How To Fit & Adjust Your Cycling Cleats

Cycling Weekly

Incorrectly fitted cleats can cause knee pain or even injury. We speak to a bike fitting expert on how to get yours sorted.

Transcript

00:00Hi I'm Hannah Reynolds, Fitness Editor at Cycling Weekly. Today I'm at Bespoke Cycling's flagship

00:12store in Canary Wharf with expert bike fitter Ben Hallam who's going to show us how to fit

00:16our cleats to our road shoes. Today we've got SPDSL cleats with 105 pedals but the principles

00:23are the same whatever cleat and pedal system you're using. We've loosely fitted them so now

00:27over to Ben. Where do we start? What we need to do first is a standing and moving assessment to

00:31understand how the body moves off the bike so we know how to set up the cleats on the bike. Now you

00:36can do this in front of the mirror yourself and be able to see your body's natural movement patterns

00:41and where you may need to move your cleats. So first thing I'd like you to do is have a little march on

00:45the spot for me and then stand whatever feels nice and comfortable for you. That's good. So we're

00:50looking for are the feet rotating out, rotating in, are we naturally standing very wide in which case

00:57the feet when you're riding may need to be moved to the outside. Here we can see on the left hand

01:02side we have a slight rotation out. Next thing we want to do is look at a little bit more dynamically

01:09what happens as you move. Stand about shoulder width apart and I want you to rotate feet straight

01:15ahead for me. Now this may feel a little unnatural but we want to see where your body moves out of that

01:23straight alignment because it gives us an indication of what we may need later on when we're fitting the

01:27cleats. Raise your arms up in front and sit back and down into a squat as though as you feel comfortable

01:33going. What we're looking for here are do the feet rotate out as we move? Do the knees bend out? Do the

01:40knees drop in? If the knees drop in we may need to allow some rotation in the cleat to not restrict

01:47this movement. So next Hannah what we need to do is a seated assessment to look at rotations around

01:53the knee. Take a seat on the end of a bed or a couch with your feet dangling in the air like this. What

01:59you're looking for if you look down from the top does your foot sit straight? Does it rotate in or does

02:05it rotate out? This is going to indicate where we need to potentially set your cleats so that you're

02:12you're not forcing your foot to be in a position it does not want to be in. So Hannah next we're going

02:18to deal with the cleat position fore and aft. Now this is very important because the if the cleat is

02:24too far forward the pedal axle ends up underneath your toes. That will lead to gripping with your toes

02:31which can often lead to cramping in the foot. It also is a less stable position to be able to push

02:36through. If you imagine climbing a step and only having your toes on the step then think about

02:42how much pressure you could put through your foot. Vice versa if the cleat is too far back

02:48then we're losing out on a lot of leverage and efficiency can be affected. So to measure this

02:54what we're going to do is use a flat surface like a skirting board to be able to get a reference point

02:59of how far the balls of your feet are away from the back of your foot. So what I want you to do Hannah

03:05is stand with your heels against the back of the skirting board. I want the feet to be nice and straight

03:10so if you straighten up your feet good and I want your ankles to be in a nice neutral position so

03:16not dropping your arches all the way in. Next we're going to take a tape measure and we're going to

03:20measure the distance from the back of the skirting board up to the ball of the foot so the knobbly bit

03:27on the inside of the foot at the base of the big toe and here we're at 17 and a half centimeters. Now we

03:35want to transfer that measurement across to the shoe. Now the best way I've found of doing this

03:40is putting a little piece of electrical tape on the side of the shoe to allow you to place a mark

03:45on the shoe without actually damaging your shoe. What I prefer to do is to actually place the cleat

03:52slightly behind that first ball of the foot because underneath that first ball of the foot there are

03:57a couple of little sesamoid bones that are similar to a kneecap to allow the transmission of force around

04:03there. If we load those some people find them a little bit sore so I want to hit just behind that

04:09point. So what I tend to use is just the thickness of the back of the shoe to add that little bit of

04:15length to hit just behind there. Now if your shoes have a little bit of plastic on the back like a

04:21CIDI we want to add that measurement to the measurement we've already taken. Next we want to place

04:27the shoe against the skirting board in a straight position. Take the tape measure along the inside

04:34of the shoe. Take your pen and mark the measurement that you've made just up the inside of the shoe.

