What happens if your cleat is too far back?

Triathlon Forum
1

I know that if your cleat is too far forward it will require extra work from your calf muscles. But what if it’s too far back? I have my cleats right under the ball of my foot now. But I’m curious what would happen if I slid the cleats back a little?

Duey

2

You would shift more of the work to your quadriceps. So, I guess if the cleat was “too far back,” you’d shift “too much work” to your quads. However, it doesn’t seem, in terms of actually putting yourself at risk of injury, that you can move your cleats too far back. Joe Friel (among others) has experimented with the arch-mounted cleats, and there is another coach (or researcher, can’t remember) who has done work with heel-mounted cleats (about as far back as you can get). In each case, they claim that the location represents an improvement.

As long as your saddle height is set-up correctly, there doesn’t actually seem to be any risk associated with cleats further back. Now, whether or not you will lose power or efficiency, I’m not sure there is a really definitive answer. But I think the current knowledge base indicates that you can safely try moving your cleats back, without any sort of worry about hurting yourself.

Hope that helps.

3

I moved my cleats as far back as I could on my road and tri shoes (Specialized BG carbon soles) 2 years ago and immediately started running better off the bike. Short and long course. Similar hours of training although you could argue I had a deeper base since I have only been exercising for 8 years and starting tri’s in 2001. I ran 4:14 at both my 1st two IM’s in Wisconsin and Placid in 2004 and 2006 then ran 3:44 and 3:43 at IMCDA and IMF last year after I changed position on my cleats in the fall of 2006. Same or a bit less run mileage this year. I feel a lot more comfortable right off the bike now too although I have tried to do at least a short t-run after each bike ride now. I think there available adapters or even some shoes which allow you to REALLY move your cleats rearwards. I haven’t spoken to anyone who has tried these. Hope this study w/ N=1 helps.

4

So for those of us with constant knee trouble (chondramalacia - soft cartilage under kneecap), would moving the cleat forward help?

5

Cleats back actually takes it off the quads and spreads it around. Way more hamstring involvement. I know this because I was riding with cleats back while I was healing from hip surgery. At some point in time I realized that I was not getting as much out of my quads (I used to be more of a quad pusher). I moved them back forward- way more quad involvement, but I no longer had the lower leg strength to make full use of the cleat forward position. I am now 3/4 forward.
Another way to decide where to go is by paying attention to your feet inside of your shoes. If you find yourself trying to drive your heels back more in the shoes- move the cleats forward. If you find your foot trying to locate itself forward- move the cleats back.
There is no right andswer for cleat position.

6

Check some archived Q&A on cyclingnews.com. They have put out quite a bit of information on cleat position and about putting the cleat in the middle of the shoe and what not.

7

Correct me if I’m wrong because it’s been a while since I did any physics, but if we assume the following for simplicity:

  1. the patella serves as a frictionless pulley
  2. the seat position remains fixed regardless of cleat position
  3. the rider maintains a flat foot position throughout the pedal stroke

And we take a crank arm position of approximately 45 degrees forward of top dead center then the two muscle groups that are doing the work are:

  1. the quadriceps – extending the knee, dominant force vector in the above position being ‘forward’
  2. the hip extensors – dominant force vector being ‘downward’

Then if we move the cleat position backwards on the shoe we have the following two effects:

  1. the lever arm that is the foot is shortened, i.e. the ankle and the point of force on the foot is shortened, and therefore less contractile force is required to maintain a flat foot posture
  2. the effective arc through which the quadriceps can exert a ‘forward’ force on the pedal is reduced as by virtue of the rearward cleat position decreasing the maximum amount of knee flexion that will be achieved, and therefore to achieve the same amount of power output the hip extensors must do more work

One could hypothesize from point #2 that:

  1. the reduced range of pedal arc in which the maximum compressive forces are placed on the patella results in less mechanical compressive stress, and,
  2. the reduction in absolute knee flexion directly reduces the compressive load as the inflexible tendon is not placed under as great a tensile load

and therefore might be of benefit to those with chondromalacia patella. But of course without actually being able to measure the forces that’s just a hypothesis.