how do you know how wide your pedal stance should be?

I read that fat bikes were potential problem due to the width of cranks but I never had any issues with mine. Feel like I have more trouble (if any) with narrow road bikes.

What sort of trouble do narrow road bikes cause?


There is no metric for stance or "Q". Most people walk and run with their feet much closer together than the narrowest pedal stance, which is why it is generally observed that narrower is better.

Your body is the answer here. We are all quite different. My knees are very sensitive to too much "Q". They are happier going up tough hills on fix gears with very narrow track-standard cranksets than on my geared bikes with their Shimano triples, very low gears and typical wide Shimano Q-factor. (My knees seem to care zero about the symmetry of the pedals. Bottom brackets that are very asymmetrical to keep the left crank so close it almost hits the chainstays work well for me.

Ben

Different width stances use slightly different muscles or the same ones in different amounts. There's no correct number. You get used to what you have. Going back and forth between different Qs might cause some soreness if you ride each of them a lot, but so what. When I squat in the gym, my feet are much further apart than they are on the bike. Is this wrong? No. It's just different.

I used to be a bug about foot placement when hiking or walking, always putting one foot exactly in front of the other. I finally decided it was stupid and went to hip width placement, but walking worked fine either way.

Unfortunately, the only way to learn what Qfactor is acceptable to your body is to try it long enough to see if it hurts you. Fortunately, most folks can tolerate a reasonably wide range of typical Q factors. I find anything under 145 feels weird and bothers my ITB band. (top of thigh) The too wide Q (210ish) on my old fat bike was something I usually adjusted to it when fatbike season came around, but it never really felt natural and eventually began to irritate my knees and hips. (I'm 55-a lot of things irritate me lately, and I ain't talkin' just on the bike!) The sweet zone for me seems to be high 140s to low 180s...YMMV.

just wait 'till you're 58!