I recently installed LeWedge to compensate for a short right leg. On the Rt cleat, I have a stack front to back (to create an even height) plus two thick sides back to back on the inside - closest to the spindle. On the left cleat i have only the two wedges thick sides together to the inside of my shoe. The directions state that most riders should place the thicker side of the wedges on the inside (closest to the spindle). My run tendency is to supinate, so should i have the thicker side of the wedge to the outside of my shoe - or is pronation/supination not the driving factor with the LeWedgeie?
I have used the Big Meat/Lewedges quite a bit in fitting, and I am very much of the opinion that they can be very useful for some riders, and very harmful for others. If you are asking questions like these, you should probably not be DIYing with wedges. You can definitely mess your knees up pretty badly with them.
The LeWedges are very good stacked in opposition as height shims if you have a lower leg length descrepancy - they are not very (at all) effective for femur length difference. You should examine the relative knee angles of your R&L legs with a goniometer to see that you have the correct height shim.
Note that this is very different from wedging.
Several years ago Lennard Zinn did a review of the wedges, and his initial inclination/belief was that they would not be very useful for him. He had a very “neutral” foot position, and no obvious bio-mechanical issues that would be effectively addressed by shimming. The (then) manufacturer of the product assured him that he was, in fact a good candidate for their use, and that even lacking a bio-mechanical issue to be addressed by wedging, he would be able to increase power/mechanical efficiency through their use. He didn’t stay on them very long, finding them to be quite detrimental to his riding (and, if I recall correctly, actually painful.)
I believe that this was very illustrative of the mis-application of a very good, very specialized product. Wedging is very useful for riders that need it, and useless at best, damaging at worst for riders that don’t need it. If you don’t know that you need wedging, don’t wedge.
Supination/pronation while running has, in my experience, little to no correlation with a riders leg motion while pedaling. I highly recommend against using running supination as a guidline for evaluating your pedalling mechanics.
Wedging is best done in the context of a professional fit, by a qualified bike fitter who is familiar with the concept and application of the product and has experience with it. Lacking access to this resource, a rider can DIY, but care needs to be taken.
How to DIY with wedges:
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If you cannot identify beforehand why you are wedging, don’t.
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Identify the mechanical issue you are attempting to address with the wedges. This will usually be some variation on the themes of “knees tracking out of alignment with pedal motion” or "Super narrow/wide hips/bow legged feet want to kant in/outward.
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Identify how you think wedging will correct your “issues.” Stop here if you can not.
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Set bike up on a stationary trainer, with mirror(s) that will afford you a view of your pedalling motion.
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Observe your pedalling dynamics prior to shimming. Reaffirm/confirm your analysis from steps 2&3.
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Notate accurately your bike position and cleat position. Wedging may well necessitate changes in both.
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Apply wedges to accomplish #3, incrementally adding height/kant until your pedalling motion, observed in the mirrors, improves. Be prepared to alter saddle height. Wedging can produce fairly big changes in knee angle/effective “Q”, which will manifest as an apparent change in seat height.
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Good Luck.
… And, yes, this can be fairly complicated. This should be part of a professional bike fit for riders that need it.
Wedging, unless it is a fairly straight forward case, is an “a la carte” service when I perform fits. I shim for leg length much more frequently than I wedge (I have the ability to laser cut wedges/shims very precisely, which comes in handy.)
MH
And yes, I know it is “cant,” but I like Kant better. Insert bad undergrad Hegel joke here.
MH - Thanks for the good info. I think i will un-"K"ant myself leaving the leg length shim and possible seek professional help. Funny (or not so funny) thing is … i recently installed the wedges and recently hurt my knee, albeit in the pool. I went to my Ortho who looked it over and decided all i needed was some 800mg IB to help it get back to normal. I wonder if the final kick, so to speak, came in the pool, but the damage was really done on the bike. Thanks again.