After suffering a kind of persistent nagging discomfort around my right little toe, I did a bit of investigating. It seemed unlikely considering my overall slim build that I had wide feet, and a measurement confirmed this.
However I then looked at my feet and noticed that my little toe was sitting strangely - it was kind of curled inwards and on its side so that the nail was facing right rather than up. See hideous, disturbing, put-you-off-your-food photo for proof:
Apparently this might be what’s known as a “Tailor’s bunion”. But I can’t find much advice relating to cycling. I have custom-moulded insoles in my shoes from a bike fit, so seems unlikely they’d be the cause of it.
Anyone have a similar thing and managed to deal with it? Like I say, my feet aren’t remotely wide, so I want to avoid changing shoes to ones that might cause other fit problems (and anyway, my left food is wider and I don’t have discomfort there).
I self-diagnosed with a Tailor’s bunion last spring, went to a podiatrist who confirmed my diagnosis. Mine is a bit more severe than yours and I do have wide feet.
Mine presented with pretty severe pain on longer rides - becoming unbearable after periods of increased volume.
After discussing my options (surgery - awful, very long recovery, finding wider shoes - none I could easily find, padding - protect the area and let the pain subside) we went with a padding option to see if it mitigated the pain. He ended up giving me something like the product I linked below. It basically solved all of my pain problems and now I always ride with one
Given the doctors office price compared to the Amazon price I went and found this online and have been buying replacements online ever since. Note that the link is for the actual item I am using for a Tailor’s Bunion - I put it on over my pinky toe instead of my big toe. I find it sturdier than the Tailor Bunion specific ones
I had a look on UK Amazon and couldn’t find the exact one, but found this which seems to combine the padding with a little toe separation and correction. Will give that a try, and look at Bunion Sleeve options similar to yours as well if it ends up feeling a bit flimsy.
When I joined this forum I never imagined that I would end up asking someone to DM me a picture of their feet, but yes please - go ahead, would be interesting to see.
The other question I’d have is - has the actual inward curl of the toe been corrected at all by wearing the sleeve, or is the treatment entirely just about protecting it?
Yeah - I’ve lived with it for ages. I’d just started noticing lately that sometimes my right foot feels weird when I put a pair of socks on, and I was starting to get rough spots on my 4th toe where the pinkie was rubbing against it. It was only when I really looked at my toes that I noticed the difference between the two feet.
I started with something similar to what you linked and it did not work for me. It wouldn’t stay in place and didn’t provide the padding where I needed it.
Per the doctor I saw there isn’t really a corrective way to deal with my issue. Doesn’t mean it won’t help yours, but based on what he saw on my x-rays the only corrective measure was surgery.
Also probably worth noting that I only experience any discomfort in cycling shoes - all other shoes are fine for me, very frustrating since its the cycling shoes that matter
Likewise never expected to be taking that photo and sending it to someone
I’ll say that I never experienced any pain or discomfort at all, didn’t even know I had a wonky foot until this started creeping in over last winter and then became progressively more and more painful. Doctor says its likely a progression that I’ve been experiencing my entire life and has finally reached a point where it affects my cycling shoes
Will definitely bear that in mind - will order the ones you’ve suggested if these aren’t up to it.
I think this is very likely the case with me too. I don’t feel pain in any other shoes, but I am starting to notice a sensation in my toes more often, not just when cycling. But it’s only in my cycling shoes where I get actual discomfort. I wonder if I’ve “caught” mine earlier on than yours, and that there is some possibility that corrective devices could help.
I recently was diagnosed with a tailor’s bunion as well. it has only seen a problem in the last few years, but structural problem have always been there.
I now am buying wide shoes, and for now have widened my cycling shoes by cutting a hole for my bunions. this made a huge change in comfort, and has pretty much resolved my issues on the bike. Next shoe purchases will be wide, however it’s hard to tell if they are wide enough when trying thing on, it takes hours for the pain to manifest itself.
This got me thinking about how to widen my shoes as I suffer with corns due to tailors bunion caused by the old toe straps of years gone by. Anyway I used a shoe tree and used rugby studs to create the expansion needed as shown . It has worked a treat. To get the studs to stay in securely I carefully drilled and tapped the hole to take a 3mm thread , using a few holes to get the best position for the stud.
I had this exact problem…minus the nail thing. Try wearing your shoes around the house without the insoles, slipper tight not insanely tight. See if you get the same pain.
I ordered a bunch of shoes and wore them while just sitting at my desk. A few findings:
My toe curled/overlapped even though I had plenty of room.
My toe curled/overlapped even without the insoles in the shoe
Cycling shoes don’t have any padding in the shoe, particularly the tongue, and are highly contoured. This causes strange problems. I traced the problem back to the shoe actually squeezing the top of my foot against my arch oddly. This is what was causing my little toe to overlap. You gotta keep in mind that your tendons in your hands and feet have ties way upstream.
The solution was to get a larger shoe size so the arch was further forward. I didn’t need the toe room, I needed the arch and curves of the shoe in the right spot. Another solution might be one of the knit uppers like Giro, Fizik, and Trek offer. Maybe order a Trek knit shoe and try it while doing some desk work at home.
