Your bike fit numbers -

Cycle Logic - Prince George, Canada – June 10-11 2010

No Valgus in this group of 5 cyclists
CW=Cleat Wedges
NO ITS (In The Shoe) Wedges were used.
IMPORTANT NOTE! Remember MOST of the time the Cleat Wedge is the solution, not in the shoe wedge. If you are not already on board with this I promise your satisfaction from your customers will go up considerably when your fits reflect more Cleat Wedges as the solution.

John   
Rt                     Lt
varus 10°         varus 11°
1 CW               1 CW
1/8” shorter     Standard
Spindle             Spindle

Dave
Rt                      Lt
varus 6°            varus 6°
1 CW                1 CW
1/2” longer       1/8” longer
Spindle              Spindle

Sully
Rt                    Lt
varus 12°        varus 12°
2 CW              2 CW
½” longer       1/8” longer
Spindle            Spindle
1 stack

Doug
Rt                    Lt
varus 17°        varus 13°
4 CW              3 CW
½” longer       ½” longer
Spindle           Spindle

Karim
Rt                    Lt
varus 14°        varus 5°
3 CW              2 CW
½” longer       ½” longer
Spindle           Spindle

Average Cleat Wedges per cyclists – 2 per foot
5 cyclists = 10 feet and 9 feet needed a longer or shorter spindle
In other words only 1 foot used a standard pedal spindle.

That means NOT ONE cyclist fit with a standard SET of pedals.
All 10 feet needed at least one wedge

4 of 5 cyclists needed a short stem.

Are your averages close to this? To be honest this is a little low on the cleat wedges compared to our overall average but is a little higher on the need for different spindle widths.

Shoes – one cyclist had two pairs of shoes - SIDI and Specialized BG Shoes – Both shoes required the same number of wedges per foot. You may think the BG shoes should use less wedges. I used to think the same but I am finding that not to be the case. Next time you fit someone with a combination of shoes and one brand is Specialized try the same number of wedges for each brand – see for yourself what you find.


If you are not close to this theses figures chances are likely you are missing something.

Fitting Specialized BG Shoes

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.