leg length problems and solutions

Have you ever been properly fitted. It sounds like you had someone with some knowlegde work with you. They obviously recommended the Le Wedge for your leg length discrepancy. Did they check your flexiblity and range of motion?

djlance said:

i have a leg discrepincy on my left leg which is shorter then my right i have spd pedals and have to use LEWEDGES on both feet. I was wondering if there is anything that i could possibly do to help stop the discomfert i have when i push down with my left leg....it feels as if im rocking back and forth and it is causing major discomfert. Any suggestions on pedals or any way to help cure then pain im feeling with my leg discrepency would be greatly appreciated

no i never have i live in a small town in texas and the nearest bike store is a 100 miles away. I guess the next question would be...."What do i ask them?"

Well, first off, what kind of bicycle do you have? How did you set up your saddle height? How did you set up your Handle bar position? How did you set up your saddle to bar drop position? These are the things I would think about correcting first and then when you are within your "fit window", it may be easier for you to assess your next move. Changing pedals is just a bandaid to your real problem of proper alignment. If your hips are rocking your saddle is to high period, and regardless of your leg length discrepency. How many shims do you have on your left foot in comparison to your right? Also , what type of pedal system are you using?
Kevin

well currently i have a indoor schwinn spinner that i am using until i get my bike fixed. I am using a shimano SPD pedal and i use specialized MTB shoes. Currently on my left leg i have 2 wedges that are stacked with the fat sides stacked on each other since i have flat feet. I have noticed know that when i ride if i let my leg pedal naturally and do not try to straighten my leg on the push down it causes my knee to bend inwards and on my right leg i have 2 stacked on each other. For some reason i have messed with the wedges trying different highths but nothing seems to work. MY bike is a cannondale R500 with double sided SPD pedals on them. I am wondering if maybe speedplay pedals would help my situation. At this point i would do anything i can just to enjoy my riding and training with no problems.

Ok first off, If you have a leg length discrepency, why do you have the same number of wedges on both shoes?????? How do you know that one leg is longer? If the shop that Le Wedged you gave you the same number of shims for both feet and you have have different size legs, NEVER shop there again because they are incompetent. With that said, are you Varus or Valgus? In other words are the fat part of the shims towards the inner part of the shoe or away from the shoe. Since most people are Varus I am assuming the fat part of the shim is pointing towards the bicycle when you are clipped in. Now, if you truly in fact, have a difference in leg length..say more than 3-4mm you should stack the shorter leg with more shims. This is a starting point , and I am confident that this will at least move you in the direction of helping your situation. Again, though, you should NOT have the same number of shims in both feet if you have a leg length discrepency more that an a few MM.

Hope this helps ...
kevin

djlance said:

well currently i have a indoor schwinn spinner that i am using until i get my bike fixed. I am using a shimano SPD pedal and i use specialized MTB shoes. Currently on my left leg i have 2 wedges that are stacked with the fat sides stacked on each other since i have flat feet. I have noticed know that when i ride if i let my leg pedal naturally and do not try to straighten my leg on the push down it causes my knee to bend inwards and on my right leg i have 2 stacked on each other. For some reason i have messed with the wedges trying different highths but nothing seems to work. MY bike is a cannondale R500 with double sided SPD pedals on them. I am wondering if maybe speedplay pedals would help my situation. At this point i would do anything i can just to enjoy my riding and training with no problems.

well i notice when i ride that my right leg has a longer reach then the left so if this is the case i will take ur advice and take off the wedges. Yes i do have the wedges stacked towards the bike but my next question would be how many do i stack and if so should i stack them to where it lifts up my leg or stack them so the fat part is still pointing the bike. thanks i really appreciate the help. do you have the same situation if so....what did u do to correct it

I am a professional bike fitter, which is why I am responding to you. I really get bummed when I hear things like this. I really enjoy helping people to enjoy cycling. Ok, first in answer to your question how much should I stack the wedges. Did you get properly Le Wedged? If so, then you should know exactly how much to stack them, regardless of your different leg lengths. Now, in my experience people tend to have 1-3 shims max in their shoes. But you DONT JUST PUT THE SHIMS ANYWHERE TO TRY AND CORRECT THE PROBLEM!!!!!!! You could really hurt yourself. I can sense your frustration, but their is a tool that Le Wedge provides to find out how many shims each foot needs. After that is assessed than the fitter ...(if properly trained) should know how to stack the shims from there to correct your leg length discrepency. So first give me the information that you should have received from the shop when you were Le Wedged and I can help you from there. I also want to know if they properly set up your cleats according to your natural gait. Your natural gait being the way that your leg naturally falls. If this is off even 1 deg. you will have frontal knee pain. The more I know how you are set up the more that I can help.

kevin

djlance said:

well i notice when i ride that my right leg has a longer reach then the left so if this is the case i will take ur advice and take off the wedges. Yes i do have the wedges stacked towards the bike but my next question would be how many do i stack and if so should i stack them to where it lifts up my leg or stack them so the fat part is still pointing the bike. thanks i really appreciate the help. do you have the same situation if so....what did u do to correct it

well the funny thing is....the bike store that i bought my bike from does not sell the wedges properly so i had to order them through colorado cyclist. I bought them because i noticed that i was having problems with my knees and once i researched my problem i noticed that lewedges may help. But i have no way of know how many i should stack? that is my problem now. This weekend i am going to 2 different bike stores to see if they can tell me what i should do. But yea thats my situation i have had no such way of knowing how many i should stack all i know is that my left leg is shorter and is causing most of my problems

[font=Times New Roman]From another forum I visit... and the discussion was leg length discrepancy (LLD). [/font]

[font=Times New Roman]How large is your leg length discrepancy? Lennard Zinn's new book (cycling primer) has the best discussion I have seen on various strategies for correcting an LLD, including shims that have been mentioned. Whether shims will work or not depends on how big it is. I have a 3 cm LLD, and ride with a dropped pedal that was built by Tom Slocum at High Sierra Cycling. It is nice, cuz it also corrects the leverage, and doesn't make my knee come up too high in the upstroke, which was a problem for me with shims. It’s very cool. hscycle.comhscycle.comOpen ↗[/font][font=Times New Roman]Tom is the person anyone with a serious LLD ends up seeing.[/font]