Similar issues here since I started doing longer trainer rides during lockdown. I got g8 performance insoles, which have highly adjustable arch support. Front / back , left / right and size of arch are all adjustable. Also I’ve been using some athletic tape to secure my small toe to it’s neighbor.
I’ve had a little toe with the same nail facing the wrong direction for years as you’ve shown. Two things I’d suggest…
Buy shoes with separate closures for the upper and lower sections of the lacing. After a couple of hours, loosen the lower section a bunch. I have to do this for any ride over 8 hours.
Relace your shoes and don’t put laces in the bottom 2 or 3 eyelets. This allows the shoe to be wider around the ball of the foot, but still secures the upper section. This is an old hiking shoe trick that long distance hikers do. It even works with single boa closure systems if you’re willing to open up the boa using the mini-tool.
Update: current situation is that things are a little better, if not completely fixed. After a lot of experimenting, I’ve found that simply putting a small piece of cotton wool underneath my 2 smallest toes before wriggling the sock into place has been the most effective thing. Feels odd briefly and then forget about it for the rest of the ride.
This is an interesting tip and might try it out for a turbo session on my Giro Empires and see how they feel. Cheers.
I’ve also diagnosed my left foot problem as Tailor’s Bunion. Mine manifests itself on the bottom of my foot near the base of my little toe. It’s like walking around with a ball bearing glued to the sole of your foot. My regular ride is a hybrid bike and thought maybe go with a larger surface pedal to better support the entire width of the foot. Also, if anyone’s opted for surgery I’d appreciate hearing the details and results. BTW, thanks to all for starting and supporting this thread topic.
Just chipping in with my experience with this problem over the years. I’ve tried Sidi mega, Bont wide, Shimano, and Lake wide and found Lakes were the only last which worked out of the box. Both the natural leather (mx332) and synthetic (cx301) are supportive/accommodating enough for 115mm wide size 45.5 feet. As the main part of my feet is narrower, the boas are good at tightening up the excess material. I’ll try stretching standard width shimano shoes in that area to replace the mx332 because the build quality of these isnt good enough for off-road abuse. It’s also worth looking at orthotics that rotate your feet inwards to avoid putting pressure of the fifth metatarsal and a metatarsal button to ensure blood flow if toes are constricted.
I developed a Tailor’s bunion after wearing Standard width pair of Vitoria Velar’s for a few rides. Had been in Sidi Ergo 3’s that I spot heat stretched to give that 5th metatarsal room. The Vittoria’s I never got wuite right and got the bunion. The pain was significant and resulted in a cortisone shot from my podiatrist. As it healed none of my existing shoes would let me ride pain free. What I needed was a true wide soled shoe rather than high volume, which is what the bulk of supposed wide shoes really are. I had read much about Lake and looked at their wide and extra wide shoes. Using their custom program I spec’d a shoe (CX332) in extra wide with Speedplay sole. To put it mildly, utterly spectacular! I got them the day before a heatwave in June with temps above 100. I put them through a 4 plus hour 70 mile test and I ended that ride 100% pain free. Rides in any temps above 80 in my Sidi’s had me in terrible pain. That was 2 1/2 years ago and I have had zero foot issues since. Not even using custom footbeds. Not cheap but best money I’ve ever spent on cycling shoes.
I’m grateful for this thread. I was diagnosed by a podiatrist with Tailor’s bunion and hammer toe and a general alignment issue with my pinkie toe. And if I remember right, X-rays showed what doctor thought might be a bone island. Podiatrist recommended using an under-toe silicone bar (https://a.co/d/d4RF8Rc), silicone spacer for the toes to help with alignment and also use a gel pad similar to one linked toward beginning of this thread – though I’m going to try the linked one here as it looks more stable.
I also have pretty extreme varus angling / alignment so I have wedged my cleats to compensate.
I haven’t fully solved the problem, but these things do help. Lake shoes are the only ones that really work. In practice, though, 99% of normal outdoor cycling is fine for me with the right shoes, but every winter when I start doing more trainer rides, this immediately becomes an issue and quickly I’m off the bike taking it easy – and stewing that I can’t use my trainer. I think it must be the constant-on / no coasting and relatively static position. I have a rocker plate for my Saris H3, but still becomes inflamed if I do a series of rides with intensity or longer duration (e.g. 2+ hours).
I also think that the cold might exacerbate this, though I’m not sure. I ride in a large detached shed and it is not heated, and so often in winter it is around freezing or colder. And my feet definitely get very cold due to sweating in those temps.
Anyway, I’m continuing to experiment. Surgery seems a bit extreme since it really is only affecting my ability to ride trainers. I just burned out my Elite Nero smart rollers but after I hopefully get those repaired, maybe will just do rollers from now on for indoor rides.
I tried Lake, but didn’t like them nor was the toe box square enough. The best shoe I’ve found is the Giro Rumble VR, which is hardly a cycling shoe at all, but it has 2 bolt cleat. They are heavy and not as stiff, but I can actually ride without pain.
