You don’t want different length cranks, just a shim between your shoe and pedal on the shorter leg.
Anyway, get yourself fixed first, then sort your position out.
Do you mean that you need that blood pumped to that area?
Agreed. But, ultrasounds for a tendonitis? Here it’s difficult even to get an analysis when you are sick… will the doctor agree to use some shit like that? TBH, I don’t even know about ultrasounds 
Not sure who Winston is. Is the guy @ranlee linked?
Not really many injuries, and definitively NOT related to fitting (I just mentioned a crash and some knee annoyances… due to hard MTB riding, or more probably running I’m thinking now…).
I will probably give it a shot, and will check with a doctor too. But again, I’ve done many other hard/long rides and didn’t have this problem until now.
I don’t think I ever said that… I just think that I can do just fine with the current fitting.
The reason I changed the saddle height (recently) is nothing to do with fitting, is because I took several trains and had to remove the seat post every time I had to bag the bike.
I guess that my solution is just to follow medical advice and pray for feeling better once I get back to ride. And yes, I will probably ask a professional fitter about this, but again, I never had this problem before, and I don’t think they can make dramatic changes over the current setup. Or not necessary changes anyway.
Nope! I like more the idea of having a cleat with some extra padding.
Well, different intensity… but yeah, it also bugs me when off the bike. However, it’s not a pain I can’t bear, it’s just there, you can feel it, but it’s kinda muted. The intensity of the pain has changed over the time. But again, the pain is mainly when riding. I think I will check tomorrow some doctor a friend recommended me, supposedly he’s “super good”. But I just don’t trust doctors here, same I don’t trust scooter shops or bicycle shops *
That’s my plan… or my wish. And yeah, no way I’m mixing crank lengths, ALTHOUG I have read a guy who was unknowingly riding a 170 and 172.5 and didn’t notice shit, or he said that.
- I don’t trust scooter/motorcycle shops because most of them don’t know shit. I have had to ask for tools for doing myself in front of them what they said it wasn’t possible, or too difficult. I don’t trust doctors because they just give you pills, and consistently fail to give an accurante or useful diagnosis, they give you pills instead.
And I don’t trust much bicycle shops because I’ve been told very retarded things in these places. I remember this fat guy lecturing my friend why she had to inflte the tyres up to 120 PSI because “these tyres are different” and “the more the better for roads”. The girls weights not much more than 50 kg., and everybody knows what roads in TW look like. Funnily enough, she and many other riders got a flat in an event in YuShan last Sunday, when crossing over some metal junction in a bridge I guess. I immidiately imagined all these super PRO riders and shop mechanics over inflating the tyres for making the bikes super fast
Winston is the owner of Friday Bike Fit, yes.
Those are good reasons for getting a proper fit… Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Don’t use different crank lengths.
Good luck resolving the issue!
Well you need blood pumped to every area of your body. But inflammation is your body’s response when injured to heal heal faster getting more blood to help the healing process. Although some studies suggest short term use doesn’t seem to be detrimental to healing but it’s something that’s debated in the sports medicine community. For example icing doesn’t really do anything, we used to ice the pitchers arm after the game for baseball, but many trainers are now staying away from it because it slows blood flow to the area and only provides short term relief.
Sounds like overuse of that tendon to me.
The Achilles tendon is used for tiptoeing. When you could not reach the pedals properly, you probably put a constant strain onto the tendon.
If you pedal with your heels instead, there won’t be much/any strain of that tendon/muscle.
Lower your seat till you can pedal with your heels and don’t have to go into any tiptoe motion.
Get bigger pedals and put the feet more to the center.
This will be less efficient for riding a bike and there might be other parts of your body that could give. It depends on your age.
Have you ever ridden a rode bike with cleats? Lowering the seat for sure will wreck the tendons by not fully extending them on each rotation and putting all in the stress in one location on the tendon.
Some tires do suggest you pump the tires up to a higher psi. I had a set of Maxxis tires that it was recommended I pumped it up to 120psi and max was 140psi. I was weary about the idea, but went ahead with it. Never had a flat and I weigh in at 64-66kg.
The metal junctions on the bridges in the Yushan race are rather stupid, but unavoidable since there’s only one road leading up to the visitor center. Sucks she got a flat. Next time, tell her to cross those sections diagonally instead of straight on.
I know there are some tyres that take higher pressure. But this is not the case… they are crappy Giant tyres. And she’s below that weight you say. My point is… here, and everywhere, you will find many people who talk a lot. But I’m under the impression that here it happens even more.
I went to some Chinese bones doctor. I didn’t want to go there, but I was taken there. Totally bizarre. They guy, of course, found that I had a problem with my foot bones, and pressed beyond any logic a couple of points for making his point. It was REALLY painful, and TBH, I don’t think that the reason for the pain was the bones, but him pressing like a mofo. There are nerves and soft tissue and muscles there!
After that I was coated with a couple of jellies and covered the whole thing with some tissue.
I’m hating everything right now.
Go and see this guy: http://www.ajwkptc.com/home
Nanjing and Guangfu, next to and above the organic foods shop. No-nonsense physio. He’ll figure out the site of inflammation, ultrasound it and do some deep tissue work on your calves. NTD600.
