Pedal/foot/crank rub query

Hi all,
Not sure whether there's a solution to this in setup, but thought I'd ask the experts...

I get a lot of rub between the inside of my foot/shoe and crank arm on my road bike, which I don't get on any of my offroad bikes; is this a common complaint?

Kit is all roughly turn of the century:
Shimano road shoes
Look pedals
Campag Mirage cranks - now swapped for modern Stella Azuro carbon (which are even worse)

Chainline and Qfactor seem okay, I've tried slightly different BB lengths but really it's the pedals that need to be further out from the crankarms.

Are some pedal/shoe/cleat combos known for this?

Thanks in advance

You better get your position checked by a qualified guy, lots of shops do offer this service.
It is money well spent, if you're riding with the wrong cleat position you may hurt your knees/ligaments, and that's a hell of a lot more money to fix, let alone being injured.

I would not recommend playing with BB lengths, each crankset has to be used with a given BB length, or you may get wrong shifting at the front plus chain wear/noise and all that.
Keep in mind that some pedals are available with longer spindle (Speedplay, Dura-Ace, Keywin...), or the Look themselves can be adjusted for about +3mm on the KeoMax, due to their longer thread

http://www.kneesaver.net/ecommerce/

Can't vouch for them personally, but they have been around for ages.

Woz":m4t1yjch said:

http://www.kneesaver.net/ecommerce/

Can't vouch for them personally, but they have been around for ages.

Click to expand...

Ouch ouch!
Be careful with those things, using them with pedals that only have the 8mm allen-key fitting from inside (and no 15mm spanner flat outside), means that the pedals may well be trapped.
On top of that, a +20mm pedal spacing is not something to be taken lightly!

You may just have your cleat too far outboard on the shoe, sliding it a couple of mm towards the inside edge of the shoe may fix the issue.
Unless your cleats are already positioned correctly, then you may need to look for a lower profile crank.

Tho, as you don't get the issue on your MTBs, i suspect your cleats are fairly randomly positioned.

Are you talking about the part of your shoe where the ball of your foot is, or the heel? if it's the ball part, then it's probably your cleats too far out on the shoes. Pedals are not designed to make the shoes rub on the crank, but I imagine that some combinations of shoe/pedal, especially in large shoe sizes, might rub. It might not be possible to move the cleats over at all, in which case you could try some pedal washers to gain extra space.

If it's your heel that rubs, then you probably have the cleats at the wrong angle, and maybe too much float.

Have you tried the MTB shoes and pedals on your road bike? Might be worth trying, if they don't rub on the MTB then they shouldn't rub on the road bike, and they might help you set the road cleat position.

Re:

Hi Pete.

I don't know if I can help much, but I am terrible at scuffing cranks both MTB and road in this way. On the MTB bikes with spd, I didn't realise just how worn the cleats were on my shoes. This was allowing my heels to turn in and rub the crank arms. Around the same time I bought proper road shoes and new cleats for the Peg. That came with Campag pro-fit pedals, and I bought the cleats with a few degrees of float. This is what bought to my attention the crazy amount of float I had on the spds. I found on the road bike that despite having much reduced float, it didn't as I feared have the effect of giving me sore knees. Quite the opposite, it actually seemed better and I put this down to my foot being more stable. Replaced the spd cleats and I felt the same thing - less knee twinges not more. The added bonus - no more scuffed crank arms. Cleaning up the road bike after the Lakes - I have done it again and taken the logos off! Checked the cleats and sure enough, they are worn. Now I am not suggesting you go out and buy zero float fixed cleats as you really don't want to knacker your knees, but it may be worth making sure that both the pedal and cleat are unworn. Mine are basically the Look design and the cleats have lasted about 8 months doing a ride Saturday and Sunday, with a short one or two midweek while the evenings were long. I have suffered with bad knees over the years, but this season with the combination of more riding and less float, I would say it has got better not worse. Sorry for rambling on, and your crank scuffing may be totally unrelated, but I hope it helps and mind those knees!
Cheers - Chris.

Sounds like the cleat is too far outboard on the shoes.

I use SPD's on my '51 bike with no issues.

If you can post a pic of the issue it may help with the diagnosis.

Re:

Wow, thanks for the great response guys, very much appreciated!


My size 8 Shimano shoes, no wiggle room on the cleat unfortunately


Few things stand out, firstly that it must be at least reasonably common as products are available to alleviate it, so that's reassuring that it's not just me!

It's the ball of the foot that catches, but I do have a lot of float and looking at the pic above I think new cleats probably wouldn't be a bad investment in any case...

With a bit of luck, the simplest solution an'all that.

Bike fitting is on the agenda, Xmas present perhaps, but as I'm planning to swap the frame very soon I haven't done it yet. I've been happily building bikes for twenty odd years so I shouldn't be far off, but still good advice, bet there's some terrible habits to uncover! Ditto tweaking the chainline - I know it's not ideal but I'm fairly competent in that regard (if I do say so myself!).

I wondered if particular combinations were going to be flagged up as unhappy bedfellows but it would seem a bit more random than that. I'll get some cleats ordered (hope they're still available!) and try them on some Look shoes I've got stashed, see if that fixes things.

Otherwise new pedals with the longer spindle might be a good planB.

Thanks again, you're all brilliant!

If it's only just rubbing, it might be a simple as a pedal washer, they are 0,75-1mm thick, have no effect on pedal retention, and for most, should have no effect on biomechanics either.

Might even be that your cranks require a washer anyway, i've seen a few CF cranks that do.