Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
The fitter I went to would say something different - he pretty much just put the cleats in the default position, he thought it was more important to work on pedalling technique - even power through the stroke (as much as humanly possible), and keep the knee going up and down in a straight line.
"Fitter" or defaulter?
I'd agree you don't indulge bad habits, and we might be close to saying the same thing. I didn't state the corollary to my comment above, which is if you are so biomechanically out there that you need all this extra float you may need some coaching more than pedal adjustments (like me with golf clubs). So in that sense I'd agree.
But a lot of folks use 4 or 6 deg of float to only have to get within 4 or 6 deg of their good fit, and may even be riding at a premature release in one direction and twice as far from release in the other direction because they gooned it up. And their knee pain, etc., is due to a combination of that bad fit and the bad bio mechanics in the first place.
It is one thing for a pro fitter to look at you and affirm that you are center mass in the bell curve, which I suspect you got. It is quite another thing to get a "this oughta work" standard answer akin to a low end bike shop size and set up and call it a fit - whether you pay for it or do it yourself - then confuse the need for more float with having missed being right in the first place, whether that be for the realities of your non-50th percentile body & style, and/or for your inaccuracy in executing the 50th percentile set up.