- 7 weeks ago
Cycling shoes are key to getting comfortable on a road bike or gravel bike and are an important part of any bike fit. To help make your next cycling shoe purchase as comfortable as possible we contacted a professional bike fitter to see what tips they had to find the right cycling shoes for you.
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00:00These are my new cycling shoes and I'm very pleased with them,
00:04but that shouldn't come as much of a surprise because I was meticulous
00:08in my shoe buying decision making.
00:16However, new shoe day isn't quite such a slipper-like experience for many people
00:21and so we thought we'd share some of the buying mistakes that we've made when it comes to cycling
00:26shoes and get some expert advice from a professional bike fitter here at Synergy Performance.
00:31Let's get into it.
00:35So Luke, whilst you set up my cleats, why is getting the right shoe important?
00:42To keep it simple and straightforward.
00:44Effectively, what you've got to imagine, we've got a set of scales,
00:47the front of the bike, on the saddle and down at your feet and what I'm trying to do is
00:51stabilize you on the bike by passing weight through your feet and by passing this weight
00:56down through your feet and stabilizing your foot, you can have a happy, comfortable foot
01:00that's going to deliver power better and yeah, maybe a few extra ones.
01:06So, point number one, buying a shoe we like the look of rather than actually how it fits your foot.
01:12I bet that happens quite a lot. I see that a lot, so I bet you see it all the time.
01:17I do, and this brand of device, really effective way of understanding the size of your foot,
01:22most importantly the width of your foot, to understand what may be a good direction of
01:27cycling shoe to go in. What we see a loss of is an industry driven by Italian design,
01:34when actually the British person's foot is not shaped like that. So, having a little look at
01:40the shape of your foot, the shape of your toes, are you maybe an arrow pointed foot, are you maybe a
01:46more of a box or square-like foot? And this width is a really key metric to understand where,
01:52what direction do I go in with the shape of the shoe? And that's the important thing to start with,
01:56is the shape of the shoe before you go down the route of, oh, this one's on discount and I like the
02:01look of that, I'm going to buy this one. So, what are my feet like? So, it's important to understand your
02:08foot shape when you're standing up. Oh, okay. So, if you stand up for me, yeah, see how your foot spread out
02:14there and gain the width and size. And this is how you analyse your foot. So, not when you're sitting
02:20down. Now, pretty simple metric, 42 and a half, pretty standard, first amount of tarsal location.
02:28So, you're pushing out in a D in width. So, you've got a little bit of forefoot width to your foot shape.
02:38The second thing to discuss about is how not all 42 shoes fit the same.
02:44Now, not everyone has access to a branded device at home. A simple way to understand is your foot
02:50the correct length for your shoe is to take the insole out of your shoe and place your foot onto
02:57the insole and stand up. And this is a good indication of how your foot wants to connect
03:03with the shoe. So, how much should you have at the top? What I would like to see is no kind of excess
03:09fabric or insole towards the head of the toes. And I ideally don't want to see your foot overhanging
03:16the edge. So, what you can see here is you fit this insole quite nice. If I was seeing
03:24lots of this overhang at the front, probably an insight into
03:28that the size shoe you're in is not the correct size. It's worth pointing out that as soon as you
03:33fit a cleat to it, you can't send them back. So, do that first.
03:38A big thanks to FLR Shoes who've sponsored this video and made it possible. The shoes that I went
03:47for and have been using are the FNT 9 Knit. That's a world tour level shoe. They've won two stages of
03:53Puerto Espana. I believe it's the US National Champs as well at some point. They've got three layers of
03:59woven yarn and that makes them really breathable, which is something that I really want because
04:03I've been riding in lots of hot conditions. I get to go and ride my bike in lots of very nice places.
04:08So, that's something well up my shoe buying list. FLR though make a whole range of shoes to suit a whole
04:15range of foot shapes and budgets. So, you can check out their whole range from mountain bike shoes,
04:20road shoes, downhill shoes, every kind of shoe. You can check them out on the FLR website and we'll
04:25pop a link down in the description below. Whilst I've got you here, make sure you're subscribed to
04:30the channel and now back to do some shoe fitting. Point number three, sizing up to accommodate a wide
04:39foot. I see it all the time where people maybe wear a size 42, 43 trainer and they assume that that's
04:46the size of their foot. Whereas actually they may be a smaller foot but they need more width from the
04:51shoe. I mean I can quite see how that would be a problem but what are the consequences of buying
04:56a shoe that's the wrong size? Inherently, this is a very poor lever. My job as a bike fitter is to reduce
05:03how much of a poor lever this is to stabilize your feet. What I see a lot of the time is if you're doing
05:09this thing of inherently sizing up to accommodate a wider foot, quite simple, these cleats are going to be too far
05:15forward and the consequence of these cleats being too far forward, foot numbness, hot spots and feet
05:21and most importantly that people don't really understand is an inability to stabilize your foot
05:26is then going to pass weights elsewhere on the bike. Hand numbness, knee pain, saddle sores,
05:33asymmetry on the bike. All from the wrong size of shoe. Potentially.
