volrus

Wondering if anyone else experience severe foot pain in the outside edge of your feet while riding? It doesn't kick in until about mile 20 and a while back on my longest ride of 35 miles it left me practically unable to walk for several hours after the ride and very sore for the next couple of days. Is this just fatigue in the muscles or could it be caused by shoes that are too narrow/tight?

10 Wheels

Feet swell after a while and shoes or socks become to tight.

vesteroid

just curious, you mean ball of the little toe...outside, or is it more on the underside?

Bethany

Could be your shoes are too tight or too small. I discovered that I ride with my feet rolled outward..go figure and bought wider BMX style pedals. To my surprise, they worked! More leverage and power as well. I can't ride clipless w/o killing myself despite having an awesome pair of shoes that fit perfectly. I bought cheapie 15 dollar BMX style pedals, but they make nicer ones with and w/o clips. I do more mountain biking than road, but plan on putting wider pedals on my Fargo.

Despite the pedals, when I saw my podiatrist a couple of weeks ago about pain in the balls of my feet, he said my soft tissues had swollen up around the nerves causing major irritation. If your are dealing with numbness and pain for a couple of hours afterwards, you're putting pressure on your nerves. Make sure your shoes are properly fitted and the pedals set up for how you pedal. I'm on an anti-immflamatory right now.

IBOHUNT

I'll raise my hand.I don't have an answer though.

When I put in a real hard week, like one I did the middle of last August (275 miles with ~23,000' gain) the outside ball of my toes will be in major distress.
I've tried different shoes and socks, added some shims to hopefully make me pedal more on the large toe ball and moved my cleats to the furthest inboard position I can.

Once off the bike and a little rub on the feet the pain goes away.

When someone has an answer I'd love to hear it.

volrus

All along the outside from the base of the pinky toe back to where the heel starts.

Nightshade

After you figure out if your shoes are to tight, or your feet/legs swell, then consider a pair of "Kneesavers" to better align your whole leg during the complete pedal rotation.

I have installed Kneesavers on all my bikes to eliminate all sorts of foot/pedal problems due to the inward pull of the foot at the bottom of the pedal stroke common on all bikes.

https://www.kneesaver.net/

https://www.kneesaver.net/faq.html

RichardGlover

Check the size of your shoes.

Do you ride with clipless pedals? If so, then definitely get a bike fitting done. Your shoes' position on your pedals may need to be adjusted.

Neil_B

Another vote for the position of your feet on the pedals, or pedals or shoes too small.

volrus

I do ride clipless and the shoes fit great when I'm just walking around, not too tight and not too loose. I've had a bike fitting but they didn't do anything with my shoes. I've personally adjusted the cleats and it helped a little but not much.

thedave80

I was having pain on the outside of my feel wile riding clipless also. I went to a bike fitter and he put a shimon the cleat that raised the inside of the shoe, as I understand the idea was to adjust the angle of the shoe to match the angle of my foot. The pressure is a lot more evenly distributed now and it's making riding clipless a lot nicer.

edit: I dunno if this matches your problem but it's worth checing out. It was a very cheap fix

ksisler

On top of all the other inputs you will receive on shoes, socks, diet, etc., I will add this;

Had the problem for quite a few years. Finally had to look at it from an engineering view (like using some of my degrees for something real) and just looked down. It was obvious that my hip bones were a bit wider than the pedal center to pedal center measure of my crankset. The simple answer was to increase that distance so you are not putting pressure where it hurts (outside of foot). It is a simple $20 fix including shipping. Here is one example (there were different widths available but not sure how many different ones there are as I have seen from 10mm to 50mm at times. Also make sure you get the correct/normal 9/16" spindle for most bikes or the 1/2" if on a trainer). There are some selling in stainless finish and some in black anodized finish:

Example from Amazon: "Sunlite Pedal Extenders - 9/16" Pedal, 9/16" Crank, 27.5mm"

URL: https://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Pedal-...edal+extension

I can pretty much assure you that your foot pain will go away or at least be significantly reduced if you install these. I also found a considerable reduction in stress to the outside of the knees.

Medic Zero

+1 on yours and the other recommendation above for pedal extenders. The Sunlite ones are perfectly serviceable. If you care about the weight of them and money is no object the other brand makes them in Ti for a pretty penny. The other brand (Knee Savers IIRC) also makes two different sizes, IIRC the smaller is the same as the Sunlite (circa 25mm/1") and their other ones are significantly larger. I to have a "wide stance" and these have helped a LOT. I'm still experiencing some cramping at times in my feet, I'm next going to purchase a pair of Ergon pedals. These have not only a HUGE wide platform that allows more power transfer and support, but they are also slightly curved both to the outside and convex to mirror the shape of your foot. I'm quite optimistic that these pedals are going to make a huge difference in the comfort of my rides.