Colin G

Maybe I have just never had this happen on any of my old road bikes, but does anyone have the problem of regularly rubbing the tips of their road shoes on the front tire?


I don't recall this happening on my Colnago. I bought a LeMond Washoe and now I rub my right foot constantly when pedaling while turning. Almost made me crash hard yesterday.


I am a small guy at 5' 8" with a size 9 shoe so I'm not a monster or anything. Cranks are 172.5mm Campy Super Record and I am using Specialized shoes with Look Keo cleats.


If on the bike and having my crank arms parallel to the ground, the tip of my shoe is past the tire.

redfooj

i assume you are talking about a walking pace. at a moving pace, there is minimal steering angle required to initiate and maintain a turn. its all about the lean. at a walking pace, just do the stutter-pedal. its not a fixed gear bike so it shouldnt be a concern

msu2001la

It's called "toe overlap". And yes, it's only a problem at very slow speeds.

I'm not sure there's much you can do about it.

ddub

Called toe overlap. Not unusual on a more race oriented road bike. Avoid low speed turning with a horizontal pedal. All my road bikes have this but as long as I'm aware of it avoiding the issue is easy. Haven't crashed yet because of the overlap. I crash for other reasons. FYI I am the same size as you 5'8" size 9.

Square Wheels

Smaller feet.

Succhia Ruota

On bikes with a shorter wheelbase, this can be a common issue - particularly for larger riders (with larger feet).

My toes overlap the front wheel on one of my bikes. The only time contact is ever made is when I'm stopped and seated on the top tube, with my cranks horizontally oriented and one foot clipped in, and I do the dumb thing and mindlessly turn the bars.

This is tremendously annoying, because it puts a nice black scuff on my perfect white shoes, which I then have to endure for the rest of my ride until I can get home to clean with solvent.

Ride ruined.

msu2001la

Just chop off the toes and get smaller shoes.

I think you could also slide the cleats up closer to the toes, so your feet are further back on the pedals, but this might make for a weird riding position.

Colin G

Yes, this occurs mainly at slower speeds. I really noticed it when going through these staggered gates on my city's cycle path. They have them at railway crossings so you don't just go cruising through without looking.


I have been without a road bike for almost a year and have been doing over 125 kilometers a week on a 26" wheeled BMX cruiser with no real toe overlap to speak of.


I guess I'm just used to riding that old cruiser. I have only had my LeMond for a couple weeks now and have been riding it almost every day so obviously I am not %100 used to riding a road bike again.


Thanks guys.

msu2001la

Learning to make sharp, low-speed turning maneuvers with the cranks vertically instead of horizontally is a good way to get rid of toe overlap.

I've hit my toes on my tires during CX races a few times, where low-speed sharp turns are a little more common. I'm not sure I've ever noticed this on the road though.

Colin G

Actually the cleats as far as they can go and the ball of my foot is right over the pedal axle. Pedals are Ritchey Echelon.


My shoes are about 5 years old and the fore/aft adjustment for cleats is not so great on them. I will be buying new shoes later in the year when they start to go on sale. I get a bit of hot foot with the Specialized and have never been %100 happy with them. I'll probably try Mavic shoes next.

Colin G

On Yesterday's ride I made a conscious effort to do this. Toe rub only happened as I was riding up my front walk and have a sharp left hander to get into my back yard. I almost ate **** and fell over onto the lawn.


I have a habit of having my right pedal and crank arm horizontal with right food forward instead of vertical


All my days of BMX riding since I was a little tyke I guess. I have a habit of having cranks horizontal due to the nature of stand up riding on a BMX bike.


Even though I'm 45, I still love BMX.

Abe_Froman

I've got size 12s but a long wheelbase touring bike....Honestly only time i notice it is when track standing at lights....

HTupolev

The smaller you are, the more toe overlap you're likely to deal with. It's because builders tend to not scale wheel size to the bike; huge people with huge feet may have their toes reaching farther forward of the cranks on the front of the stroke, but they'll also likely be riding a bigger frame that holds the front wheel axle much farther forward. Since the wheel usually isn't any bigger on the bigger bike, there's a lot more clearance.

Colin G

Makes sense. My old road bike was too large. It was a 56cm Colnago and never did I experience toe overlap. (That I can recall anyway)


My new LeMond is a 53cm and actually fits.

Psimet2001 

This. Done.

brianmcg123

https://www.google.com/search?q=toe+...utf-8&oe=utf-8

rpenmanparker 

I can't imagine why this is such a problem for you. Just push your feet off the ground like a scooter and don't pedal in tight situations. Most people have overlap and never even realize it. Very few folks try to pedal with the wheel sharply turned. See my POLL thread from a while ago on this subject.

Danny01

Get used to placing the foot that would impact the wheel out of the way when turning at slow speeds.

bleui

One of my bike also has serious toe-overlap (front centre only 563mm), and yesterday's ride was when I realized it could potentially be dangerous.
I was climbing a 22-26% gradient, maxed my gear on 34-28, just manage cadence of 54, about 8 km/h.
The road has many cracks filled with huge slippery rocks, it's a quiet village road so not many cars.
I was almost at the top, tried to avoid one huge crack by going the other side of the road (opposing traffic), then all of a sudden from the corner came a motorbike. I tried to steer back to my lane, risking slippery rocks, but the front wheel just hit my foot at the most perfect angle possible (3 o'clock position). Luckily the biker realized I was having a problem so he quickly slowed down until I managed to go around the crack with just a slight of steering possible.

caloso

Focus on keeping your outside foot at 6 o'clock whenever you turn, no matter what speed. You need to unlearn the bmx habitat and start to ingrain a new roadie habit.

joejack951

It's hardly a 'road cycling' problem but when I ride around with my five year old (goofing off on our street, jumping curbs, circling around parked cars and such) I encounter toe overlap issues constantly on my Trek 660. I'm trying to follow a kid on a very maneuverable 20" wheel bike on a race-geometry 700c wheel bike (it was worse when he was on a 14" wheel bike). I have been getting better and better at recognizing when toe overlap will be an issue and positioning my feet accordingly, but it still happens, mostly on sharp right turns. My right leg is stronger than my left so if I'm going to put my cranks horizontal, my right foot will naturally be forward ready to push down. I don't want it slightly raised because then my left pedal is likely to hit the ground. The obvious solution is left foot forward on sharp right turns and vice versa but unlearning years of habit is tough.

rpenmanparker 

Did you get it backwards? If you turn hard right when going slowly, then the back of the wheel is pointing left. So having your right foot forward is, in fact, optimum. If you are going fast and countersteer left to turn right, yes you would quickly turn the wheel left and the back of it would be to the right, but so little and for so short a time that you would never interfere with it.

joejack951

Yes. Brain fart. Left turns are the issue.

rpenmanparker 

I needed to be sure I wasn't losing my mind.

woodcraft

This suggestion is appropriate for the dandy-horse sub forum, but not for road cycling...