Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Coping with Toe Overlap

Ok, so I took my EG Bates track bike out for one of it's first rides, and had to squeeze through a narrow gates - one of the ones where you actually have to weave through it. It was tricky enough that it was somewhere I would normally coast but couldn't, but then I also had my toes hit the wheels both sides. Didn't come off, but it was unnerving.

I know a lot of you guys ride track bikes in places where you have to weave through narrow gaps - any advice for dealing with this?

I suppose it depends how bad your toe overlap is. I actually get it on my geared CX bike as well as my fixed gear bike, and yea I can try to avoid it by turning the wheel when the pedals are verticle instead of horizontal, but I still get it frequently during slow speed maneuvers. I've found the more it happens, the less it bothers me. My toe sort of skims the edge of the tire, but it doesn't upset the handling in any way. I suppose if things were getting very tangled up it would be a problem.

Try to avoid it by timing tight turns so that the outside pedal is as far from the wheel as possible when you turn. for instance start a left turn just after the right pedal passes through the downward stroke. When toe overlap happens drop your heel a bit, and the tire will roll over the toe easier.

I only get it when going really slow, and I can usually just pedal through it. Its a little scary and knocks me around a bit but its never thrown me off or anything. My only advice is to keep practicing weaving through stuff and you will become more comfortable when it does happen.

Also, when turning and you think you might get some contact, angle your ankle as far upwards as possible, that will make the toe clip also angle upwards, making it protrude forward less.. if you do this, i've found that instead of the clip digging into the tire, it will just graze along it.

get used to it and you'll get better at footdown!

if in a real tight spot, a fast skip to readjust pedal postion helps.

I only get it when I'm going super-slow with fenders. I just deal with it: either muscle through and rub your shoe along the tire like you've gotta, or else adjust steering to compensate. Or both.

When passing through gates like that I sometimes have to point my toes down.. ie stand up and tippytoe

Thanks all - will try the toe-pointing things. What's foot-down?

When passing through gates like that I sometimes have to point my toes down.. ie stand up and tippytoe

Opposite direction, but same idea as what I said. Try whichever is more comfortable for you!

Footdown is a game that they use to teach little kids at the BMX track bike handling skills.

A bunch of kids ride around in a corral like circle, trying not to put a foot down.
As kids are eliminated, the circle gets smaller.

I recently found out that "Portland style" footdown involes shoving people in the neck.

Thanks all - will try the toe-pointing things. What's foot-down?

great fun, that's what it is. basically, a bunch of people on bikes ride around in a tight circle, with the goal being to knock anyone and everyone off their bikes (or at least put a foot down on the ground) by any means necessary without going down yourself. last person standing who hasn't put a foot down wins, hence the name.

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1022982/2/istockphoto_1022982_cheese_cutter.jpg

i just put new clips on my pedals (MKS large) and now i have more toeverlap than ever. i can't do a left-foot-forward wheel to the right trackstand anymore because it always threatens to make me fall over when my wheel gets locked by hitting the clip

and i suck at wheel-to-the-left trackstands :(

^^^ Do wheel to the right, right foot forward for trackstands. At least that is how I do them. No toe overlap to worry about.

I have toe overlap on my track bike and haven't really got used to it at all yet! I try not to ride it in the street though so that helps.

^^^ Do wheel to the right, right foot forward for trackstands. At least that is how I do them. No toe overlap to worry about.

yeah i mean im really good at right-foot right-wheel ones, its just sometimes i end up right behind a car with left crank forward, and going forward enough to get right crank forward means running into their bumper. i just want to be versatile, i've perfected my right side while leaving my left side useless!

yeah i mean im really good at right-foot right-wheel ones, its just sometimes i end up right behind a car with left crank forward, and going forward enough to get right crank forward means running into their bumper. i just want to be versatile, i've perfected my right side while leaving my left side useless!
gotcha, my bad. I thought you were doing them all the time with with left foot forward, wheel right and now just started having toe overlap issues. I hear ya on versatility.

Just to echo what everyone else has said, I have toe overlap on one of my bikes, and it's really not too bad. If it does catch me off guard I'm usually trackstanding or going really really slow, so I can either tilt my foot and get out of it, or put a foot down before I fall over.

I know a lot of you guys ride track bikes in places where you have to weave through narrow gaps - any advice for dealing with this?

powerstraps>toe clips with respect to toe overlap problems. since there's nothing attached to the front of the pedal, it's easy to slide your feet back a little on the pedals when going through tight gaps.

clipless=no toe overlap for me, clips and straps=major toe overlap

Ride a conversion, ha ha.

The old fork on my 56 Steamroller was bent back slightly in an accident a while ago. The bend in the fork wasn't too bad, it just made the handling quicker and left me with tons (four inches at the worst point) of overlap. I learned to stagger my turns i.e. turn less when your toes are in the way and more at other points in the cycle. If it was a really tight turn, I'd just unclip the one foot.

Ride a conversion, ha ha.

Got one of those as well......

Lean more in the turns and go wider!

Lean more in the turns and go wider!

It's not a problem in regular turns, only at really slow speeds, when I'm weaving through an obstacle that requires me to turn the bars.

I guess you're riding clips and straps on that Bates and prob don't want to put clipless on such a classic bike. However, on my bike I have slight overlap even with clipless and am wearing through the shoes where the wheel rubs across them. It nearly took me off the bike the first time I clipped the wheel in traffic, but now I am prepared for it and just muscle through.

If the overlap on your bike is enough that you can't push the wheel over the clip then the techniques above all work. You can point your foot up or down, "wiggle" the front wheel through the turns so that you avoid toeclip-wheel contact or skip the back wheel to move your pedals. Since it's only at low speed you can stop, trackstand and wait for traffic to move as well.