Simplifying Cycling Shoe + Cleat Positioning

hey what's up guys we're going to talk a little bit about cleat fitting this is going to be kind of just the basis uh for what we go off of when we are fitting a foot uh in a cleat over a pedal uh so the first thing we want to kind of go through is just talk a little bit about um where the foot should be on a pedal and it really doesn't matter which pedal system it is whether it's a block pedal a clipless pedal a road pedal a mountain bike pedal it really doesn't matter all we're trying to do is get the ball of the foot over the center of the pedal and if we really want to look at what the ball of the foot is got a great diagram right here our model here we all recognize this as physical therapists this is of course a left foot uh what I want to kind of bring your attention to is what forms the ball of the foot the ball of foot essentially is formed by um first metatarsal phalangeal joint uh and then the fifth metatarsal phalangeal joint everybody's body has a little bit of a different angle with how much this angle from the first MTP is to the fifth MTP so some people will have a very flat line here some people have a very angled foot and so when we are going through and we are taking a look at the off the bike assessment we also want to be looking at the foot and kind of the shape of the foot so we can kind of get that lined up so that's kind of what we're trying to do is get the ball of the foot over the center of the pedal the center of the pedal of course uh is what we call this the pedal spindle or the pedal axle depending on who you're talking to this of course is a block pedal as we can also see but basically what we're going to be looking at when we're doing bike fitting is looking at kind of this center point of the pedal and this is what's going to kind of give us our idea of the center of the pedal so when we are lining up uh you know a foot or lining up a cleat over that pedal all we are trying to do is get the first MTP just slightly anterior to that so much so that the fifth MTP is behind that pedal spindle if we were to imagine a straight line coming across this pedal we want the big toe slightly forward or anterior fifth MTP slightly behind so if we were to draw a line between this of where the angle of the pedal spindle should be it should be just about like this when we are then adjusting the cleat or we're educating that client where their foot should be on the pedal that is the ideal position because that is the optimal lever arm to be pushing through that pedal if we're pushing a little bit farther through forward through the toes we're going to end up trying to use our toe muscles to claw down often resulting in foot cramps as well as tingling numbness in the feet etc etc so ultimately what we're trying to do is line that thing up anytime anybody has foot pain tingling numbness when in doubt the cleat a lot of times is too far forward excuse me the foot itself is too far forward which therefore moves the foot further back so when we look at a cleat the next thing we're going to do is we're going to look at the cleats themselves uh like I said I've got kind of a very old this is what we call a road cleat this generally will fit into what we'd call more of a road style pedal or a kind of a look style pedal the other version of course is our very popular SPD cleat as well each one of these cleats has the ability there are a couple other Speed play Crank Brothers Etc et cetera but all of them have the same functionality where we can either move this cleat back up or down as well as side to side as well as rotation and we'll get into the specifics of that but the main thing you need to think about when we're adjusting the cleat in relation to the foot is everything is backwards if we have the foot on the pedal and we desire to move the foot further forward we would be moving the cleat backwards or towards the heel if we would like to move the foot forward or excuse me backwards we would then be moving the cleat up so everything is kind of in your mind you need to start thinking about all right what do I want to do I need to move this foot forward so I need to move the cleat back or if I need to move the foot back I need to move the cleat up vice versa when we do side to side adjustments if we move the cleat medially that will put the foot out further laterally on the pedal and vice versa if we move the cleats further lateral that will of course bring our foot closer in when we're pedaling so we'll get into this in a little bit more detail but these are really important Concepts to understand is that when we're adjusting the cleat it's always a backwards world if we rotate so the top part of the cleat is in that is going to make my heel turn in if we rotate the cleat out laterally it's going to move my heel out laterally as well sometimes nice to have a cleat and a pedal that you can kind of practice on these as you're getting used to this because as we move things up and down oftentimes in our in our brain we're talking with our clients we sometimes forget what we're doing but always understand it's always backwards as well and that doesn't matter whether that's a road cleat an SPD cleat Speed play doesn't matter that's the same concept you need to get that all down ideally we're trying to get the first MTP in front of pedal spindle fifth Mt MTP behind it as well as best as we can line that up some people will have a lot more variability depending on this angle of the foot itself up and down but ideally we want that right in the center where the big toe is clearly in front pinky toes clearly behind and now we are pushing on the optimal lever arm to be pushing that bike so more to come with that we'll get a bike set up on here so you can actually see what this kind of looks like but these are the basis of understanding cleat fitting and uh positioning of that foot on the pedal thanks

Channel: Kevin Schmidt, PT, Pedal PT

Views: 3,048

Keywords: BikeFitting, Cleats, Cycling Tips, Pedal PT, Cycling Shoes

Id: RF9wWgDHyrk

Length: 5min 34sec (334 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 02 2023