I've just put toe clips and fenders on my Steamroller and am getting some pretty nasty toe strike. In fact, I think it would happen even without the fenders.

Is this happening to anybody else? My cranks are 170mm. Do I have to go down to 165's? I rather not cause I'm long legged. I could go clipless but I prefer clips for urban riding. I want to keep the fenders to keep the salt spray off during the winter.

You're talking about toe overlap, and no going from 170mm to 165mm won't fix the problem since that would be changing the crank length 5mm. First to access the problem: I don't see one. The only time this may affect you is when you're going < 2 mph. When you're going fast there is absolutely no way your wheel will hit your pedal.

Well if the overlap is less than 5mm, then it would fix the problem.

Anyway, toe overlap is just a problem you have to learn to live with.

barspinz

Yeah, it happens when maneuvering in traffic, so it wouldn't make me crash but it would prevent me from turning sharply when I need to.

if 165s will help clear the toe overlap why not get them? How tall are you in the first place and what size frame are you riding?

you get used to it, you can probably angle your foot down to miss the tire or you can skid around corners too That's what you get when you buy a frame with compact geo and put fenders on it to boot

Steamroller doesn't have compact geometry. You can use smaller toe clips to help clear but overlap isn't as bad as it seems after you ride it like that for a while.

I used to ride a road bike with terrible toe overlap. Now I ride a Surly Cross Check with ton of spare room even with fenders. It's nice to have one less thing to worry about.

Tilt your foot a bit.

dont listen to the person who said 5mm won't help. yes it will. get 165s.

What size Steamroller?

I've got a Steamroller with LARGE toeclips, 165 crank arms, and 700 x 32 tires. If I try really, really, really hard, I can get the front of my clips to touch the tire. Howver, I've never had any toe strike issues while out riding at normal speeds since I'm more liekly to be leaning around corners and objects.

My frame size is a 56. My cycling inseam is about 58 (34.5") so I'm pretty long in the leg and take a 172.5 on a road bike crank. But if I can borrow some 165's I'll give 'em a try.

In any case, turns out a shorter crank would help but I've got a long way to go. The overlap is 2 cm. Of that, the fender takes up about .5 cm. I'll look into a smaller toe clip.

I was out tonight trying tilting the inside pedal in turns - maybe I'll figure out a way to turn that into some kind of fixed gear stunt.

Just saw your post: as we were saying earlier in the thread, this is only a problem making turns at low speed, such as pulling out from side streets into traffic.

Since you mention tire size, I was just about to order studded Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires which are 35 mm wide. Now I'm hesitating because I figure the knobs on these will make them higher = yet more overlap. This is a drag.

I recently went into my LBS with the intent of buying a Steamroller and also found the overlap to be something I wasn't comfortable with. Instead I bought a Redline.

Toe overlap shouldn't be a problem.

I ride a 52 track frame with really tight geometry with substantial toe overlap, and LL MKS clips Riding through traffic, I've never had any trouble with toe overlap.

Try tilting your feet down. I think toe overlap is one of those problems that go away when you get used to riding a fixed gear, kind of like getting used to not coasting.

I think a lot of people never try this... why else would they be posting?

Also good for toe overlap problems, since they only happen with fixed gears, is learning to hop your back tire into the air a tad while repositioning your feet when you see a tight turn coming up and think you might hit the wheel.

do you have a pic illustrating how much overlap you have? i wanna see how much people can get by with.

i have so much overlap on one of my bikes i think i may have to go clipless-- mks sylvan pedals currently hit the front tire.