vane171

Hi, I got this secondhand bike, Trek, TT style handlebars and nice compact frame. This is also first for me to ride with clipless shoes and I screwed SPD style clips on my new shoes and placed them in the mid (back/forward) position to start with.

Today I took it out for a test ride and soon I found I was hitting my front wheel with shoe toes in tighter turns. I was careful and back home, I moved the clips all the way forward, clipped the shoe on pedal and to my dismay, it still hits and not just touching, it can be an inch overlap. What gives? The only other way would be shorter cranks, the bike came with the standard size 172.5 mm but even if I changed to 170 or whatever is smaller next size, it still wouldn't be enough to clear the front tire.

Shoes are size 44 and I could have bought one size smaller when it comes to space in toe area but this 44 size otherwise fit as far as foot width goes. My feet weren't slim even when I was twenty years old and from reading around here, many face this problem of cycling shoes being made for Martians or some ETs.

Is that normal and to be expected on this kind of bike, since it is not meant to go slow and do things on it like make a slow 90 degree turns on city side streets? It is true that at normal riding speeds you mostly never steer the wheel that much to hit your toes on the front wheel tire but you still get into situations where that happens.

I seem not to have any problem with unclipping pedals when stopping, it comes easy, at least I hope I won't forget I am clipped in, but I kind of doubt you also get used to watching your feet pedaling in tight turns, so as not to jam your toes against tire.