Using Cycling Cleat Wedges
When should we use cycling cleat wedges and shims? This is a question I get a fair bit as there's a lot of confusion about how they should be used.https://youtu.be/az24WHp25Kg
- Serve the purpose of correcting specific issues mostly but not always relating to the feet
- Why a bike fit has to include an off the bike assessment
- cleat wedge should be used only when the forefoot mechanics are causing some aberrant motion during the pedal stroke
- most common and simplest example of this is when someone has mobile forefoot varus and the mechanics of the rest of the joints allows the foot to "pronate" and there is enough hip and knee mobility (or lack of stability) to drive the knee in during the power phase
- you can have a significant forefoot varus position and not have it present for a variety of reasons -= these corrections shouldn't be used pre-emptively
- can be used with other mechanical foot issues but these are pretty rare.
- most common and simplest example of this is when someone has mobile forefoot varus and the mechanics of the rest of the joints allows the foot to "pronate" and there is enough hip and knee mobility (or lack of stability) to drive the knee in during the power phase
- I see a lot of people come in with very complex combinations of cleat wedging
- very tortured fixes and often almost entirely unnecessary
- wedges convey an air of mystery and expertise to clients so they can get misused in many cases
- very tortured fixes and often almost entirely unnecessary
- Rules for wedging
- use as little as you have to - minimum effective dose
- one-sided solutions are common but bilateral application can be effective when necessary
- not always permanent - many fixes can actually train, or retrain, the body to complete the pedal stroke with a particular movement pattern and once this new pattern takes hold (perhaps from months to a year) the wedges can be removed and mechanics will be be maintained - there are structural and dynamic movement problems
- structural problems are usually corrected well with wedges but often don't get to a point where a movement pattern improves and renders them unnecessary
- dynamic problems can also be remedied thru wedges but can sometimes be solved such that they aren't needed later.
- only way to "know" this is to be able to measure it accurately and see minute changes
- I've taken hundreds of clients, applied some cleat wedging solution that clearly improves their mechanics on the bike. They ride like this for 6 months and we do a follow up test withthe wedges, and then remove them and do another test and some of the time (perhaps 50%) their mechanic are unchanged in those two tests. Their mechanics are very different sans wedges than they were 6 months ago