Unusual shoe cleat positions

Pat Fleming said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

Have you tried asking on rec.bicycles.tech ?

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

I don't know if I have weak ankles or something, but I don't use my ankles to pedal (much) and I
prefer the pedal axle to be a bit further back than what's typical.

I ground down the soles of my shoe and drilled out my shoe plates to get my cleats where I
want them.

Two possible things to think about are : 1) you'll probably have to lower your seat a bit and 2)
it's more likely your feet will overlap the front wheel.

Oh yeah, I'm not a top rider, so you might not care.

-Amit

Pat Fleming said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

The recent Womens Worlds Champion Susanne Ljungskog does. She's had her shoes completely rebuilt so
that the cleats are positioned pretty much in the middle of the arch.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Amit said:

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

I don't know if I have weak ankles or something, but I don't use my ankles to pedal (much) and I
prefer the pedal axle to be a bit further back than what's typical.

I ground down the soles of my shoe and drilled out my shoe plates to get my cleats where I
want them.

Wouldn't it be easier to strengthen your ankles? Unless of course you've got a chronic condition
preventing it.

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "We should not march into Baghdad. ... Assigning young
soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what
would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it could only plunge that part of the world into ever
greater instability." George Bush Sr. in his 1998 book "A World Transformed"

Quoted message said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

Greg LeMond did. In his book (which contains a great deal of detail on most aspects of positioning)
I beleive he says the conventional wisdom was that sprinters tend to want to move their cleats
forward (towards the toes), and climbers the opposite, moving the cleat back (towards the arch).

(Maybe there's some relationship to cadence there, since typically sprinters have to spin pretty
hard and climbers traditionally grind at a slightly lower than average cadence, but I'm no expert. I
have my pedal axle a bit behind the ball of the foot and I generally ride at a pretty high cadence.
Your calves will do a bit less work with the cleat moved back, which may be good for climbers as
well -- IIRC LeMond claims the max prolonged power output comes when you make the quads do the
lion's share of the work.)--Shayana Kadidal

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

I can't speak for any top riders (someone's already mentioned Ljungskog) but I've got my cleats set
so that the ball of my foot is about 1cm in front of the axle. I find it's more comfortable and
helps my sprinting - the power transfer feels a lot better and it's also easier to pull back on the
pedals i.e. 'scraping the mud off'. Good for driving out of corners in a crit.

Of course it's pretty dependent on your body dimensions. I've got size 44 feet and a pretty long
thigh/calf ratio, so to me it makes more sense to have my cleats set up this way. Also I tend to
drop my heel when I'm pedalling, which effectively brings the ball of my foot slightly closer to the
imaginary vertical line at the axle. I don't know if this is important or not.

cheers, Jeff

I have found that the "feel" of power transfer is as much a function of shoe last shape as it is
of cleat position; that is to say, I am confident I can completely change your perception of
power transfer by changing a few things in your orthotics or your shoe sole liners. One should
conclude from this that the shoe plays a significant role in determining where we perceive the
pedal axle to be.

Kirby.

"Jeff Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Do any top riders have the shoe cleat positioned closer to the arch of the foot, rather than at
the ball of the foot? Any advantage or disadvantage?

I can't speak for any top riders (someone's already mentioned Ljungskog) but I've got my cleats
set so that the ball of my foot is about 1cm in front of the axle. I find it's more comfortable
and helps my sprinting - the power transfer feels a lot better and it's also easier to pull back
on the pedals i.e. 'scraping the mud off'. Good for driving out of corners in a crit.

Of course it's pretty dependent on your body dimensions. I've got size 44 feet and a pretty long
thigh/calf ratio, so to me it makes more sense to have my cleats set up this way. Also I tend to
drop my heel when I'm pedalling, which effectively brings the ball of my foot slightly closer to
the imaginary vertical line at the axle. I don't know if this is important or not.

cheers, Jeff