cleat shims?

[gregblow]

I just had a doc tell me that one leg was shorter than the other which explains a long time pain in my other calf and achilles. so today was my first ride with shims. felt pretty good.

anyone else used shims? if so, how, and did you get a pro fit?

[ultraman6970]

I use shims but never used a pro fit. My mods are just too little compared with my racing days, besides I never got the common bad habits like moving the body badly while pedaling neither used heavy gears, neither had big pain problems until a few years ago.

I started using shims maybe 5 years ago when i came back to cycling, my feet pronation with the years got worse so i use shims to cure that and knees alignments (got a dislocated knee cap before coming back riding). Like a year and half ago noticed something weird in my hips position and I noticed I have one leg longer, around 3 to 4 mm if not more in the leg i got the knee cap dislocated :/

The simplest way to notice a short or long leg is to stand up and measure the distance from the hip bone to the floor. To fix the problem u can move the cleats or use shims, all depends of what u want to do and whats the easiest way to attach the problem.

[regularguy412]

i 'discovered' my 'short leg' syndrome while I was fitting for my first Serotta. For years before that, I had always gotten saddle sores on my right sit-bone. I did a little research and found out that I only had to shim my right cleat for only half the difference between the length of my legs. At that time, half the difference turned out to be about 3 mm. I knew nothing of LeWedges, so I made my own. This has basically cured my saddle sore issue.

Years later, I found out that my legs are not the problem. I have a compression fracture of my L3 vertebra. This causes my right hip to be higher and, therefore, makes my right leg 'shorter' on that side. The shimming helps this situation.

In the last couple of years, the degeneration of the disk between L3 and L4 has gotten a little worse. I added one more millimeter of shim, which has seemed to even things out again.

For your calf/achilles pain, you may want to consider moving your cleats as far back on your shoes as possible. In this way, your feet/shoes will have less 'leverage' on your ankle and put less stress on your lower leg.

Mike in AR:beer:

[Charles M]

I have about 3/8 inch dif.

I use d2 shoes and they make custom wedges, so easy as pie for me.

Lemond fitness also make thick wedges.

Email Paul swift at bikefit.com and let him know the dif and he can get you sorted.

You may also be able to use some I'm-shoe lift...


Getting my dif fixed was a huge improvement for me...

[azrider]

Found out I needed shims during a fit and had some fancy Lemond wedges put on my right shoe.

When I bought a new pair of shoes recently I made some of my own shims/wedges out of a thick walled Grout bucket and they've worked flawlessly.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwSHUMo-nMI88CUFnM5OWvpdBEDY4IzXroncLgFYoo10m2Elsu

[gregblow]

thanks guys! i think i am on to something. btw, i have had knee surgery and hip surgery on that shorter leg. probably something to do with that.

[dekindy]

My LBS's Serotta trained fitter recommended one LeWedge for one shoe and two for the other to keep my knees correctly positioned.

[fogrider]

yeah, I have them on all my shoes. not that one foot is shorter than the other, but my foot is angled; the outside of my foot lands first when I walk. so there is greater pressure on the outside of my foot when I ride. wedges flattens the cleat out and evens the pressure on my foot. I rode without the shims once and after 40 miles, my feet felt like they were on fire.

[wooly]

My right leg is about 1/4 inch shorter, probably due to multiple knee surgeries, removing cartilage, etc. Never had a pro fit but my chiropractor pointed it out. I've been using shims for at least 6 years. Started with the Lemond shims then switched to the specialized ones.

[BdaGhisallo]

I have recently discovered the specialized shims. Thankfully they make ones shaped for the spd-sl cleats. With the Bikefit ones, you have to take generic three hole shims and cut them out for the spd-sl cleats - not optimal! Never understood that. Surely if the Keo warranted a dedicated shaped shim from them, the spd-sl must too. I can't imagine Keos are that much bigger in sales, if they do outsell spd-sl pedals at all.

[dekindy]

I have recently discovered the specialized shims. Thankfully they make ones shaped for the spd-sl cleats. With the Bikefit ones, you have to take generic three hole shims and cut them out for the spd-sl cleats - not optimal! Never understood that. Surely if the Keo warranted a dedicated shaped shim from them, the spd-sl must too. I can't imagine Keos are that much bigger in sales, if they do outsell spd-sl pedals at all.

I saw a poll that indicated the market share of Look, Shimano, and Speedplay was about even. Not scientific, but some indication.

[Ralph]

Sheldon Brown on subject. He also talks about use of different lengths crank arms to (not) compensate.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cranks.html