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I wanted to go yesterday and I took morning off for that… only to realize that it opens at 13:00. I went to a hospital, they made X-ray and of course didn’t find anything. Actually yesterday the pain was almost totally gone… which is what happens when i don’t ride for several days.
Doctor said to KEEP riding, but shorter distances, because I’m not a normal person but SUCH A SPORTS MAN 
but warm up and stretch much more. If the pain persists, he says he’ll use sonar to inspect the soft tissue around the tendon.
I kinda buy that argument. May be I need to take it easy, keep working out a bit and give more importance to the preparation and the after ride.
Also the guy didn’t show much trust towards the Chinese witchery I underwent last wednesday. He says that yes, Chinese medicine can and do help, but to look at a foot and say “hey, that bone is not where it should be”, and “fix” it with a couple of (painless?) movements, with no xrays or any other evidence, is highly suspicious.
I’m a bit sad about this… my muscles and my mind are more than ready for nice rides, I think I’ve improved and I’m hungry for kms… and then I have this shitty Achilles tendon screwing my plans.
Will need to focus on other sports. Probably bed sports.
I would consider some achilles strengthening exercises as well. I do them all the time with my personal trainer once a weak to work on strengthening lagging parts and fixing mobility issues in my lower body for basketball. After multiple serious injuries my legs are a trouble spot. I may be able to squat or deadlift a lot, but they don’t translate well into performance because of mobility problems for lagging spots weaknesses in strengths from parts of my lower body causing me to not be able to do certain things with ease and causing pain.
Also xray may not show light or moderate tears, you need a MRI for that.
What exercises do you recommend me for strengthening the tendon? the doctor told me to do squats.
I actually stretch my Achilles before I do my squat. It helps me do heavy squats without putting my legs in a compromising position. There are some videos on YouTube that shows it.
I guess you make those squats with some weights… is it?
I’ll look for videos later.
Yeah not squats. Wall pushes, i.e. place the injured foot behind the good one and push into a wall (Youtube it). You should feel the tightness in the Achilles. 3 sets of ten, 3 times a day. Also pre-ride, at your coffee stop and post ride. There’s a drop ankle exercise too where you stand on the edge of a step with half your foot over the edge and go up and down on the toes. But if it hurts don’t do it, that means you already have tendonitis or tendinosis.
I am just back from a ride, and thought about your posting.
It is quite obvious that a lower saddle will drop your heel, hence put more strength on your Achilles.
There is a whole discussion about having the saddle higher, and having your feet angled downwards some 15 degrees for better trust.
I am not sure this really works, but it surely will put less strain on your Achilles.
I myself ride with my feet slightly downwards, probably not the whole 15 degrees, but have never felt any tension there in 40 years of riding.
Last tip: I have a little marker on my saddle posts to indicate the correct height.
A marker, pencil or sticker will do.
Avoid paddling out of the tiptoe motion as much as possible to protect the achilles.
It’s recommended to demobilize the achilles to recover.
The achilles is not needed for straightening you leg. It’s very inefficient to ride a bike like that, cause a lot of extra push and speed comes from the tiptoe motion.
If he couldn’t reach the pedals, his feet were over stretched into tiptoe, at some point during the rotation.
Undue what ever change you did to the posture before your tendon went sour.
Get bigger flat pedals and change the shoes.
Put your feet more to the center and don’t peddle out of your toes.
Have someone look from the side and observe what motion you foot exactly does. Keep it to what you would do while walking.
Thanks, will check it.
Supposedly the correct height should tend to make your leg ALMOST straight when the foot is down (6 PM), but not quite, leaving and angle of 5%? 10%? I am very sure that my seat is not too low, because it’s been low before and I’ve been raising it, and even over raising it, so I got to a point that was good and worked well for me for long time. Also I’ve been riding bicycle all my life, and the current position is high if compared with other times. Supposedly, if your saddle is too high that’s not good for your legs or knees or something, don’t remember now. I might give it a shot though, if everything else fails.
As for the marker, the seat post has already some lines and numbers on the back, so I can easily track what I’m using and what the position should be in the case I have to take it out.
I’m afraid I don’t understand the first part of advice, sorry. Non native speaker here 
I will try to keep the ankle in the same angle though.
The changes were… well, I’m 99% sure that I increased the saddle height too much and rode too much and rode without cleats and walked with cleats. All combined, shitty feeling in my tendon.
Now, somebody mentioned something about foot rotation on the pedal. I actually noticed recently that my right foot can move more than normal in the pedal. My cleats are pretty worn out already and I wanted to change them soon. I’m not sure if it was here or somewhere else, but I think I read that the foot shouldn’t rotate on the cleat and if that happens that can lead to some tendon problems. Well, it does rotate…
If you’re on Shimano, if you can’t see the yellow/blue/red anti-slip markers and/or if you see the screws that keep your cleat on your shoe are heavily scratched, it’s a very clear sign it’s time to change out the cleats.
You can also consider changing up the float on the pedal or look into a lower degree cleat to prevent your foot from moving about when pedaling.
@ranlee I use Look compatible, I think. I’m sure that my cleats are dead though. I will change them and the cables and then I will have a new bike or almost 