05:39Point number four, the most overlooked part of buying a new shoe. What goes on inside of this?
05:45In particular, arch your foot. So, this thin piece of foam that comes inside of your shoe.
05:50Ideally, what I wish the cycling industry would do as a whole, sell you this shoe with nothing inside
05:56of it. So you then have to go, oh maybe I should go and get something made designed for my foot.
06:01I would find that a little bit weird but I do get your point. Do any brands do that? No brands do that.
06:08One industry does it really well and that's the ski boot industry. You go and buy a set of ski boots,
06:12you have to have a ski boot fitting. Why do I need arch support? So, let's give your arches a little measure.
06:21You're pushing around about 25mm of arch height. Not uncommon, I see that a lot. Anywhere from sort of
06:2720 to 25mm is really quite common. Now, here's a pretty simple representation of what your foot is
06:34doing inside of this shoe. Your foot is basically not touching all of this space here. Now, this stiff
06:42carbon sole, this is not going to mold up to your foot. Your foot, this is rigid. It's my job to get
06:48your foot to touch the bottom of this. One, we can get more of your foot touching the bottom of this.
06:53Delivering power and stabilising your foot is going to be far easier. Why tend to say to people,
06:58if they've got a budget of £300 to spend on a shoe, it's better to put £200 into the shoe and £100
07:05into a custom insole. And that's why insoles is simply the best bang for buck upgrade on your wife.
07:12Right. So, I've got my new shoes. I'm ready to go. Definitely not yet. You can still mess it up.
07:22So, this next point, we're going to be talking about cleat setup and a little bit about something
07:28called foot correction. Generally, if I'm going to give any kind of advice, it would be to trial
07:35moving your cleats all the way backwards. Why might I want to do that? Covering the things we've talked
07:40about where people are sizing up to accommodate a wide foot. Potentially, these three holes being
07:46drilled a little bit too far forward for my liking. Mainly driven by quite old school methodology around
07:53the centre of the pedal, aligning with the ball of your foot. Now, manufacturers are getting better
07:57with making these holes further back. And what we are aiming for when we're setting your cleats
08:03is to reduce the tension and pressure that's going through the forefoot. So, first metatarsal is
08:09this big bone in your foot. Really simple way at home of measuring this is place a little bit of
08:14tape over the ball of this foot. And on a Shimano pleat, they've got a little bit of plastic here
08:18that denotes the centre of the pedal. Quite easy. Pop another bit of tape there. Measure how far that
08:24is behind. And what we want to see is at least 1.5 centimetres. Now, that's a starting position.
08:32You can go anywhere beyond that to try and improve the stability of someone's foot. And that's sort of
08:38the base point to start with. What you may find is that's not far enough.
08:43Okay, so that's the fore-aft positioning done. Yeah. Anything else to consider?
08:48There are a few more things to take into consideration. How this, basically, the
08:54shifting this cleat inwards and outward is going to affect how far away your foot is from the pedal.
08:59Now, a really, really simple method at home, you can understand this, is just let your foot
09:05dangle over maybe the surface of the sofa or a table and just look at how your foot falls.
09:11Okay, so if I sit on like a high counter? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And if your foot
09:16naturally falls quite heel in, or your foot kind of splays outwards, it may be a good indication that
09:22this is how we're going to want to set your cleats up. Now, this is not a how to set your
09:27cleats video. I would generally, I would definitely recommend people to go to your local bike fitter,
09:32because this is definitely something that takes a little bit more detail than what we're discussing
09:37here. So basically, to bring this back to shoe buying advice, obviously, when you buy a new set of
09:42shoes, they don't come with any cleats on. So take your time to carefully position those cleats,
09:48otherwise you'd bugger it. Definitely. I would strongly suggest either using your current cleats
09:54and the way they're set up on a shoe as a guide, go see a bike fitter, go see someone in your local
10:00shop, they'll definitely be able to help. So to conclude what we kind of covered, your feet are the
10:10most important connection point with the bike, so it's definitely worth investing a little bit of money,
10:15a little bit of time in making sure you are in the right shoe. Well, it is absolutely beautiful
10:19weather outside, so I am going to go and use my new shoes and enjoy the weather. Happy days. We'll
10:26be back soon for another video, so keep your eyes out for that one. See you then.
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