Wider platform clipless pedals?

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in news:b41df48c.0301191636.7e8cb691 @posting.google.com:

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide* base
to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about the
torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current system? Any
ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

I went to SPD-R for just that reason. I'm "fixed" now, but I think it's more due to the size bigger
shoe(one size up from my normal) and loose lacing I started at the same time.

Scott, I use Shimano 545 for just that reason, but I still have the same old hotfoot sometimes.
Evenwhen you use a larger pedal the contact area of the cleat is still the same. maybe the bigger
style cleat is better. Ben fox "Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide* base
to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about the
torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current system? Any
ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

Looks probably have the largest area; there are also available Shimano MTB pedals which are
effectively big cage pedals with a pop-up bit wot you clip into.

Dave Larrington - legslarry.crosswinds.netlegslarry.crosswinds.netOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide* base
to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about the
torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current system? Any
ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

After using those "horshoe" BMX pedals for years, I got Kneesavers this year. These might be worth a
try for your wife. Good Luck!

Chris Jordan Santa Cruz, CA.

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide* base
to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about the
torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current system? Any
ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

I have a pair of Shimano PD-M545 pedals for sale ($40) if you're interested.

Scott,

I have a fairly broad SPD pedal, a pair of SPD sandals and a pair of SPD MTB shoes. The sandals work
great. The MTB shoes had become painful to wear while riding due to pressure where the pedal
attached to the shoe. As the sandals worked well, it was obviously not the pedal but the shoes. I
improvised a stiffer sole in my shoes. I cut some flexible plastic notebook dividers to the shape of
the inside of the shoe and inserted them under the shoe support liners. Voila, it worked. It was a
cheap fix and surprizingly comfortable. The shoes are a little tighter.

Gary McCarty, Greenspeed GTO, Salt Lake City

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide* base
to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about the
torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current system? Any
ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

Dave Larrington said:

Looks probably have the largest area; there are also available Shimano MTB pedals which are
effectively big cage pedals with a pop-up bit wot you clip into.

Dave Larrington - legslarry.crosswinds.netlegslarry.crosswinds.netOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

I have the Shimano 424 which are the type MTB pedals that Dave is refering

to. I will still get a hot spot if I dont get all three straps adjusted properly on my Sidi shoes.
harry Harry VR40/oss

Dave Larrington said:

Looks probably have the largest area; there are also available Shimano MTB pedals which are
effectively big cage pedals with a pop-up bit wot you clip into.

I've never had hotspots with Look either, but have had on my Shimano SPD / platform pedals (the SPD
bit projects)

Guy
===
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dynamic DNS permitting)
NOTE: BT Openworld have now blocked port 25 (without notice), so old mail addresses may no longer
work. Apologies.

Gary: This is interesting. Are the sandals particularly stiff? My wife and I have *very* stiff ($)
shoes (she's using top-end Sidi's), so maybe this isn't the problem? The cleat is as far back as
possible, but I have yet to lengthen the holes. Hmmmm....

Scott

[email hidden] (Gary Mc) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Scott,

I have a fairly broad SPD pedal, a pair of SPD sandals and a pair of SPD MTB shoes. The sandals
work great. The MTB shoes had become painful to wear while riding due to pressure where the pedal
attached to the shoe. As the sandals worked well, it was obviously not the pedal but the shoes. I
improvised a stiffer sole in my shoes. I cut some flexible plastic notebook dividers to the shape
of the inside of the shoe and inserted them under the shoe support liners. Voila, it worked. It
was a cheap fix and surprizingly comfortable. The shoes are a little tighter.

Gary McCarty, Greenspeed GTO, Salt Lake City

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide*
base to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about
the torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current
system? Any ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

Thanks for your input, everyone.

Harry and Dave: I'm checking out some Shimano M525 that have the cage and pop-up binding. Now do I
understand correctly that once you clip in, the spd binding sets back into the cage so the whole
cage is now supporting your foot in addition to the binding? How well does this work? Do you really
*feel* the extra support?

Thanks.

Scott

"Hairyone" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Dave Larrington said:

Looks probably have the largest area; there are also available Shimano MTB pedals which are
effectively big cage pedals with a pop-up bit wot you clip into.

Dave Larrington - legslarry.crosswinds.netlegslarry.crosswinds.netOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

I have the Shimano 424 which are the type MTB pedals that Dave is refering

to. I will still get a hot spot if I dont get all three straps adjusted properly on my Sidi shoes.
harry Harry VR40/oss

Scott,

The shoe and sandal are both stiff overall. But, the shoe has a removable insole, not so the sandal.
The removable insole in the shoe is a thing layer of styrafoam/foam-rubber, without almost no
stiffness. It allows access to the cleat bracket from inside the shoe. There was no stiff layer
between the cleat bracket and the foot. Pressure was being transmitted from the metal cleat bracket
to the foot, more so on one foot than the other. I tried moving the cleat around, the pain just
followed it. I inserted a thin, barely flexible layer of plastic to disperse the pressure.

I am not sure about the layers of the sandal as everything is glued together. I have never had
problems with the sandals.

Gary

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Gary: This is interesting. Are the sandals particularly stiff? My wife and I have *very* stiff ($)
shoes (she's using top-end Sidi's), so maybe this isn't the problem? The cleat is as far back as
possible, but I have yet to lengthen the holes. Hmmmm....

