easily buys into another school of thought. I really did come up with my own when it comes to bike fit.

The result of my original thoughts was something called "The Bicycle Fitting System" which was the second commercially available bike fitting system in the world. Fit Kit was the first.

When I began bike fit there were no classes for me to take; I simply put it together and tried to make sense of it. Being that I introduced the Cleat Wedges to Pruitt I was sort of jilted with the Priuttism comment. Pruitt has certainly contributed a lot to bike fit but I was doing cleat wedges and inside the shoe wedges long before he started purchasing them from me……and long before a company misnamed the In The Shoe Wedge a shim….

opppppps - I am getting off topic. Notice this difference in foot length is much greater in the photo than the difference we saw in Arkansas a few days ago.

Please keep an open mind with this scenario as leg length shims may also be the answer.

Happy Pedals