🦶Feet are the foundation!! 👣
🚲 They’re also 40% of your contact points on the bike. A quality bike fit includes a thorough assessment of foot structure, alignment, shoes and pedals for asymmetry, signs of wear, abnormal pressure areas, proper fit and last, but not least, is an active movement evaluation on the bike!
👣 Lots of folks have a tilt of the front half of their feet compared to the back of the feet. But because cycling shoes and pedals are flat, people with feet that are tilted can have issues on the bike. That tilt is also not always the same between your two feet. Hot spots, pain, numbness and tingling in the feet are all common, but it can also create pain issues higher up in the knees, hips, and back. Not only can it create pain issues, but performance can suffer too because of asymmetrical power distribution and loss of power output wasted from the diagonal tracking of the knee over foot.
🦿Seeing the forefoot tilt along with the wear on the insoles in the cycling shoes, I was suspicious of issues with knee over foot tracking. The movement analysis confirmed it, with the help of lasers and video motion capture software. Cleat wedges, more on the left than the right due to the differences in foot structure, were placed on the shoes.
🔧 Along with some other changes to the bike setup, education on bike posture and muscle activation was concluded and the cyclist was given directions to go test ride the new fit.
👀 In less than 24 hours from the bike fit, pressure distribution on the power pedals was greatly improved and centered, and there was no hip tightness, knee pain or hamstring pain with riding!
🚲 If your bike setup isn’t comfortable or you’re wondering if you’re throwing away some watts due to position/movement patterns, let’s talk about your bike fit! Get rid of pain and maximize your performance on the bike…but most of all a comfortable bike is one you want to spend more time riding!
