Sorry, but I’m still playing Sherlock, and getting closer to an answer to my knee pain cause…
Am I incorrect in this assumtion (I hope I can explain it well):
While on the bike, there is an imaginary line that should, in a perfect world, be perfectly straight from your hip…through your knee…through your ankle…to the bottom of the foot to the pedal? (If you were looking head on at this line, throughout the pedal stroke, while the line would go up and down, it would NOT go side to side). This line runs perpendicular to the ground at all times while pedaling.
What happens if this line (if above is correct) is non-existent? For example…you move your cleat on your shoe ON YOUR LEFT FOOT ONLY as close to the crank as possible, thus causing the “line” to be not perpendicular any more, but at an angle from the hip to the pedal?
Could THIS cause knee pain to on the outside of the knee?
What could happen is that your knee would start moving in a figure eight like motion… not good.
Imagine looking at yourself in a mirror… with an imaginary orange dot on your knee… the orange dot should move up and down… the changes you indicate (if I read your post correctly) may make your knee start moving in a figure eight like manner or move in an angled-line - either way is bad unless your trying to compensate for a hip or knee skeletal abnormality.
But I read on Slowtwitch (or at least I THINK I did) that you want your shoe AS CLOSE TO THE CRANK as you can get. Right?
One other reason I moved my shoe closer is because my foot seems to roll to the outside when I pedal. I moved it closer to the inside/close to the crank so that my foot would be transfering more power to the pedal…or so I thought.
… “as close to the crank” as you can get does not mean to ignore physilogical limitations.
The safest and most powerful transfer of effort is vertical motion regardless of where you locate the cleat on the shoe. For some that may moving the shoe closer to the crank… for others, it may be further away. The key is prevention of knee injury… nothing slows down a biker more than knee problems.
You didnt’ mention in your post… are you experiencing knee problems? If not, then moving your cleat position may create more problems than it solves. The fact that you foot rolls to the outside may be a problem and may not be a problem. Our body has ways of compensating for irregular movement and position. When you make changes to those “irregular” movements, it very important that muscle imbalance doesn’t occur… which also compounds injuries.
The best solution is to evaluate your current muscle balance. A good PT can run these tests (and, a CT to some degree doe this also)… finding your muscle balance should determine changes in cleat position (or, any bike position changes for that matter). The correct order for making bike position changes is correcting any muscle imbalances first, then making slow and calculated bike position changes to accomodate the new (and, hopefully stonger) muscle balance. That is how more power is achieved… and, that has less to do with bike cleat position changes. Making changes to accomodate more “percieved power” is a trial and error approach that has good and bad consequences… depending upon how lucky your changes are and how adaptive your body is to the changes.
In a perfect world, knowing your physiological (i.e., muscular and skeletal) limits (i.e., strengths and weaknesses) first, then adapting your fits to accomodate the muscle imbalances/rebalancing is the best way to increase power.
I’d qualify that statement a little more…you should move you foot as close to the crank as you can without having any bad effects…such as knee pain.
For you, this might mean having to put shims between the pedal and crank and/or moving your cleat to the inside of your shoe, etc. Still, I’d want to get someone well versed in this to look at it when you ride, not just guess. It’s a little like studying a golf swing…it seems to be something best done by a professional…not the athlete himself looking into a mirror…
If you could beg/borrow/steal a video camera for an afternoon and record your present knee movent while on a trainer, it might give you some answers. Set up the camera at about knee level and straight on from the front.
I wonder whether my weird leg mechanics as a result of tibia torsion as child affect my cycling as much as my running. I overpronate severly and grind the corners off all my shoes.
I did the pedal shimming last summer and it helped keep my left knee straight. I didn’t have problems with my knee though, my problem was with my left hip. I can see where this can cause problems with your knees. The $25 investment was well worth it.
jaretj
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Randall, the knees weren’t hurting last year, no. But I went for a run in October, and there was a sharp pain on the side of my left knee. It (most likely) isn’t ITB related. I was thinking that is MIGHT be due to my cleat set up.
I moved my shoes in because they seemed a bit far out AND my foot kept feeling like it was rolling to the outside of the pedal and that I wasn’t getting 100% of the power I needed to get out of my pedal stroke.
The pedal change was done because I thought the pedals COULD have been a part cause. I am still in the process of doing my detective work on solving the cause.
You might need to stop the cycle of inflammation,you ride it gets irritatted,it gets inflamed again,You might need to give it a rest and use a anti inflammation meds,with ice for a while,If the cleats were fine last year go back to that setting to see if things go back to normal, i see no use trying to get the foot so close to the crank,your hips are wide why have your feet so narrow? If your worried about losing power come out and do some of our Time Trials like you did last year,also make sure your saddle/seat is not to low,It might be ITB related,if so there are stretches for that,