foot position on pedals

[Raging Squirrel]

okay, not got round to getting any pedals or shoes yet, purely because i have no idea what i'm looking for......clipless, cleats, it's all alien to me and I've not looked it up yet.

so....what is the best position for my foot on the pedal? Ball of foot, or the middle of the foot?

 

[4F]

Simples, ball of foot. If you do think about shoes and cleats then I recommend the double side Shimano M520 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=3759 as an ideal starter. So ideal that I am still using them 6 years on.

 

[Raging Squirrel]

i thought so!

so with them pedals, obviously there's something on the bottom of the shoe that slots into the hole? how do you get your foot back out though?

 

[grumpyoldgit]

Slight twist of the heel outwards unclips the pedal.You would get used to it in minutes.

 

[Raging Squirrel]

ahh okay. is there a particular type of shoe i'd need?

 

[cyberknight]

Found it !
i knew i had seen something about cleat position .....
http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/04/power-to-the-pedal-cleat-position/

 

[4F]

Yep something like this http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ladies-specialized-mtb-shoes-and-northwave-shoes The cleat comes with the pedal and is bolted to the show. As grumpyoldgit a slight twist of the heal either in or out and you are unclipped. The advantage of the above shoe and pedal is that you can walk easily in them as the cleat is recessed into the tread of the shoe.

Whilst looking around though be aware that SPD is not the same as SPD-SL which is a road based pedal and completely different

 

[RWright]

Found it !
i knew i had seen something about cleat position .....
http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/04/power-to-the-pedal-cleat-position/

That is a very interesting article, I had also seen it before. I noticed when I ride on regular platform pedals my feet go to more of a midfoot postion. I have been using SPD SL road shoes and like the feeling of riding with clipless pedals but I think I would like to use cleets in the midfoot postion (I have my cleets as far back as they will go now). I have read that when a lot of endurance riders switch to the midfoot postion they don't go back to normal position.

I think when I am about ready for new shoes I may get out the drill and try to make me some ghetto mid foot shoes to see if I like the feel. I think a great idea would be to have shoes that would adjust the cleets forward and back even further than they do now, and even better, make it simple and easy enough to do it on the fly. I doubt if that will happen anytime soon on shoes sold to the public because of safety concerns about people riding and adjusting their cleets at the same time, but for endurance racers who knows. Or, maybe I am the only one that gets tired of having my feet locked into the same postion on my pedal all the time. Around 15 to 20 miles I like to unclip and move my legs around some.