Touring Bicycle Pedals

Now this will be the second post in the collection pertaining to size for a touring bicycle. Prior to going on to tips on how to determine your saddle height and set-back I knew I maybe really should talk about pedals first. For touring and extended rides I favor clipless pedals. Clipless pedals rely on cleats attached to the shoes that will "clip in" to the pedals. Don't ask me why they're called clipless ( actually it comes from the fact that early bicycle racing pedals had steel toe clips attached to the pedals which, in addition to a leather strap, kept the foot secure).

I appreciate clipless pedals for a couple of reasons. To start with, when I ride I want to put emphasis on an effective pedal stroke. That means I try to bring my feet across the bottom of the pedal stroke and if not pull up on the upstroke at least unweight that foot. Without being clipped to the pedal I find my foot sliding around on, or perhaps off, the pedal. An additional thing I like is being equipped to spin at a reasonable clip on varying surfaces, for example , when I am traveling downhill or make use of a tailwind, while not having to worry about my feet slipping off of the pedal.

With a clipless pedal the rider's feet can't shift sideways or front to back. Generally clipless pedals have some "float" though, which means the heel will be able to swivel because the cleat will pivot on the pedal, and pivoting past a specific spot will free up the cleat out of the pedal. This isn't as scary as it would seem since the release is rather effortless to achieve and shortly will become second nature. Not always before the newbie tips over a few times given that they fail to remember to take their foot off the pedal before stopping.

The foot on the pedal is one of the three elements in the rider/bike conjugation, and is very important from an overall fit perspective. We're preparing to determine our saddle height relying on a measurement coming from the stationary bottom bracket but it's useful to visualize that the farther one's foot shifts ahead on the pedal, the shorter the effective length of their leg. Yet vice versa if you're pedaling on your toes your leg is effectively longer. The foot happens to be a lever which can become longer or shorter. That's a primary reason there does exist some flexibility in the saddle height measurement we establish.

So, presuming you're biking with clipless pedals, how to locate the cleats? I would probably recommend a starting position of approximately .5 to 1 centimeter in back of the ball of the foot, and as close to the outside edge of the shoe, where ones little toe will be, as is feasible. This is going to position the ball of one's foot somewhat in front of the pedal spindle, and also close to the crank arm, reducing the Q-factor (google it).