I started using clipless pedals when I was about 14 and stopped when I was 22 or 23 due to persistent pain in my left knee when cycling for more than five minutes or so. Now I want to get some clipless pedals again because of the performance advantages in accelleration and staying on the gas over moderately bumpy ground without being bounced off the pedals.
My mate told me you can have your knees “aligned” but he doesn’t know where to have it done.
I know my left leg is shorter than my right simply because the left leg on all my trousers wears out from dragging on the floor under my heel. I also know that my feet aren’t laterally even, the outside of my feet hits the ground first and they roll inwards. Also, I’m toes out a bit on the left and a lot on the right.
It’s a lot to think about, and a bit of internet research has shown me that you can get your knees measured and then wedges made for between your cleats and shoes to hold your feet in the proper natural position when clipped in, which in turn keeps your knees straight and the forces evenly distributed throughout the skeleton. The problem is, they’re all in America.
I live here and I’m going back to the UK next month.
Do you know anyone here or there that can do this kind of shit?
Apologies that I can’t provide you with a specific answer. But I can tell you that I studied Chinese medicine, and in the osteo part, diagnosed two mates with legs of different lengths, and resultant back and neck pains. I’'m sure it’s possible.
jaame, sounds like you can get a great deal of benefit by switching to a shorter crank arm on the left. It’s very cheap and very easy to replace a 170mm crank with a 165, for example, or for some brands it’s possible to find a 160 instead.
sounds like you’re a right foot leader, too. try leading with the other foot for a change, to build different muscle bulk and nerve reflexes in your left leg.
AFAIK, there is nobody in taiwan who can do a proper wedge fitting for you. In London, yes.
Also, the SPD cleats (and other two-hole cleats) for mountain bike pedals do allow different rotation of the cleat when you attach them to the shoe. The three-hole road bike pattern doesn’t (or not so much). That’s why i ride with the crank bros MTB pedals on all my road bikes, to get different positions for the left and right cleats as my left knee is a bit fukt up from a motorcycle accident years ago.
They give you a full service (oo er!) with biomechanical analysis of your whole body, not just legs. It sounds pretty good and it costs 250 quid which I think is reasonable, but at the same time too much for me considering I ride my bike about two hours a week. They do give some details about what they do and I’m going to try to do it myself. I know it won’t be as good but it will be better than not doing anything I reckon. If I was a roadie doing a hundred miles a week I’d have it done for sure. For me, I don’t think it’s entirely necessary. I can just stick to flat pedals for the time being.
I always had my SPD cleats set up so my feet were toes out as is natural for me. I think my problems are caused by my bow legs and pronating feet. I’m going to make some slightly wedged insoles for my shoes so the inside is a little higher off the pedal body than the outside, thereby letting my knees & ankles stay closer to their natural shape as I pedal.
As for fitting a shorter crank arm on the left, I thought about it before. The problem is, without the proper analysis I don’t know how much shorter my left leg is. I don’t want to get a 5mm shorter crank arm only to make matters worse because my leg is actually only 2mm shorter. Any ideas on how to measure one’s leg length? Stand on books of varying thickness and just try to do it by feel?
if your leg is only 2 mm shorter, or 3 mm, then you’d never notice it. If it’s enough to notice, it’s generally a cm or two…
Anyway, get yourself into the physiotherapy unit in the basement at Taida Hospital, and get proper measurements done (describe your intense pain,and beef it up a bit… then they’ll go the whole hog on you, on the Health Insurance dime).
you need to get the whole hip alignment and so on just right before casually measuring the leg by any indirect means.
and when you do go back to clipless pedals, use something with lots and lots of float, not Shimano system certainly not the black fixed cleats!
Found it! The most accurate method is x-ray. The most common method is to mark a bony protrusion on the hip at each side, then to have the patient stand on shims of varying thickness with the short leg until the marks on both hips are level. Hey presto, you know exactly how much shorter your short leg is. Tonight I bought some 5mm insoles and put one in the left shoe only. I can’t tell if it feels right or wrong, I’ve been like this forever so it just feels different. I’ll give it a go and see what happens.
