What’s Involved?

New Shoe Set Up

If you have just bought cycling shoes for the first time, you are welcome to bring them to me, with the cleats and matching pedals and I will set them up for you. If you’re not sure which ones to buy, contact me. It’s going to depend on what type of bike you ride and what you are using your bike for. For example, are you always going to clip in or do you want one sided pedals which also work with flat shoes?

Leg Length Assessment

Around 90% of people have a discrepancy in their leg length. In most cases, this is under 1cm and doesn’t affect your everyday life. Unfortunately it can affect your cycling, as smaller differences affect your position on the bike, the saddle and how much work each leg does. When you’re cycling at 60-90 pedal strokes per minute on an entirely symmetrical bike, these asymmetries can result in knee pain, back pain and saddle sores. Often a simple leg length shim or in-shoe device can be enough to even this out.

Cleat Position

Your cleat position fore/aft affects which muscles are activating during the pedal stroke. See my blog post on this. An incorrect position can lead to increased fatigue and knee strain, it’s an important thing to get right. I will use the bony markers to determine exactly where your foot sits in your shoe. Your cleat position will be adjusted according to that.

Where your foot sits on the pedal will change your effective leg length, so I’ll adjust your saddle to the correct height.

Finally, I will use my laser line to check the position of your knee over your toes. Cycling is a bit like doing repetitive unloaded squats, 60 times per minute, for several hours. Improving your knee alignment over your toes can reduce knee strain.

If you have different sized feet, your cleats may need to be positioned differently. This can create an effective leg length difference and a leg length shim may be required. This will be discussed with you at your appointment.

Footbeds and Wedges

New shoe footbeds often do not come with enough arch support. You want as much of your foot to be in contact with the base of the shoe as possible. This improves proprioception, can increase stability, reduce numbness and other foot issues including hot foot. If you need footbeds, I can provide and fit these from £40.

If you suffer from foot issues, this can sometimes be caused by excessive movement in the shoe or pressure points where one spot is taking more weight. Forefoot and heal wedges can often spread the pressure more evenly across the foot, reducing numbness and other foot issues.