Why Cycling Shoes?

There are three points of contact on a Spinning® bike: your feet, your butt and your hands. Cycling shoes, like cycling shorts, are a valuable piece of performance equipment. Everything else you wear is fashion.

• Cycling shoes allow you to click into the pedals, giving you an amazing connection to your Spinning® bike without any of the uncomfortable pressure of toe clips.
• The rigid sole of a cycling shoe diffuses pedal pressure over the entire foot.
• The soft, snug fitting upper hugs your foot so your feet don’t slop around during sprints.
• Do you like your shoes tighter during sprints or looser if your feet swell? Cycling shoes have buckles or Velcro® straps that are easily adjustable during your workout.

Cycling Shoe Fit

You’re probably used to buying running shoes with a full thumb’s width of room at the end of the shoe. In a cycling shoe you can get by with less room. Your cycling shoe should feel like it’s comfortably hugging your foot in the arch area and across the ball of your foot. Make sure you can wiggle your toes and there is no uncomfortable pressure on the tops or sides of your toes. Don’t forget, many people’s feet swell when they ride. If you are experiencing any numbness in your feet at the end of the ride, make sure to loosen the buckles or straps on your shoe about 20 minutes into your class. (Numbness in your feet can also be caused by a problem with your saddle.)

Some models of cycling shoes are available in different widths. If you normally buy a wide running shoe, make sure to look for a wide cycling shoe.

Other factors that may affect the sizing of your shoes: Do you have a high arch or use an orthotic in your cycling shoe? You may want to go with a wide size to give you more room. Women can try the men’s model to get more room for an orthotic. Also, if you have proportionately longer feet and shorter toes you may want to go up a half size to get the arch of the shoe in the correct place for your feet.

Cleat Adjustment

Of all the fit adjustments you make on your Spinning® Bike, the positioning and alignment of the cleats may be the most crucial.

You make millions of pedal strokes over the life of your shoes. If the cleats are not aligned to match your anatomy, you will put unnecessary stress on your joints, especially your knees.

To assure a pain-free and injury-free cycling experience, we strongly recommend that you find a local specialty bicycle retailer or sports medicine clinic and pay them to help you with your cleat alignment.

If that’s not an option, here are a few hints to get you started. Keep in mind these are general guidelines, not specific biomechanical or medical advice.

First, the basic mechanics.

Most Spinning® bikes come equipped with SPD style pedals. Make sure you purchase the corresponding SPD cleats. Because there are so many different pedal system on the market, cleats don’t come with your new cycling shoes.

Your cleat consists of the metal cleat, two allen bolts, and a specially shaped washer with two holes in it that cup the two allen bolts.

To install your cleats you will need metric allen wrenches and something to put on the threads of the allen bolts. I prefer blue loctite, but any kind of bearing or seatpost grease will work.

Assemble cleat, bolts and washer. Make sure you don’t install the washer upside down, the bolts will have difficulty reaching the threaded inserts in your shoes and you may cross thread the bolts.

Firmly tighten both bolts. Turn the allen wrench until it doesn’t move. If you use the allen wrench found in most standard sets you won’t overtighten the bolt. Be careful if you are using an extra long allen wrench not to over-torque the bolts. Allen bolts sometimes loosen after the first few uses, so double check that your allen bolts are tight after a few classes. If your allen bolts loosen the cleat will rotate on the sole of the shoe and you may be unable to click out.

Cleat Adjustment

There are two cleat adjustments you need to make, the fore-and-aft position of the cleats, and the rotational adjustment.

Fore-and-aft is pretty simple. You want the ball of your foot, or the head of the first metatarsal, directly over the center of the pedal spindle.

Once you have the fore-and-aft position set, it’s time for the rotational adjustment.

How your feet line up naturally as you walk or pedal is different for everyone. You may be a bit toed out, toed in or straight ahead. And your foot alignment may not be the same for both legs.

One way to evaluate this is to walk so you leave footprints. Try leaving wet footprints when you get out of the shower. Look straight ahead, not down at your feet, and walk naturally. Look at your footprints and match your rotational cleat adjustment to your footprints.

When in doubt, tend toward neutral, or straight-ahead alignment. So if your shower footprints toe out 10 degrees, try setting your cleats so the shoes toe out 5 degrees, but never more than 10.

When you have the cleats set, go for a short and slow ride and see how your knees feel. Avoid long or strenuous rides in the early going until you’re sure of the adjustment.

If you feel pain on the inside or outside of your knee, chances are that your cleats are not properly aligned. Pain in front or back of the knee is more likely related to saddle height.

As a general rule, if you have pain on the inside of the knee, rotate your foot a bit more toe-in. And vice versa, if it hurts on the outside, turn your toe out a tiny bit.