Do all hospitals have a physio department that could sort me out? I’ve no idea where Tai Da hospo is and realistically I’m never going to take time off to go to Taipei. On the other hand, if one of the hospos in Taoyuan or Jhongli could do the same thing, I’ll look into it.
You say you use Crank Bros pedals. I also notice most of the downhillers on the world circuit also use them including Gee who is sponsored by Shimano. I’ve read some good and bad reviews, but what puts me off (other than the price!) is a few reports of the mechanism not being as positive as Shimano. I’ve only ever used Shimano and Ritchey pedals, and they are both very clearly in or out. In your experience, how do you rate the Crank Bros?
I had the Shimano cleats with the kind of float that would allow heels in or out (radial float?) but would not allow the foot to roll (lateral float?). The shoe was locked flat to the pedal, but could twist around on the pedal in the horizontal plane only. I’m sure you know the ones. How much freedon of movement do you have in the Crank Bros ones while clipped in?
Oh, you know you are clipped in all right. You have some lateral roll and some horizontal float, more of both than in the Shimano or Look road pedals, but about the same amount of float as in Shimano SPDs. NO idea of the actual numbers or angles, sorry.
Are they that expensive? I remember finding some taiwanese made-under-licence copies (perhaps actually branded Look) of the lowest level Crank Bros Egg beaters. I have Candy pedals on two road bikes and egg beaters on two others ( single speed road bike, and a XC). try to find the two hole shoes, rather than the three hole-only shoe pattern that needs a n adaptor plate, as the engagement mechanism with the adaptor plate only works from the front, while the two-hole MTB pattern allows front and back entry.
And one point on shims: they do help to change the extension that the leg needs to do, but they dont change the rotation distance: they simply make the knee rotate around a higher point. if it is your lower leg that is shorter (rather than the thigh) then that might work, but if the thigh is shorter then you should try a shorter crank.
if it’s an old square taper design, a single left arm is cheap and simple to swap. more recent designs might be more difficult to buy except as a pair.
best to send your leg measurements to some expert, not me. I think that the Chang Gung Hospital in Linkou has a kinematics department or whatever they want to call themselves. I don’t know of a Zhongli or Taoyuan hospital that does (there may be, i just don’t know of it).
Those pedals, the crank bros mallets, are about $3500 for the cheapest ones I think. Actually they’ve just revamped the design and made them half plastic and I remember reading that you can get three or four different thicknesses of plastic inserts (to make the pedal thincker or thinner) with the goal of getting the perfect contact area with soles of differing thicknesses. It could also be useful for me with my LLD (what the cool people call leg length discrepancy).
I’m going to look into getting a single 170 crank to run on the left but I don’t hold out much hope. I’ve just bought a new set of cranks last month, I don’t really want to have to buy another new pair (I wouldn’t mind that much but my wife would!).
I’ll research the kinematics department at Chang Gan hospo, that’s just up the road so may be doable. Thanks for the info Urodacus.
I’ve found a Shimano Hone left crank arm only in 170 on eBay in America, but it’s $100 including postage. That’s what I just paid for the whole bloody crankset and rings on Ruten!
Do you know if all Shimano Hollowtech 2 external BB mountain bike carnks are interchangeable? I mean, can I fit XT or LX on a Hone BB do you reckon?
I have shopped around different local bike shops to let them know that I wanted one that comes off a bike when they order a replacement: where one is broken and they replace with a new pair, and you buy or are given the useless old one. I don’t think you can get a single from Shimano.
$100 from eBay is a bit steep! there’s absolutely no need to go fancy on a left crank: it doesn’t do much. anything that fits on the same external BB as yours will be fine.
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the old days of square taper were so much simpler!
They had 7 left hand Hone 170 cranks for sale (god knows why they would have seven in stock) advertised at $86 each. I did a best offer of $31 and they went for it! Total $50 American including postage, much cheaper than having the full service done in London, hopefully with similar results. Suck it and see…
they generally have more left hand than right hand as they are made in pairs, and then people try to buy only a right when they want to change from a triple to a double, or a standard to a compact crank.