Numb feet or tingling toes?
Do you suffer from tingling toes or is the front of your foot completely numb? This could be because your cleat is in the wrong place on the shoe.
When a cleat is placed far forward on the shoe (using the 1st metatarsal on the foot as a reference point) the load through the pedal ends up going through the toes.
The issue with putting load through the toes is it’s not a very stable platform to push from on a rigid sole.
To stabilize our foot we tend to tense our toes and claw our feet back.
This restricts blood flow into the toes and causes numbness.
If you are not sure if you do that when riding:
Check your inner sole, if it has worn out marks at the toes that’s a good indication that you have been clawing your toes.
How wide are your feet?
Do you really know how wide your feet are?
Often people have ill-fitting cycling shoes. This can be due to them going up in sizes so they can fit a wider foot in an effort to reduce pain on the outside of the foot.
Excessive room in the shoe will lead to poor stabilization of the foot and that will travel up the chain to the knee or hip which can cause issues later on.
You want a shoe that has between 3-5mm of room around the whole outside of the shoe and only allows small movement in the heel cup.
The shoe should be snug and not tight.
If you do have wide feet think about the shoe brand you get. Some are narrower than others. Some of our favorites for wider feet are Lake or Shimano.
But: Before you buy anything make sure you get your feet measured properly by a bike fitter using a Brannock device
Knee pain? Where do you get yours?
If you are getting knee pain on the top of your knee centrally it normally means a saddle height that is too low.
If you have pain behind the knee centrally this generally means that your saddle is too high.
If you are getting pain on the outside or inside of the knee this would generally mean instability of the knee which is more than likely coming from the foot.
Remedies to this can include; arch support, cleat positioning, foot wedging, or maybe all three.
