Old 12-05-22, 10:21 PM
  #15  
canklecat
Me duelen las nalgas
 
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Texas
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Bikes: Centurion Ironman, Trek 5900, Univega Via Carisma, Globe Carmel

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None in particular. Resuming more walking in 2018, in addition to cycling, and running in early 2020 strengthened my feet, legs and knees. If anything I have fewer problems with my feet related to cycling than I did before 2018.

For one thing, I need less arch support. I used to need custom orthotics or ProFoot Miracle insoles, the best off the rack insoles I've tried. And I still prefer those for my road cycling shoes. But as my feet have strengthened I've mostly gone back to the factory original insoles in my Nike, Adidas, Atreyu and Under Armour running shoes.

I have Scott and Fizik road shoes, which feel pretty similar in terms of rigidity and needed minor fit adjustments via insoles and inserts to minimize heel slipping. I use old school Delta Look cleats and pedals for my old steel road bike, Shimano SPD-SL for another. The third road bike, currently disassembled for overhaul, takes Look Keo. After adjustments there are only minor differences in feel and usage. They're all just variations of the 3-bolt, plastic wedge cleat.

And I still prefer platform pedals and whatever shoes I'm wearing that day for my hybrids. I haven't found any reason to use clipless on my hybrids.

I'm not too particular about saddles and have a different type of saddle on each road bike. All basically variations of the same long nose, narrow, fairly hard saddle. There's a Cobb V-Flow triathlon/TT saddle on one, a Selle Italia that's somewhat similar to the Cobb on another, and a race oriented Selle Italia on another. I like them all about equally, once I get the height, etc., dialed in.

Neck pain from old injuries and worsening cervical spine stenosis forced me to unslam the stems/handlebars on my road bikes, raising the bars about one or two inches below saddle height. In some cases that involved minor saddle adjustments. In other cases, maybe swapping to a longer stem to get approximately the same handling feel. And tweaking the position of brake/shifter hoods to suit my neck and hand comfort.

I still use the original old school classic drops on my steel road bike with downtube shifters. For the carbon fiber bikes I prefer compact drops with shorter reach. That helps keep my hand position roughly the same on all three bikes when I'm using brifters on the carbon fiber bikes, so I'm not too stretched out or upright.

Some of those adjustments and component sizes are dictated by frame geometry. My most recent model carbon road bike has the shortest top tube, semi-compact frame, and needed a longer stem to get the same overall reach and riding position as my steel road bike with more classic geometry, longer top tube, etc. Each bike differs a couplafew millimeters, and I occasionally tweak them to suit however my neck feels on any given day or week. If my neck is really glitchy I'll take the old steel road bike since the quill stem is easiest to adjust quickly during a quick break on a ride. Threadless is more finicky and I dislike messing with spacers and torque wrenches on the road.
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