Paul L.

Toe cages or moving the cleats back? You might be able to alter your foot placement on the pedal slightly but this can lead to other problems as you ride longer distances.

noisebeam

I have a lot of overlap on my fixed gear.
There is only one place it is a problem, on an uphill sharp u-turn I make to get on a bicycle freeway overpass.
I just take it slow and wide and check first that on one is coming the other way.
If it was not uphill I could skip the tires and get the cranks lined up right for the turn, but when I try that I loose too much speed to make the turn smoothly.

Al

thebikeguy

You don't need a new bike.You can adjust your existing bike to help eliminate the problem.I've had that problem when wearing snow boots.
Try raising the seat a bit more so you are pedalling with the front of your foot intead of the ball of your foot.That way your toes don't stick out as much.
It worked for me.

Schwinnrider

Toe overlap is a problem I have on all my 700c wheeled fendered bikes. I ride a 52cm frame on most bikes, and that's going to happen. I don't have big feet(9.5 US) but big wheels and small frame sizes don't mix. In a perfect world, more road bikes would have smaller wheels.

meeshu

Foot too far forward on pedal?

I had some excitement recently when I was trying to make a turn on my hybrid bike with 700 x 38c tires.

I was at a T intersection on a main road and wanting to turn into the side road. I had slowed down to almost a crawl to wait for traffic in the opposite lane to clear. When I saw a gap in the traffic, I started the turn and tried to pedal, but the toe of my shoe hit the front wheel! Wheel stopped turning. The bike stopped. And there was a bus coming towards me(!). The bus was about 200 feet away and not moving fast. So if I had fallen down, the bus would have had time to stop.

One or two swear words later, I quickly recovered by accelerating the bike using the other pedal and making sure my first shoe was placed properly on the pedal (ball of foot).

My shoe was positioned too far forward on the pedal (possibly as far as my heel?). I don't use clips or cleats, I just use sports shoes for cycling.

BTW, I'm 6'2", wear size 12 shoes, and the bike is about 51 cm size (just a bit on the small size for me, but rideable).

Schwinnrider

6'2" on a 51cm? Yeah, I'd say it's a big small. :-)

meeshu

Correction. The bike seems small because I have the saddle positioned almost right down on the seat tube.

51 cm may appear small, but this hybrid bike has a different geometry compared to most other bikes. If I raise the saddle about 3 inches I can barely reach the pedals! And the saddle can be raised even further! This would suggest that even taller riders (up to around 6'6" or so) could ride the bike also!

The flat handle bar position can also be adjusted horizontally and vertically to suit different riders.

Since I have big feet, I have to be careful where I place my feet on the pedals so that I don't hit the front tires when making tight turns.

Brian T

I have a Redline Conquest as well. I have the same problem and I wear size 8 shoes.

hurrikaane

Jamis Aurora 58cm, size 12 shoes, fenders = toe overlap.

Txthroop 

Yeah, I'm looking for a new commuter bike and I hate dealing with toe overlap. I've been looking at bikes and I think I'm going to go with the Surly LHT (or another touring frame) mostly so that I can put fenders on the thing and not worry about timing my turns or crashing in parking lots due to TO. Call me unsophisticated but I want to be able to forget my bike and enjoy the ride.
The LHT in a 54cm has 26" wheels and if that's not going to make enough room than I don't know what would. I tried the Cross Check but it's just not quite enough clearance.

Cadfael

I know this may sound basic, and I don't wish to insult you, but given you have not said if you are using some form of strap or clip, or whether you are flat pedals I will just mention this.

With a flat pedal, you should position your foot so that the widest part of the foot is sitting over the axle of the pedal. For me at least this means the pedal is sitting quite forward on my foot.

SOS

I've only had this happen when riding on other people's bikes that were too small for me. Of course, pedal-to-wheel distance does not necessarily change much with a different bike size. On my current bike, I could only make it happen if I pedaled with the arch of my foot over the pedal. I ride clipless, so that never happens. If your bike fits then maybe your foot position is odd/bad?

lisitsa

Ah this problem was unbearable for me. But it was because I crashed and bent my fork backwards but perfectly straight. I rode on it for 3 weeks, but then succumbed and bought a new fork with some nice rake (fork curved forwards to give more clearance and more suspension). If its your only ride, I reckon fix the problem. Little things like this can really get on your nerves, and you can get new forks or a 650c wheel quite cheap these days.

alanrogers

Several of these posts have suggested that a touring bike might solve the problem of toes striking the front wheel on slow turns. I recently added fenders to my new Surley LHT (58cm), and the toe-strike problem is bothering me a lot. When the crank arm is forward and the wheel is turned, the distance from center of pedal to fender is 3.375 in--not enough for my size-13 feet.

GriddleCakes

Yeah, my father-in-law had the same experience with the Surly LHT and his size 11 feet. He was test riding a bunch of bikes before his last tour and said that all of the Surlys that he rode had toe overlap, which is a deal breaker for him.

Both of my non-mountain bikes have toe overlap, but it doesn't bother me. Be mindful of keeping your inside pedal back and your outside pedal forward during turns, and it eventually becomes muscle memory or something; I no longer think about it, anyway.

nkfrench 

I wear mens size 9.5 shoes and ride a women's 54cm road bike. Yes, I have toe overlap when I try to do a U-turn on a narrow road. I also can't "slalom" up steep grades going from curb to curb.

My fix: dismount and do pivot turns, ride a straight[er] line up hills like I should anyhow [or walk], just deal with sharp/hairpin turns as needed.