04:42So here we're at 17 and a half. Every cleat has a mark on the side showing where the axle sits underneath

04:50the cleat. This is what we want to line up against the mark we just made. Next we want to deal with rotation.

04:56Here at Bespoke we use a fancy little tool from Ergon to allow us to replicate exactly the rotation

05:04of the cleat every single time. But you can do this very quickly with a piece of corrugated cardboard

05:10cut out to the same shape as a cleat. For Hannah on the left hand side we need a slight rotation heel in

05:20and then tighten up the bolts. Next what we want to do is deal with the position in and out. So the

05:26lateral position and relationship of the foot knee and hip. To do this I would ride on a turbo in front

05:32of a mirror so that you can see the position of your hip knee and ankle. If knees and hips are tracking

05:39outside of your foot then the cleat probably needs to be pushed inside which will put your foot slightly

05:47further out a little bit wider. Vice versa if your knees and hips are inside of the position of your ankles

05:55then the opposite needs to happen. Push the cleat to the outside of the shoe which will put the foot

06:01closer in. Lastly we need to deal with rotation. Hopefully we've done the majority of this with the

06:07body assessment that we've already done. Now we need to feel if we are sitting on the edge of the float

06:14that is available. Often I find it easier to close your eyes and feel if your foot is being forced to

06:20sit in a position that isn't natural. If you feel like your foot wants to be more heel closer to the

06:27bike or heel in then this is where we would want to stop reorientate the position of the shoe and then

06:34check again. Do this in small increments because it sometimes only needs a few degrees to be just

06:42perfect. Today we've been using the yellow SPDSL cleats but is there a difference in float between

06:47the different colours? Yes so with SPDSL it comes in three different colours. It comes in the yellow,

06:54the blue and they also do a red. Now these indicate different amounts of float. Now float is how much

07:01freedom the foot has to rotate before it comes out of the out of the pedal. The yellows have six degrees,

07:10the blues have roughly sort of two degrees of float and the reds are completely fixed.

07:16Look run a similar system. They run red for nine degrees of float,

07:22grey for four and a half degrees of float and black for fixed. Speedplay had the ability to micro adjust

07:29the float. Does everyone need float in their pedals? Float is important if you have a restriction

07:36in your movement. That means that your knee is not going to track in a perfect straight alignment.

07:42This can come from the hip, knee or simply a core instability that will pull everything out of

07:48alignment. Your foot needs to be able to rotate with that movement otherwise the knee has to take

07:55up that additional movement. This can overload structures in the knee and cause pain. I believe

08:01it's a misconception that everyone needs float and sometimes if you have knee pain more float may not

08:09be the answer. If the reason you're getting knee pain is because you have instability and are unable to

08:15control the movement at the foot increasing the amount of freedom your foot has will just exasperate

08:22the issue. In this situation potentially less float may give you more stability and control

08:29but this is something that you should get checked by a trained fitter. So how would I know if my cleats

08:35were set up wrong? You may get an indication if your cleats are set up incorrectly because you develop a knee

08:43niggle, a pain or if you're feeling that you're on the edge of the float and your foot is not tracking

08:50and sitting in a position that feels natural. If your cleat is not positioned correctly fore and aft you may

08:55find that you drive through your heel more or tend to point your toes or grip. This can often lead to foot

09:02numbness. This may be another indication that your cleat position may not be quite right.

09:07So what we've done today is a good starting point for getting your cleats in the right position

09:12but it's a very complicated part of bike fitting so if someone still has any discomfort or pain or

09:20any concerns best thing to do is to go along and see someone like yourself I imagine. That's correct.

09:26There are areas on top of this including angles of the foot and the cleat and also dealing with leg

09:32length differences which we'll do from the cleat. Thanks Ben that's really helpful. If you've got any more

09:38questions on bike fit leave it in the comments box on the page below this video and for more bike

09:43fitting information visit www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

09:49You

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