vantassell

Anyone here have high arches and care to share their journey to shoe comfort?

Right now i've got some Sidi Genius mesh (about 3 months old) on Keo pedals. I used the original insoles for about 3 days, but they really made my arches hurt. I took them out and rode w/o insoles for a month or so. The shoes felt better but I would still get huge hotspots and have bruises/calluses under joint/knuckle of my big toe. I got some custom footbeds made and am i'm still working on the kinks and working with the LBS on sanding down parts to help them fit better.

Point is, i've got high arches and they cause a lot of problems and hurt after about 20 miles. It's not my actual arches that hurt, but they cause a lot of pressure to be put on the ball of my foot, causing hot spots and discomfort.

kleng

Have you tried moving the cleats back, this could reduce the pressure on the toes.
https://www.podiatrists.org/enewsroom...%20Tendons.pdf

Soil_Sampler

Sidi is not the best fit for someone with a high arch/instep type foot.
My high instep/arch foot works best with Carnac and Northwave shoes.
The Carnac shoes having the better arch support.

https://www.bikeforums.net/search.php?searchid=3972691

marcusbandito

I have been testing the Aline insoles ( https://www.aline.com/ ) this summer and so far they have been good for my feet after about 1000 miles. We sell them at my shop so it was worth it for me to see, but they are a semi-off the shelf insole in that the sales person should measure the location and length of your arch to give you the proper size insole and then correct for ankle mis-alignment using shims.
The first few rides were uncomfortable, as they claimed it would be, but now they feel good. Of course, everyone has different feet so it is a lot of trial and error.

KevinTX

Try the Specialized BG footbeds. There are basically three types they offer; flat, medium, and high. I was having similar problems with my Sidis, so I took them with me to an LBS. I stood on the little BG arc measure board, it said I needed the medium ones. Stuck them in my shoe and tried them on there, also tried on the other two. It took about 150 miles to break them in, but they feel so much better then the Sidi insoles, and they were only 40 bucks. It was worth it for no more numb toes.

Campag4life

Actually Sidi is one of the best shoes out there for cyclists with high arches. The bed of the shoe is well above std. arch height. As it turns out, I have low arches and I like Sidi Shoes so this is counterdiction of sorts. Placing a low arch foot bed in a shoe with a high arch floor isn't necessarily going to solve the issue because the foot bed over time will follow the floor of the shoe. So...if you want to lower the arch of a Sidi, one has to grind the foot bed of the shoe...what I did. Then you can place a more std. foot bed in the shoe. I agree with others that the insoles that come in Sidis are not the best quality.

If you have a high arch, then Sidis are good shoes. You can even take out the existing insoles and shim the center section up with insertion of foam tape...customize your insoles if you want. Tweaking shoes is something that ski racers have done for years....grinder, foam and tape.

Lastly, move your cleats around. I am not convinced your shoes don't fit as much as your cleats aren't in the right position for best load distribution.