Cleat Position Question

[earlfoss]

Are there any riders here who have had bad luck with particular brands of shoe and not being able to adjust their cleat to a neutral position (ball of big toe over pedal spindle)?

I remember having a pair of Giro shoes that were pretty good in terms of fit, but I was never able to move the Look Keo cleat forward enough to get behind the spindle enough. My feet don't have some morphological issue, so I'm assuming this is a problem for other folks and certain shoe brands?

[donevwil]

Sidi Dominators (MTB shoe) had the cleat position too far rearward, fortunately dremeling the slots forward got me where I needed to be. Not something that would work on a road shoe.

[djg21]

To be clear, if you move the cleat forward on the shoe, your metatarsal heads will be behind the spindle. For most folks, At least the first metatarsal head should be in front of the spindle. There is a lot of stuff on this forum about setting up cleats, which I won’t repeat here. I’ve seen shoes that don’t allow the cleat to be moved far enough back on the foot, but not forward.

[GOTHBROOKS]

tried a pair of time atacs with my sworks shoes and could not get the cleats in the right place. went back to xtr pedals with the same shoes and had much better results.

[RedRider]

To be clear, if you move the cleat forward on the shoe, your metatarsal heads will be behind the spindle. For most folks, At least the first metatarsal head should be in front of the spindle. There is a lot of stuff on this forum about setting up cleats, which I won’t repeat here. I’ve seen shoes that don’t allow the cleat to be moved far enough back on the foot, but not forward.

I agree but you are too diplomatic... there's a lot of fitting advice on this forum that's just wrong! You can't look at cleat position in isolation. A change in cleat position affects saddle height and fore/aft dimension and therefore reach to bars. Changing any of the contact points affect the others. If you really want to be fit properly seek a professional (in person).

[brockd15]

To be clear, if you move the cleat forward on the shoe, your metatarsal heads will be behind the spindle. For most folks, At least the first metatarsal head should be in front of the spindle. There is a lot of stuff on this forum about setting up cleats, which I won’t repeat here. I’ve seen shoes that don’t allow the cleat to be moved far enough back on the foot, but not forward.

I agree but you are too diplomatic... there's a lot of fitting advice on this forum that's just wrong! You can't look at cleat position in isolation. A change in cleat position affects saddle height and fore/aft dimension and therefore reach to bars. Changing any of the contact points affect the others. If you really want to be fit properly seek a professional (in person).

My cleats are just on there to where they "feel right" but could probably stand to be adjusted. I was reading about cleat positioning recently on the Steve Hogg website and realized that maybe mine should be moved back. He also has a page about mid-foot cleat mounting. It sounds like it makes sense when it's explained but sure seems like an odd place to for them.

[charliedid]

I agree but you are too diplomatic... there's a lot of fitting advice on this forum that's just wrong! You can't look at cleat position in isolation. A change in cleat position affects saddle height and fore/aft dimension and therefore reach to bars. Changing any of the contact points affect the others. If you really want to be fit properly seek a professional (in person).

this ^

[djg21]

I agree but you are too diplomatic... there's a lot of fitting advice on this forum that's just wrong! You can't look at cleat position in isolation. A change in cleat position affects saddle height and fore/aft dimension and therefore reach to bars. Changing any of the contact points affect the others. If you really want to be fit properly seek a professional (in person).

You’re right Steve. The issues of stack height, cleat position, saddle height, etc. are all inter-related, I thought that that went without saying.

[benb]

I have size 13 US feet and I have had a real hard time getting my cleats far enough back on 3-hole road shoes, specifically with SPD-SL.

It mostly manifests as getting hot foot/numbness if the cleats are too far forward on the shoe for me. There is a relationship with saddle position too.. I can get a more forward saddle position without foot numbness on shoes that allow me to slide the cleat further back.. a lot of benefits in that.

I've never seen a 2-hole/MTB shoe that has this problem so for now I've just been riding on stiff soled MTB shoes and accepting the trivial weight gain and enjoying being able to walk.

My understanding is I could probably get some of those road shoes to work if I used speedplays with their adapter that allows you to move the cleat further back, and there are also some shoes like Shimano where the holes are more sensibly placed further back. But I have custom insoles too and switching to a different brand of shoes can be an expensive proposition.

I think the root cause for me is some of the 3-hole road shoes seemingly have the holes drilled a fixed distance from the front of the shoe on all sizes as opposed to moving the holes further back on the larger sizes.. as your foot gets larger the cleats are effectively stuck further forward. Kind of like some bikes putting the same chainstay length on every size.

[timto]

I've found the same - that 2 hole drillings are more generous with moving the cleat back. I'm about to shift to PD-A600 type pedals full time on the road bike (abandoning look) so that I can use the cheaper road shoes with 2 hold drilling to get my cleats nice and back... I also found shimano 3 hole shoes to be better than sidi's for getting the cleat back.


I have size 13 US feet and I have had a real hard time getting my cleats far enough back on 3-hole road shoes, specifically with SPD-SL.

It mostly manifests as getting hot foot/numbness if the cleats are too far forward on the shoe for me. There is a relationship with saddle position too.. I can get a more forward saddle position without foot numbness on shoes that allow me to slide the cleat further back.. a lot of benefits in that.

I've never seen a 2-hole/MTB shoe that has this problem so for now I've just been riding on stiff soled MTB shoes and accepting the trivial weight gain and enjoying being able to walk.

My understanding is I could probably get some of those road shoes to work if I used speedplays with their adapter that allows you to move the cleat further back, and there are also some shoes like Shimano where the holes are more sensibly placed further back. But I have custom insoles too and switching to a different brand of shoes can be an expensive proposition.

I think the root cause for me is some of the 3-hole road shoes seemingly have the holes drilled a fixed distance from the front of the shoe on all sizes as opposed to moving the holes further back on the larger sizes.. as your foot gets larger the cleats are effectively stuck further forward. Kind of like some bikes putting the same chainstay length on every size.