Scott

[email hidden] (Gary Mc) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Scott,

I have a fairly broad SPD pedal, a pair of SPD sandals and a pair of SPD MTB shoes. The sandals
work great. The MTB shoes had become painful to wear while riding due to pressure where the
pedal attached to the shoe. As the sandals worked well, it was obviously not the pedal but the
shoes. I improvised a stiffer sole in my shoes. I cut some flexible plastic notebook dividers to
the shape of the inside of the shoe and inserted them under the shoe support liners. Voila, it
worked. It was a cheap fix and surprizingly comfortable. The shoes are a little tighter.

Guy Chapman said:

I've never had hotspots with Look either

I have, but this should be qualified with the proviso that it also depends on the shoes as well. I
had no problems with Look or Gaerne shoes, some with Shimano and a lot more with my current Nike
kit. Fortunately, these are falling apart, so I am intending to try Specialized next.

Dave Larrington - legslarry.crosswinds.netlegslarry.crosswinds.netOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

(Gary Mc) said:

The removable insole in the shoe is a thing layer of styrafoam/foam-rubber, without almost no
stiffness. It allows access to the cleat bracket from inside the shoe. There was no stiff layer
between the cleat bracket and the foot. Pressure was being transmitted from the metal cleat bracket
to the foot, more so on one foot than the other. I tried moving the cleat around, the pain just
followed it. I inserted a thin, barely flexible layer of plastic to disperse the pressure.

The cleat bracket used to bother me until I added foam padding held by duct tape on top of the cleat
bracket. This is underneath the thin footbed insert in my Lake MTB shoes. I used enough foam to
actually create a soft 'bump' over the SPD mounting bracket., but once the shoes are on, it isn't
noticeable.

Jon Meinecke

Jon,

I tried something close to that and made sure the cleat was extra tight to pull the bracket into the
shoe, but nothing helped much. The thin layer of sort of stiff plastic was my umpteenth attempt to
find something to work.

Gary McCarty.

Jon Meinecke <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The cleat bracket used to bother me until I added foam padding held by duct tape on top of the
cleat bracket. This is underneath the thin footbed insert in my Lake MTB shoes. I used enough foam
to actually create a soft 'bump' over the SPD mounting bracket., but once the shoes are on, it
isn't noticeable.

Jon Meinecke

(Gary Mc) said:

I tried something close to that and made sure the cleat was extra tight to pull the bracket into
the shoe, but nothing helped much. The thin layer of sort of stiff plastic was my umpteenth attempt
to find something to work.

Different shoes may be the answer more than different pedals, but as several others have suggested,
there are combination clipless/platform pedals that might help.

Further shoe modifications may be possible, though.

I considered filling the cutout inside my cheap Look MTB shoes with silicone sealant both to fill
the top side of the cleat back et mounting space and to seal the soles (water and air).

So far, the duct tape and foam solution is sufficient. It's two layers of duct tape covering the
cleat mounting slots, a layer of dense open-cell foam (probably 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick) more than
filling the cut-out, a layer of duct tape compressing and securing the foam, then the original thin
foam footbed.

Jon Meinecke

Scott,

I had the same problem no matter what shoes I wore. After switching to Speedplay Frogs I determined
that the reason I was getting hot spots was due to lack of "float". That is, my foot was twisting in
the shoe because the pedal didn't allow for the natural movement of my knee/ankle. No more hotspots
- I did a 260 mile 3-Day weekend with no numbness or hot spots.

Walk behind someone and look at their foot. It's not uncommon to see someone actually change the
"toe in / toe out" position of their foot through each step and lift.

Chris

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide* base
to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about the
torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current system? Any
ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

Chris: Sounds good but no go. We've got Speedplays but still mega ouch! We've ordered some
Look-equivalent pedals from Nashbar and found some Lake shoes that allow walking and such--on sale,
too. Actually, I found the Lake shoes @ Pricepoint.com for $25! Our current setup includes the Frogs
and *very* stiff, high-end shoes. I'll report back after we've done some miles w/the new set up.
After doing some searches and reading some of the responses here, it seems that several people have
gotten relief with the much wider contact area of Look pedals.

Regards, Scott

[email hidden] (Chris Champion) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Scott,

I had the same problem no matter what shoes I wore. After switching to Speedplay Frogs I
determined that the reason I was getting hot spots was due to lack of "float". That is, my foot
was twisting in the shoe because the pedal didn't allow for the natural movement of my knee/ankle.
No more hotspots - I did a 260 mile 3-Day weekend with no numbness or hot spots.

Walk behind someone and look at their foot. It's not uncommon to see someone actually change the
"toe in / toe out" position of their foot through each step and lift.

Chris

[email hidden] (Scott) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Here's the deal: My wife is having some problems with hot spots. We're going to try the usual
stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a clipless pedal that also has a *wide*
base to spread the pressure over a greater area. I know about powerstraps but am concerned about
the torque put on the knees. Are Bebops and better in this regard than Frogs, our current
system? Any ideas out there?

Thanks,

Scott

Speedplay road pedals seem to have the largest available cleat area. Mine have worked very well for
me, though I first took a dremel tool to them so they would release both ways.

Craig

Craig said:

Speedplay road pedals seem to have the largest available cleat area

Seems to me that Look and Time road pedals are larger than Speedplays.

Dave Larrington - legslarry.crosswinds.netlegslarry.crosswinds.netOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================