[rola643]

When I first started riding I gave cleat position and angle a lot of thought and played around frequently with this. After a while I found something comfortable and other than changing cleats never really think about it.

A couple years later I get a MTB and of course more pedals and shoes. I got some Crank Bros. Candy and like them well enough. I've only done a handful of MTB rides and really enjoy the change.

Weather warms up and I take the road bike out again and INSTANTLY my feet feel all dorked up as in postion and feel on the pedal! It got me thinking how sensitive minor adjustments can be and why micro adjustments are best. I will say that my feet never felt out of position or awkward on the MTB which is why this whole thought process got started to begin with.

Long story short, my road shoe cleats are at or very slightly forward of the ball of my foot. If I'm not mistaken it ( a more forward cleat position ) can or does cause you to use more calf muscle. Seems I remember reading something like that but really it doesn't matter.

At any rate I'm am going to experiment some now and move them back a little bit and see how it feels and what, if any, different muscle groups I feel overall.

Anybody play with cleat position for/aft or angle? I would think angle would be the most finicky as it could create issues with knees a lot faster I'm guessing.

 

[qmsdc15]

I had to move the cleats back on my shoes. I think my dislike for the feel of them was amplified by switching between the shoes and my SPD sandals which had a better cleat position. I think slightly too far forward is much more noticeable, and bothersome than slightly too far back, at least for me it is. Hard to balance on a spindle that is even slightly forward of the ball of foot, and it makes sense that ones calves would be worked trying to balance on the pedals in that case.

 

[CTD50]

My standard, since I wear size 46's, is to put the cleat straight and full forward; never failed me yet.

The only caveat to that is that not all shoe makers put the cleat mounting position as far forward as most; Answer shoes were noticeably different, and made no-look engagement a challenge. Sette, 661, and Shimano all seem to be within fractions of millimeters of each other.