Work, Work, Work
The next big project on the bike front was fixing my road shoes. I've had my roadbike, shoes and this setup for four years. This winter things started to hurt in my left knee. Whatever bike I got on, my knee hurt, so I started inspecting and fitting each of my bikes and their setups to get rid of the pain. While (re-)fitting the roadbike, we noticed my shoes and cleats were a little screwy.
The left cleat, which is on the right in this picture, is moved up at least an 1/8" more then the right and the cleat baseplate isn't installed correctly. Honestly I'm not sure if it's been this way since the beginning or what the hell happened, but it's likely part of the problem with my knee.
We also noticed my left leg is visibly shorter than my right, so Sean (at the shop) suggested I get some shims/wedges to help make the difference.
What the box and instructions for the shims mostly talk about is foot alignment on the cleat. The shims are actually wedges made to align your foot properly. Apparently most riders feet angle to one side or the other on their pedals. For some, this can cause knee pain and discomfort. As I rode around all week, I started to notice that my left foot and knee were kind of angled the wrong way. So now I'm faced with too short a leg that's angled funny. Was it angled because it was too short or truly angled? Would setting two wedges opposite each other to fix my length issue also fix my angle issue or would I need three wedges, two to make the length and one to set the angle? Hmmm a dilemma. And not the kind I enjoy dealing with.
I decided the hell with it. Let's try three and fix everything at once. I get them all stacked up and placed on the shoe, but the screws won't reach. They're too short to get through the wedges and cleat. Now I'm back to the original dilemma. Which do I fix, the shortness or the angle? I decide on the angle. I put one wedge in and screw it all down.
You can't really see it, but that's a new cleat and a purple wedge between. I should replace the cleat on the right shoe too, but no time now.
The reason I was doing all this, other than I'd like to ride my roadbike without pain, is I want to try the cleats and pedals on my fixie century. This also meant moving the pedals from my roadbike to the fixie, but when I took the drive side pedal off it felt like crap. The bearings were rough and crunchy. I noticed in the cleat install instructions there were also instructions for rebuilding the pedals. Having all the time in the world, I started disassembled the pedal.
Wiped some parts with brake clean, spray others with Wd-40, wipe it clean, blow out with compressed air and reassemble. The pedal was good as new. At least as new as I could make it. Threw it on the bike and ready to go.
If I was smart (or had the time), I would have done this sooner and tried the wedge/pedal combo on the fixie for my commutes. Alas, I am not. The century will be the test. Stay tuned for a report.
-b
The left cleat, which is on the right in this picture, is moved up at least an 1/8" more then the right and the cleat baseplate isn't installed correctly. Honestly I'm not sure if it's been this way since the beginning or what the hell happened, but it's likely part of the problem with my knee.We also noticed my left leg is visibly shorter than my right, so Sean (at the shop) suggested I get some shims/wedges to help make the difference.
What the box and instructions for the shims mostly talk about is foot alignment on the cleat. The shims are actually wedges made to align your foot properly. Apparently most riders feet angle to one side or the other on their pedals. For some, this can cause knee pain and discomfort. As I rode around all week, I started to notice that my left foot and knee were kind of angled the wrong way. So now I'm faced with too short a leg that's angled funny. Was it angled because it was too short or truly angled? Would setting two wedges opposite each other to fix my length issue also fix my angle issue or would I need three wedges, two to make the length and one to set the angle? Hmmm a dilemma. And not the kind I enjoy dealing with.I decided the hell with it. Let's try three and fix everything at once. I get them all stacked up and placed on the shoe, but the screws won't reach. They're too short to get through the wedges and cleat. Now I'm back to the original dilemma. Which do I fix, the shortness or the angle? I decide on the angle. I put one wedge in and screw it all down.
You can't really see it, but that's a new cleat and a purple wedge between. I should replace the cleat on the right shoe too, but no time now.The reason I was doing all this, other than I'd like to ride my roadbike without pain, is I want to try the cleats and pedals on my fixie century. This also meant moving the pedals from my roadbike to the fixie, but when I took the drive side pedal off it felt like crap. The bearings were rough and crunchy. I noticed in the cleat install instructions there were also instructions for rebuilding the pedals. Having all the time in the world, I started disassembled the pedal.
Wiped some parts with brake clean, spray others with Wd-40, wipe it clean, blow out with compressed air and reassemble. The pedal was good as new. At least as new as I could make it. Threw it on the bike and ready to go.If I was smart (or had the time), I would have done this sooner and tried the wedge/pedal combo on the fixie for my commutes. Alas, I am not. The century will be the test. Stay tuned for a report.-b
posted by JenBob at
1:10 PM
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