Foot pain - Shoe advice

[redjedi]

Wasn't sure to post this in the heath and fitness board or this one, but I think my problem is caused by by pedal and shoes.

I've been getting a lot of pain on the balls of my feet in the past few months. I've been using SPD pedals and Specialized Taho shoes for over a year now, but I think that the longer rides I've been doing recently are really starting to highlight the problem.

I'm in quite a lot of pain after a couple of hours riding and the balls of my feet have started to get a lot of calluses on them and more recently a corn on my left foot.

I think the problem is that my feet are quite big at size 12 and my shoes aren't as rigid as they used to be, so I think that my feet are flexing around the pedals putting a lot of pressure on them.

I've read that moving the cleats back a bit might help, but as I have long toes the cleats are already as far back as they will go.

So my dilemma, do I get some more rigid MTB style shoes and stick with the SPDs or do I go an all road set-up.

I only have the one bike (Bianchi road bike) which is used for my daily 7 mile commute through London (ie lots of stop/starts) and also my longer, all day rides.

Money is an issue, so I would like to keep the price down and there seems to be a much bigger/cheaper choice in the road shoes in my size than there is the MTB styles.

I don't do a lot of walking in my shoes at the moment, but I don't want to be ice skating around the supermarket when I do stop on the way home.

I suppose ideally I would want the tread and grip of the MTD shoes with the larger surface of the road pedals, but I don't think that's possible

Any ideas or recommendations to help put a fellow CCer out of his pain?

 

[samid]

You might look into trying bigger - i.e. giving more support - pedals instead. I'm also using MTB pedals - though not SPD but Time ATAC. And on longer rides my feet sometimes get numb/uncomfortable. Then I saw new(ish) Time Z Control pedals which have the same attachment system but a much bigger foot supporting platform, and bought them. I cannot say for sure yet as I haven't had them long enough but they do seem to help with the numbness. I'm not familiar with the SPD range but maybe there are pedals that provide more support than what you're using... anyway something maybe worth looking into.

 

[Rezillo]

Same shoes, same size feet, same problem. Which is a literal and metaphorical pain as my first 100 is next Sunday and this happened in training for it.

In my case, the outer edge of the shoe has dropped downwards over the pedal compared to the inner edge because the sole has deformed slightly to the outside of the cleat under pedalling pressure. This puts a pressure point by the outside edge of the cleat, i.e. just to the outside of the ball of my foot.

This is easy to see when pedalling but not so easy when examining the shoe - the giveaway is that the cleat is at a slight angle to the outside half of the sole when viewed from the front.

I have some expensive Specialized BG mtb shoes on order with much stiffer soles and I'll let you know how I get on. Apart from wanting shoes I can walk in, at least round shops and stops, I had a real problem finding any shoes in my size when I bought the Tahos, road or mtb, but Specialized size 48 seem ok. They do a medium priced shoe with a carbon midsole that might do the trick.

John

 

[redjedi]

Hi Rezillo (John)

I think that is the problem. I can feel the shoe flxing when I pedal and looking at them this morning I notice that the cleat area is a lot closer to inside of the foot.
I suppose on smaller feet this woudn't be a problem, but on our clown size feet it leaves a lot of foot area over hanging the end of the pedal.

It looks as if this is more of a design feature of the Taho shoe as a lot of the more profession style MTB shoes have the fixtures in the middle of the shoe.

Along with the flexible nature of the touring shoe, it's probably not a good combination.

So I could try some stiff MTB shoes and stick with the SPD pedals. The road shoe really is that appealing with all the stop/starts I need to do.

 

[Rezillo]

I agree re the design - I think it may be made worse by the supporting tread on these shoes being a little shallower than the cleat, which means that the shoe rocks a bit on my A520 pedals rather being supported across the pedal. When I looked at other Specialised mtb shoes, the parallel tread bits looked a bit deeper.

I've ordered the BG Pro mtb shoe - the BG S-works mtb is more expensive and the BG Expert mtb is less expensive but all three seem to have carbon mid soles.

In the meantime, I've had to put some non-spd pedals back on and use those

John

 

[redjedi]

Those BGs do look good and I was happy with the size of the Tahos.

Don't know if I can justify spending £100 on some shoes yet, so I may look at the BG Comp or Sport which have got a lot of very good reviews.

Now to find a shop which carries a size 48 in stock I have enough trouble getting normal shoes in that size.

 

[redjedi]

oooohhh.

I've just found a pair of the BG Comps 08 on-line for £59.99 with free delivery. I'm going to stop off at Evans on the way home and have a look at them.
If I order tomorrow morning, I might get them for Friday, in time for the FNRTTC.

 

[Rezillo]

oooohhh.

I've just found a pair of the BG Comps 08 on-line for £59.99 with free delivery. I'm going to stop off at Evans on the way home and have a look at them.
If I order tomorrow morning, I might get them for Friday, in time for the FNRTTC.

I'd be a bit careful, though - according to Specialized's website, these have nylon soles, which may not be that different to the Taho. You really need to know if others use these on long rides without problems before committing your money. I didn't want to risk it so decided to go upmarket.

John

 

[redjedi]

I've just been to Evans to have a look at a pair and they are very different to the Tahos.

They are a very rigid plastic which runs down the whole sole, with very little flex. Perhaps not as rigid as the carbon ones but a lot stiffer than what I have now.

The cleat is also more central so I think these will do the job. Typically they didn't have my size in stock, so I couldn't sneakily try them on without buying them.

 

[redjedi]

I just double checked the Specialized website and the Tahos are described as having a rubber sole. I think these are as stiff as I'll get without going carbon.

I won't be able to get them for Friday though, so I'll have one more long ride to grimace through

 

[Rezillo]

Ouch!

The Tahos look to me to be rubber tread but with nylon around the metal plate - good to hear the comp is stiffer. They make quite good trainers without the cleats and have been fine using flat pedals in the past few days.

Eight days into my "they'll be here in three working days" delivery period, my BG Pros have yet to appear at the bike shop. I'm promised they'll arrive tomorrow - it would have been quicker to order them online and I would have had time to send them back if they didn't fit!

John

 

[redjedi]

Sorry to hear your shoes are taking so long. I hate it when your really looking forward to receiving something you've ordered, only to have it delayed.

Let us know how the new shoes are, when you finally get them, and thanks for letting me bounce ideas off you. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one with this problem, I just wish I hadn't let it go on for so long.

So to summarise, Tahos are good shoes for shorter rides and walking around in but no good if you want to do some serious miles or have big flipper feet like us

I'll report back when I've given them a try, hopefully Monday (fingers and toes crossed)

 

[Rezillo]

Well, my size 48 BG Pro mtbs arrived today. When I first saw them I thought they would be too small but they fit my great plates like a glove. Having just nipped out for a quick few miles all I can say is that I wish I had bought these a long while ago.

The tread is deeper than the Tahos and clamps very tightly to the pedal edges when clipped in on my A520s, providing a much wider support platform. I'm very, very impressed - I've got a long ride coming up on Sunday and I'll see how that goes but first take is that they are supremely comfortable. The stiff sole makes walking a bit clumsier but they'll be fine for pub and shop stops.

UPDATE: Fine for 100 miles on the Suffolk sunrise ride today (May 10th).

John