Cleat Positioning

Read this one.

http://www.cyclefitcentre.com/pdf%20final%20docs/SHOE%20AND%20PEDAL%20ARTICLE%208_final.pdf

Well one well known bike fitting professional has written plenty on the topic. One such article:
cyclefitcentre.comquestion of leverage.pdfOpen ↗

Is listed amongst others here:
cyclefitcentre.comfurther%20reading.htmOpen ↗

Also, some others he has written on cyclingnews.com are worth a look:
cyclingnews.comfitnessOpen ↗
cyclingnews.comfitnessOpen ↗

Declaration - I know Steve well and he is a friend of mine. I don't believe everything he tells me without first thinking it through. He is also the most open minded fellow who will try/test just about any idea/theory before drawing any conclusion. Given he's fitted 7,000+ cyclists including national champions and olympic medallists, he has a pretty fair idea on the topic.

As for event specific - well I can imagine a track TTr may want to make a slight change to cleat position due to the demands of the start but since I have chosen not to target that event, I haven't looked into that in any detail.

I am aware of some new ideas where shoes have been fitted with dual cleats (SPDs only), one in a fairly traditional position, another much closer to the centre of the sole. Sounds pretty radical but is something some riders are testing. Seems they are comfy/powerful doing TT or more steady state like effort with the centre cleat position and then can switch to the forward cleat for sprint like efforts closer to end of race. Weird, huh?

Alex Simmons said:

I am aware of some new ideas where shoes have been fitted with dual cleats (SPDs only), one in a fairly traditional position, another much closer to the centre of the sole. Sounds pretty radical but is something some riders are testing. Seems they are comfy/powerful doing TT or more steady state like effort with the centre cleat position and then can switch to the forward cleat for sprint like efforts closer to end of race. Weird, huh?

Using SPD? Or SPD-SL? If the former, aren't they concerned about the size of the platform? I always read how people say that they can feel the difference and hotspot issues.

To clarify, I've read all of Steve Hogg's articles, and whilst I accept he is extemely expert, I am looking for an evidence based approach. There are several papers (including the one to which I linked) which suggest there is not an efficiency difference between traditional and Hogg style cleat mounting in either trained or untrained cyclists. This doesn't mean posterior cleat positioning is the wrong approach, but I don't accept the logic for it in Steve Hogg's article to which you link. Specifically, he claims the increased muscular effort from incorrect (in his view) cleat positioning "costs heart beats, blood flow and oxygen". Clearly this is out of step with the published evidence and in the absence of further explanation or evidence it's difficult to accept Hogg's explanations.

I don't know the guy and I have nothing against him (or for him), I just would like to know how to position my cleats

1. To maximise performance and
2. To minimise risk of injury
3. (I really don't mind what my windlass mechanism does...)

Roadie_scum said:

I am looking for an evidence based approach.

I guessed as much but thought I pass on the references anyway.

sogood said:

Using SPD? Or SPD-SL? If the former, aren't they concerned about the size of the platform? I always read how people say that they can feel the difference and hotspot issues.

Not sure the model name - the small ones you see on MTB shoes sometimes. So that you can fit two cleats on the same shoe. I'd say if the sole was stiff enough, it prob wouldn't matter as much.

PubMed doesn't seem to be working from my end at the moment, but you might want to take a look at this earlier modeling effort which presumably served as the inspiration for the study you cited:

Gonzalez, H.K. and Hull, M.L. (1989). Multivariable optimization
of cycling biomechanics. Journal of B iomechanics,
22, 1151-1161.

Hang on, I seem to have broken through:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=2625415&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum

acoggan said:

PubMed doesn't seem to be working from my end at the moment, but you might want to take a look at this earlier modeling effort which presumably served as the inspiration for the study you cited:

Gonzalez, H.K. and Hull, M.L. (1989). Multivariable optimization
of cycling biomechanics. Journal of B iomechanics,
22, 1151-1161.

Hang on, I seem to have broken through:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=2625415&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum

Thanks Andy!

Intersting reads.

Maybe that's why the mid foot cleat in TTs idea wasn't so strange?

So presumably you're interested in what the conclusion would be under non-steady state conditions, say, as in accelerations.