Front Wheel - Shoe Interference

I have been checking out the bike fit of a couple friends who recently bought new bikes and have noticed a possible problem: In both cases the tip of the “lead” shoe (when the cranks are horizontal) will interfere with the front wheel when the handlebars are turned. They ride small frames with 700c wheels.

Do many of you have this issue? Is it nothing to be worried about or a disaster waiting to happen? My initial thought is for them to trade in the bikes for 650c equipped rides, but it would be great to hear from others.

…Joe R.

what you’re describing is called “toe clip overlap.” the very first bikes my company ever made (when i had a bike company) were road race bikes for women, and they simply used 650c wheels instead of building small bikes with 700c wheels (using extremely shallow head angles and a lot of fork rake to get the back of the front wheel out of the way of the pedaling shoe).

this seemed a reasonable idea to me. fairly simple. now other companies make their bikes this way, like trek’s WSD bikes, which is a GREAT idea according to trek, though it apparently wasn’t for the first 8 or 10 years after i made these bikes (because trek didn’t think the idea up themselves, i guess?).

but a lot of people thought the wheels were slower. so i took liz downing (on a bike with these wheels) to moriarty for her first, last and only USCF bike race, at which time she set a new national record for 40km for women – a new record by over a minute as i recall.

and the rest (of the 650c wheel story) is history, with course records set at IM bike courses around the world on 650c wheels that’ll NEVER be broken.

the 650c wheel is an excellent wheel, and an excellent solution to the problem of toe clip overlap, and for getting the front of the bike low enough on tri bikes. for some idiotic reason, bike companies continue to make, dealers continue to sell, and consumers continue to buy, road race bikes in 700c below 50cm in size, and tri bikes in 700c below 55cm in size.

If the frame fits i would not worry about it, its common i ride 63cm frame and have this overlap on some of my bikes.The only time it will be a problem is at very slow speeds. Randall

Yup, what’ referred to as “toe clip overlap” (even though almost no one uses toeclips anymore) is common and largely a benign malidy. It is a minor annoyance though. At speeds much above about 6 m.p.h. (I just tried this outside tooling around on my first little test ride of my new Yaqui Carbo) if you try to turn the bars far enough to hit your shoe you will crash. The problem with turning your handlebars that far starts way before your shoe hits. That much steering input above (I’m guessing here…) 6 m.p.h. will almost certainly cause you to fall. If you are just turning little circles at ultra-low speed, like when you’re waiting for someone or something, then you might occasionally have a close call. For the most part, not a problem. Something to have awareness of though, and Dan makes some good points about 650c wheels below a size 50cm frame.