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 over to Ben.

00:28Where do we start? What we need to do first is a standing and moving assessment to understand

00:32how the body moves off the bike so we know how to set up the cleats on the bike. Now you can do this

00:37in front of the mirror yourself and be able to see your body's natural movement patterns and where

00:42you may need to move your cleats. So first thing I'd like you to do is have a little march on the

00:46spot for me and then stand whatever feels nice and comfortable for you. That's good. So we're looking

00:51for are the feet rotating out, rotating in, are we naturally standing very wide in which case the

00:57feet on the 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

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

01:32comfortable going. What we're looking for here are do the feet rotate out as we move? Do the knees

01:39bend out? Do the knees drop in? If the knees drop in we may need to allow some rotation in the cleat

01:46to not restrict this movement. So next Hannah what we need to do is a seated assessment to look at

01:52rotations around the knee. Take a seat on the end of a bed or a couch with your feet dangling

01:58in the air like this. What you're looking for if you look down from the top does your foot sit

02:03straight? Does it rotate in or does it rotate out? This is going to indicate where we need to

02:10potentially set your cleats so that you're not forcing your foot to be in a position it does not

02:15want to be in. So Hannah next we're going to deal with the cleat position fore and aft. Now this is very

02:21important because if the cleat is too far forward the pedal axle ends up underneath your toes.

02:28That will lead to gripping with your toes which can often lead to cramping in the foot. It also is

02:34a less stable position to be able to push through. If you imagine climbing a step and only having your

02:40toes on the step then think about how much pressure you could put through your foot. Vice versa if the

02:47cleat is too far back then we're losing out on a lot of leverage and efficiency can be affected.

02:53So to measure this what we're going to do is use a flat surface like a skirting board

02:57to be able to get a reference point of how far the balls of your feet are away from the back of

03:03your foot. So what I want you to do Hannah is stand with your heels against the back of the skirting

03:08board. I want the feet to be nice and straight so if you straighten up your feet good and I want your

03:13ankles to be in a nice neutral position so not dropping your arches all the way in. Next we're

03:18going to take a tape measure and we're going to measure the distance from the back of the skirting

03:23board up to the ball of the foot so the knobbly bit on the inside of the foot at the base of the big toe

03:30and here we're at 17 and a half centimeters. Now we want to transfer that measurement across to the

03:37shoe. Now the best way I found of doing this is putting a little piece of electrical tape on the

03:43side of the shoe to allow you to place a mark on the shoe without actually damaging your shoe.

03:48What I prefer to do is to actually place the cleat slightly behind that first ball of the foot

03:55because underneath that first ball of the foot there are a couple of little sesamoid bones

04:00that are similar to a kneecap to allow the transmission of force around there. If we load those

04:05some people find them a little bit sore so I want to hit just behind that point. So what I tend to use

04:11is just the thickness of the back of the shoe to add that little bit of length to hit just behind

04:17there. Now if your shoes have a little bit of plastic on the back like a sidi we want to add that

04:22measurement to the measurement we've already taken. Next we want to place the shoe against the skirting

04:29board in a straight position. Take your tape measure along the inside of the shoe, take your pen and mark

04:37the measurement that you've made just up the inside of the shoe. So here we're at 17 and a half.

04:44Every cleat has a mark on the side showing where the axle sits underneath the cleat. This is what we

04:51want to line up against the mark we just made. Next we want to deal with rotation. Here at Bespoke we use

04:59a fancy little tool from Ergon to allow us to replicate exactly the rotation at the cleat every single time.

05:06But you can do this very quickly with a piece of corrugated cardboard cut out to the same shape as a

05:11cleat. For Hannah on the left hand side we need a slight rotation heel in and then tighten up the

05:21bolts. Next what we want to do is deal with the position in and out so the lateral position and

05:27relationship of the foot knee and hip. To do this I would ride on a turbo in front of a mirror so that

05:34you can see the position of your hip knee and ankle. If knees and hips are tracking outside of your foot

05:41then the cleat probably needs to be pushed inside which will put your foot slightly further out a

05:48little bit wider. Vice versa if your knees and hips are inside of the position of your ankles then the

05:56opposite needs to happen. Push the cleat to the outside of the shoe which will put the

06:00foot closer in. Lastly we need to deal with rotation. Hopefully we've done the majority of this with

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

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

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

06:26closer to the bike or heel in then this is where we would want to stop reorientate the position of the

06:33shoe and then check again. Do this in small increments because it sometimes only needs a few degrees

06:41to be just perfect. Today we've been using the yellow SPDSL cleats but is there a difference in

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

06:53yellow, the blue and they also do a red. Now these indicate different amounts of float. Now float is

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

07:09degrees. The 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, grey for four and a half degrees

07:24of float and black for fixed. Speedplay had the ability to micro adjust the float. Does everyone need

07:31float in their pedals? Float is important if you have a restriction in your movement. That means that your

07:38knee is not going to track in a perfect straight alignment. This can come from the hip, knee or

07:44simply a core instability that will pull everything out of alignment. Your foot needs to be able to

07:51rotate with that movement otherwise the knee has to take up that additional movement. This can overload

07:58structures in the knee and cause pain. I believe it's a misconception that everyone needs float and

08:05sometimes if you have knee pain more float may not be the answer. If the reason you're getting knee

08:11pain is because you have instability and are unable to control the movement at the foot, increasing the

08:18amount of freedom your foot has will just exasperate the issue. In this situation potentially less float may

08:27give you more stability and control but this is something that you should get checked by a trained fitter.

08:33So how would I know if my cleats were set up wrong? You may get an indication if your cleats are set up

08:40incorrectly because you develop a knee niggle, a pain or if you're feeling that you're on the edge of

08:47the float and your foot is not tracking and sitting in a position that feels natural. If your cleat is not

08:54positioned correctly fore and aft you may find that you drive through your heel more or tend to point your

08:59toes or grip. This can often lead to foot numbness. This may be another indication that your cleat

09:05position may not be quite right. So what we've done today is a good starting point for getting your

09:10cleats in the right position but it's a very complicated part of bike fitting so if someone

09:18still has any discomfort or pain or any concerns best thing to do is to go along and see someone like

09:23yourself I imagine. That's correct. There are areas on top of this including angles of the foot

09:30and the cleat and also dealing with leg length differences which we'll do from the cleat. Thanks

09:35Ben that's really helpful. If you've got any more questions on bike fit leave it in the comments box

09:40on the page below this video and for more bike fitting information visit www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

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