Climb01742
03-01-2004, 08:26 AM
six months ago, my everyday ride was a litespeed ghisallo with speedplays. then mid-summer i got my ottrott, on which i put lance pedals. a few months later, i started having legs pains the like of which i'd never had. i've ridden and run now for over 35 years (started running everyday as a freshman in high school) and i thought i'd had every sports injury possible (not to mention the broken bones from skiiing and high school football.) but lo and behold a few months ago i started having IT band issues for the first time in my life.
injuries are complicated things; their causes not easily discerned. but in this case, i thought it was pretty clear. going from a ghisallo to an ottrott is going from one of the whippiest frames made to one of the stiffest frames made. i thought that was the primary culprit.
late in the fall i had a CIII built as a winter ride. i wanted the perfect dialed in fit i had on my ottrott, but something with more flex. and kelly nailed it. being a winter ride, i hung ultegra on it instead of DA, including ultegra SPD pedals. with the added flex of the frame, my IT issues lessened. but i also noticed something else: the ultegra pedals had a lot more fluid float that the DA lance pedals on my ottrott. and the added float seemed to help as well. i did some checking. DA and ultegra SPD pedals have the exact same mechanical bits, just some different materials. their float should be identical. but none of my other DA SPD pedals had anywhere near the freer float of these odd ultegras.
as i rode my other frames, all with DA SPDs, i started to notice that it was the pedals that were giving me more trouble than anything.
so this weekend i did an experiment. i put a pair of speedplays on one of my frames. HOLY COW. that was it (or at least a lot of it.) i have a funky right leg/hip/back. my body just needs that much float and that free-of-float. so here's what i think i learned:
1. be careful what you change. and maybe even more importantly, be careful how much you change. i changed frames and pedals. when stuff started to hurt, i couldn't isolate what the new variable was. there were too many new variables.
2. when you do change something, change it gradually. when i got my ottrott, i rode it like a madman. every ride. i went longer, i went harder. clearly i overdid it.
3. understand that we are biomechanical snowflakes. each of us have all these little body quirks. my left leg/hip has never given me trouble, not on any frame, not with any pedals. but lordy, my right leg/hip. lance pedals have good float; good enough for most folks. but not enough for my right leg. i need what the speedplays give me.
4. equipment has quirks too. this odd pair of ultegra pedals behaves like no SPD pedals is supposed to. i've tried many other DA and ultegra SPDs (thanks a million to my LBS) and no other pair floats like this one pair. thank heavens it did. because it was my clue to look at the pedals, not just the frames.
i've learned a lesson. be careful how you change things. do it slowly, do it in small moves, and be able to isolate what it is you're changing. if this little tale helps someone avoid my experience over the past six months, that would be nice. because being hurt sucks.
injuries are complicated things; their causes not easily discerned. but in this case, i thought it was pretty clear. going from a ghisallo to an ottrott is going from one of the whippiest frames made to one of the stiffest frames made. i thought that was the primary culprit.
late in the fall i had a CIII built as a winter ride. i wanted the perfect dialed in fit i had on my ottrott, but something with more flex. and kelly nailed it. being a winter ride, i hung ultegra on it instead of DA, including ultegra SPD pedals. with the added flex of the frame, my IT issues lessened. but i also noticed something else: the ultegra pedals had a lot more fluid float that the DA lance pedals on my ottrott. and the added float seemed to help as well. i did some checking. DA and ultegra SPD pedals have the exact same mechanical bits, just some different materials. their float should be identical. but none of my other DA SPD pedals had anywhere near the freer float of these odd ultegras.
as i rode my other frames, all with DA SPDs, i started to notice that it was the pedals that were giving me more trouble than anything.
so this weekend i did an experiment. i put a pair of speedplays on one of my frames. HOLY COW. that was it (or at least a lot of it.) i have a funky right leg/hip/back. my body just needs that much float and that free-of-float. so here's what i think i learned:
1. be careful what you change. and maybe even more importantly, be careful how much you change. i changed frames and pedals. when stuff started to hurt, i couldn't isolate what the new variable was. there were too many new variables.
2. when you do change something, change it gradually. when i got my ottrott, i rode it like a madman. every ride. i went longer, i went harder. clearly i overdid it.
3. understand that we are biomechanical snowflakes. each of us have all these little body quirks. my left leg/hip has never given me trouble, not on any frame, not with any pedals. but lordy, my right leg/hip. lance pedals have good float; good enough for most folks. but not enough for my right leg. i need what the speedplays give me.
4. equipment has quirks too. this odd pair of ultegra pedals behaves like no SPD pedals is supposed to. i've tried many other DA and ultegra SPDs (thanks a million to my LBS) and no other pair floats like this one pair. thank heavens it did. because it was my clue to look at the pedals, not just the frames.
i've learned a lesson. be careful how you change things. do it slowly, do it in small moves, and be able to isolate what it is you're changing. if this little tale helps someone avoid my experience over the past six months, that would be nice. because being hurt sucks.