I’ve found at least one prior thread on this subject, but I find myself still a little unclear. In paying more attention to my feet, it turns out one is substantially smaller than the other, maybe almost 1cm or a whole shoe size or so. Not really sure how I missed this for like 30 years, but here we are.
I have a tendency to drop that hip down and forward, and I always thought it was due to some pelvic imbalance or leg length issue. However, could my smaller foot be to blame?
All other things being equal (leg length shoe size, etc.), if a rider has one smaller/shorter foot, wouldn’t that make that leg “act” shorter? Wouldn’t it also make the foot want to “slide forward” in the shoe over the pedal a bit, also pulling that hip down and forward? If I’m right on this, wouldn’t this make the logical solution to shim the shorter/smaller foot?
Staggering the cleat forward on the shorter foot seems problematic to me. After all, staggering cleats would just make the smaller foot potentially more unstable, as the cleat is already effectively farther forward relative to the metatarsals and overall foot length. This is especially true if your shoe for the smaller foot is already a bit “accidentally” too big. Moving it forward even more would just create more problems, right?
Any fitters with experience in this realm to share? Good solutions?
Hi there @finncox23, I have exactly the same issue it seems (right foot is 1 cm smaller than left foot, cleats are staggered and have widest stance possible in addition to Favero Assioma power meter spindles (right foot → cleat positioned all the way back, left cleat is positioned with same distance to first metatarsal head as right foot); I also tend to drop my right hip more down and forward vs my left hip, and slide my right foot completely forward in my shoe, trying to go over the pedal spindle with the ball of my foot, to prevent foot numbness in that foot after approx. 60 minutes of cycling).
I had 2 bike fits and my pedal stroke seems to feel natural (normal quad- and ham- pressure, more quad-pressure than ham- pressure though) and I believe my saddle has the correct height.
Did you manage to remedy this problem/create more comfort? Curious to hear!
I managed to come up with what I thought was a decent solution. I installed a heel pad/cushion --similar to this in an effort to take up some of the extra room for the smaller foot, and to effectively move my shorter foot further forward in the shoe. My logic for this was that, given the relative difference in the positions of the first metatarsal head (as referenced by @jkarrasch above), I didn’t want a cleat position that was way too far forward on my shorter foot. It’s still not ideal, but it gets my shorter foot close enough to a reasonable position relative to the cleat that it has not become an issue.
Left foot:
19 cm from heel to 1st met head
17 cm from heel to 5th met head
Right foot:
18 cm from heel to 1st met head
16 cm from heel to 5th met head
So discrepancy of 1 cm it seems for both 1st + 5th met head distance. My left cleat is now 1 cm more forward than right cleat with 42 EU size Lake shoes.
@finncox23 : Thank you! I might also look into getting a heel pad/cushion and then setting my cleats so that the middle of the cleats have same distance towards 1st met head on both feet.