Welcome to Chainwheel’s Bike Fitting 101.
Before you attempt to remedy anything you might relate to below, please understand that we are basing our findings strictly on what we have seen in our Fit Station (link) here at Chainwheel. Often what we encounter has to be seen in our studio to understand the many factors that might be contributing to the symptoms cyclists often experience. Further, by the time folks actually get here they are well past anything a bike fit can fix. If you are an endurance athlete, please take care of yourself and get a good PT as well.
Foot Pain or Numbness
Foot pain or numbness is usually related to how your shoe fits. One of the best ways to determine if the shoe is suited for the width of your foot is to take out the insole and compare it to the width of your foot by crossing your leg over your knee and noting the width of your foot and the insole. If you are experiencing numbness and pain across the ball of your foot, then your shoe might be too tight and if so the nerves between your metatarsals are being compressed. New shoes or a strategic “alteration” might be the best way to fix this problem.
The other most-common reason for toe numbness is a matter of whether your foot has a tilt to the inside (varus) or outside (valgus) that is making part of the foot bear more of the load than it was designed to do. Put a sloped, fleshy foot in a stiff, unforgiving cycling shoe and you are just asking for foot pain and even IT band issues. Proper alignment can be the best remedy for this by shimming the shoe to allow for the slope and more evenly distribute the load on the foot while relieving the IT band by making the knee track more vertically. The side benefit is that the cyclist will feel a noticeable increase in power and efficiency when this is applied.
Knee Pain
Knee pain is often the most challenging to diagnose and correct, but the fact is that the knee is a hinge joint that often has to act otherwise. We see riders with knee pain that are simply asking this joint to do more than it should in the lateral or medial aspect. An experienced bike fitter can help rule out bike or shoe set up as contributing factors. A lot of riders come in with Spring Knee or slight tendonitis. A slow build up in the early weeks of riding can really help the athlete get through this if he has a good set up from before, has been somewhat active in the off season, and hasn‘t had a significant event that might relate to the symptoms he is feeling. Once tendonitis is detected, it is paramount that the cyclist not overdo it while icing it after rides if it is tender. A proper bike fit or re-fit might be in order as well.
A common reoccurring cause of knee pain that is below the knee cap and above the tibia in cycling is a saddle height that is too low. Riding with a low saddle height is kind of like sitting in a really small chair for extended periods of time with your knee flexed. It might show when the athlete goes up or down stairs as well as when they ride and put any effort in their stroke. The reason it occurs in cycling over time is often because the pateller tendon, which connects to the tibia and helps with your “push” stroke compresses the patella and flares up the area generally on the front and/ or just under the knee. Raising the saddle will keep the tendon from pressing the knee cap into the joint pretty quickly.
The Split Personality Cyclist
Recently we had a great session with a promising junior athlete. Two things about juniors and especially those like this one. Being younger, the subject was extremely flexible while seated on the bike. Why? Because he had literally grown up riding. Younger riders just don’t typically experience the same discomfort as older riders because their connective tissue is still generating (a reason women typically are more flexible is related to this too) and they don’t have the wear and tear on their joints because of their age and the fact that cycling is a fairly low-impact activity. Secondly, he knew he was just beginning to understand the potential his body and mind were capable of - you know, that thing called athletic potential a lot of us older riders long for. In other words, he liked to go hard. All young riders who race live for this. What was interesting is that his dad warned me that his saddle was too high. Junior suspected it might be, but had recently raised it about 25 mm’s(!) because he sensed his power was low and his quads felt blasted when he went hard. Luckily, he also knew that he liked to slide forward when he wanted to put the power down. He moved forward a lot. And what was interesting was that all three of us could see it, and the Retul measured it as being too high as well. During the q and a portion of our session, it was clear that the subject knew what his legs should feel like and he was pretty dug in on having his saddle too high at this time. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Instead of lowering his saddle, we scanned him with the Retul while he was in the forward position and the numbers actually fell in line, while also looking acceptable. We all had to accept that he was really two opposing riders and the one that was stronger won out. He promised not to raise it any more and we didn’t touch a thing. He needed to know it was okay and so did his father. Problem noted and somewhat solved. This would have been impossible to work through without our Retul protocol. The numbers don’t lie.
