[Dubgurl]

So I discovered a bit of an issue in my form on yesterday's ride, actually it's kinda a big one. I have a pretty regular tendency to cant my left knee in towards the frame when I'm pushing on the left side. Obviously this is a bad thing (I'll give you about 800mg worth of reasons why.) But is there something I can do, other than spend every spinning moment focusing on keeping my knee straight, to fix it? Could there be a reason why I'm doing this? I'm not causing myself crippling pain but whatever that does to my knee can't be good long term.

[trx1]

i like your expession in your avatar....pretty!

[photosbymark]

Well first thing I would look at is the cleats if you are clipped in. Most of them have some float, but in some cases not that much. You may have had a screw loosen and slip in the shoes allowing the cleat to reposition themselves.

[Dubgurl]

No cleats yet Sorry should have said that. I'm still poor on platforms.

[photosbymark]

Ok if you stay on platforms, do they have some good grips on them to keep your foot in place?? If you have a solid point from which to anchor, it will help the rest of the spin go better. With that, the one thing you can try is to pay EXTRA attention while putting the foot ON the pedal, and you might not need to pay as much attention at other times.

Without a good start, a good finish is extremely difficult, but what do I know. I won't shave my legs, and I am a Fred.

[Dubgurl]

The grips are pretty good, I've only kicked off of them once in almost 400 miles, but that could be due to me not trying!

I try and put the ball of my foot on the "axle" of the pedal and the inside part of my shoe right where the pedal stops (about 1/4 inch from the crank.) Is this right?

[Poolie]

Is your foot flat on the platform or are you picking your heel up so that you can apply more pressure to the pedal with the ball of your foot? I'm trying to visualize how you would be about to pull your knee in towards the frame and that's all I can think of...

[Dubgurl]

Poolie, makes sense, I wish I had a roller so I could pedal in front of a mirror

It almost feels like it's originating from my hips, but it doesn't make sense cause I don't think that I move my right knee out.

[Poolie]

Before going with clipless pedals I was doing something similar. By putting all of my weight on the ball of my foot I could pedal harder, but was also getting cramps in my calves. Moving my foot slightly forward which forced my heel down helped some.

I know we're probably like the local crack dealer, but you should really start saving the pennies for a set of clipless pedals. One of the top 5 best things I've done for my riding ability. I tried them 10-12 years ago with my mountain bike and hated them because I kept crashing, but reluctantly tried them again on my road bike and I can't imagine riding without them.

[Dubgurl]

Well, I guess the good news about this is SlickBikes has a set of SPD/Platforms for like $50 right now so I guess I'll take another credit against my bike budget (I give my self $0.10/mile, but I'm actually about $4 behind right now cause of my computer :/ )