Can you give an example of what you are talking about?

http://www.cycle-route.com/...5-Cycling-Shoes.html

See how the base of the shoe goes up at the toes?
What's the logic biomechanically speaking?

Cross your leg and relax your foot. Notice that the last 4 inches if your foot goes "up" at like 30 degrees?

If your bike shoe didn't do that your toes would just rub on the top of the shoe all the time.

When walking we use the front of our foot but they just chill on the bike or sitting.

It doesn't make sense in carbon soled shoes. It makes sense with soles that flex so that your foot would be flat on the downstroke.

My custom Simmons Racing shoes were made much flatter than a normal shoe.

I had a pair of Lamson shoes where the footbed turned up at the toe. Pushing my toes up tightened the muscle along my shin and gave me whicked shin splints.

It took me quite awhile to figure out what was wrong. I Replaced it he Lamson's with some Sidis and it fixed the problem in about 4 weeks. Too bad though. The Lamson's were awesome shoes.

Nope, mine don't do that! They are flat
Nor do 90% of the feet I look at ( I look at feet most of my day!)

I have found I'm getting more cramps in my calves which I wasn't getting in my northwaves which have a much flatter base.

I must qualify this is with near mid foot cleats, which changes things.

the amount of toespring in cycling shoes is similar to that of a walk/run shoe (normal gait) and is designed to facilitate a rocking motion forward off the heel towards the toes. For normal human gait, or running, this is helpful to push off - but if there is a lack of motility in the MTP joints (or further up the chain, into the navicular) this bending can overtighten at the heel and cause pain in the plantar.

The windlass mechanism of this movement loads/unloads the plantar and consequently tightens around the heel and up towards the calf.

Depending on your particular joint function of the foot/ankle, too much rocker in the shoe may be overtightening the calves as you describe. Shimano Dynalast have the most amount of toespring; Northwave and Mavic are the 'flattest' I've seen stock. Conversely another rider may really need a Dynalast shape.

Add to this the relative placement of the cleat and there is a fair amount of variety in the placement of the 'rocker' point while pedaling. Add another variable of seating angle and crank length as to what shape of shoe is 'best' for a given rider. It's been rare, but I have seen improvements in only changing the shape of the shoe - from Shimano to Mavic tri shoes, in relieving calf/plantar strain.

On top of all of this, I would say there is very little thought into the toespring design of any cycling shoe, excepting Shimano who based some of their testing on orthotic biomechanical designs addressing toesspring/windlass/gait issues for amputees.

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

Thanks Anne, really nice summary.

There is none.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=5842857#p5842857

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.