[Notbuilt2climb]

Hi

Have recently bought a new pair of Lake road shoes (following a recommendation on here).  They are a little wider on the ball of my foot than my previous Shimano shoes and though I have put on new spd-sl cleats and aligned them correctly I think, the inside rear of the left shoe occasionally rubs against the frame. 

I know that this is not caused by the pedal release tension and I know I should not play around with the cleat alignment too much in case it changes the angles in my knee etc.  But there does seem to be more sway in the foot position even though clipped in.  It can’t be the shoe itself as that does not touch the pedal.  Is it just that the new shoes could be wider at the rear  than the old ones as well or am I missing something? They don’t appear to be bigger and in fact I have dropped a size with this brand.

Any suggestions to solve the issue are greatly appreciated. I’m slow enough without effectively kicking the frame every time I turn the pedals!!!!

Cheers

Topic

[jhealy]

I had a bike fit last year

I had a bike fit last year and they did exactly what Pilot Pete suggested – they inserted a couple of washers between pedal and crank to prevent me catching the chain stay with my heels. My feet naturally point outwards with my knees straight forward and I was told if damage my knees if I didn’t replicate this with the cleat settings (knees must be straight forward and go straight up and down). The infra-red cameras tracking my knees during pedaling showed my knees doing ellipses without the washers and cleat skew and going straight up and down with.

Jon

[Rapha Nadal]

Bigtallpaul wrote:

Bigtallpaul wrote:

Rapha – Thanks for your suggestion.  I had thought of that but first wanted to see if anyone here had experience or suggestions to try and save a little money.  I would not post something about a ‘noise’.  That’s something I can probably fix or take to my bike mechanic if beyond my skillset.

Hopefully see you playing at the a French Open this year. Good luck!

I can’t recall ever paying more than £30 for a fitters time to double check my cleats. It’s amazing what a second pair of eyes can spot even for the more experienced rider.

I’ll give it my best at the French Open.  I just hope that anti-doping don’t turn up 😉

[Notbuilt2climb]

Thanks to all who have

Thanks to all who have responded.  I’m going to try Welsh boy and Pilot Petes suggestions in that order.  I do think less float will help too so will look at changing the cleats to the blue ones from the correctly assumed yellow ones.

Rapha – Thanks for your suggestion.  I had thought of that but first wanted to see if anyone here had experience or suggestions to try and save a little money.  I would not post something about a ‘noise’.  That’s something I can probably fix or take to my bike mechanic if beyond my skillset.

Hopefully see you playing at the a French Open this year. Good luck!

Cheers all

[Rapha Nadal]

Go and see a bike fitter who

Go and see a bike fitter who can get you correctly aligned.

Questions like these on forums are akin to “my bike’s making a noise; what is it?”.

[Pilot Pete]

Am I right in assuming you

Am I right in assuming you have yellow cleats?

These have 6 degrees of free float. You could adjust the cleat so that your foot has less ‘heel in float’, I.e. don’t have the free float centralised. This would mean you have more movement ‘heel out’, which would feel different and mean a more exaggerated heel out movement to unclip. This could prevent inboard contact and would cost nothing.

You could try less float which will prevent you pulling your heel inboard so that the shoe contacts the stay. As you said this only occasionally happens it is safe to say it is only when you have accidentally pulled your heel in rather than your normal pedalling motion.

From memory blue cleats have 2 degrees of float and red have zero float. Unless you have knee problems you should be able to use less float, but obviously getting the cleats set up in the optimal position becomes more critical the less float you have to prevent unnatural strain on the knee during pedalling.

The other option is longer pedal shafts or washers. You could probably get away with one washer behind each pedal but any more and you risk not having enough thread engaged in the pedal arm. One washer could give a mm or two more Q factor (place your feet further outboard). You never know, that might be all you need and would be a cheap solution. Longer pedal shafts are available for some pedals and achieve the same (and more).

It could be that a combination of washers and blue/ red cleats is the answer and achieves your aim.

Good luck

PP

[velochris]

Could simply be thr thickness
Could simply be thr thickness of the upper at the rear of the shoe. I have ridden Sidi wide fit for years. The upper is thin around the sides of the heel. I tired a pair of Giro and Shimano shoes last year. Cleats were set up the same but the material was thicker so caught the chainstay.

[Welsh boy]

The only thing I can suggest

The only thing I can suggest is that you alter the cleat position gradually until you stop kicking the chain stay.  Adjust the cleat so that when the float (that is the correct term for what you refer to as sway) is at its limit there is just clearance between your heel and frame, play around to see if you can find a sweet spot where comfort and clearance are acceptable.  In answer to your question, yes, shoes from different manufacturers can vary in width but usually not by very much (in my experience) towards the back of the shoe.

[Author]

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