One leg shorter than the other
 

Hi as the title say's I have one leg shorter than the other and wear a heel lift in all my regular shoes ...This lifts the heel not the ball of the foot, I wonder if any one has experience of this problem and any ideas for a solution not including expensive custom made shoes (I can not afford that ) I have thought of fitting one 170mm crank and one 175 mm crank,do you think this sounds like a doable solution ...Reason for asking some small pain in the knee on the short side.

Thanks for any advice.

Edit Clips are not an option.

I wonder if there's a way to modify the pedal to make up the difference?

A quick Google search reveals that this appears to be a relatively common issue. Have you discussed it with your LBS?

Maybe these:

http://www.bikeparts.com/search_resu...p?ID=BPC323883

I used the wedges before, when I was having some pain in my right knee. And they did help. Never really did figure out why I had the pain for awhile.. But now I'm back to wedge-less again.

If you are certain that you have a leg length discrepancy, get a fit session with the best fitter you can find / afford. They should know how to shim your cleats or otherwise adjust your pedals and fit to compensate.

Yes, get a fitting - they will probably either shim the cleat, position one cleat farther forward to effectively change the difference between the legs, or both. There will probably be a saddle height adjustment as well, and maybe even a fore/aft adjustment.

The French TA company makes Crank arm lengths in all graduated lengths .

for example 165, 170, 172.5 175, 177.5, 180.

they also used to make a pedal, very nice bearings, which had removable plates,
interchangeable for various heights/width.. pedals still around, but extra parts not.

other pedals have screwed on side plates.. you could modify..

One of the best free fitting guides I have come across came with my Selle Anatomica saddle. One thing they recommend was rotating the saddle one degree or so to the right, for example, if your right leg is longer and visa versa. The saddle rotation is subtle and you don't notice it when riding but it does make a difference for evening things out.

My PT advised against shimming my cleats because the difference is not that great and since you contact the pedal with the ball of your foot, the flex of your ankle can make up the difference, as opposed to walking where your heal makes contact and it is fixed. Hope that makes sense.

Anyway, here is another vendor for fit solutions: http://www.bikefit.com/products.php

PS A broken in Brooks can also help. I have read where the dimple can be deeper on one side due to a difference in leg length.

+1 on this. My saddles are turned slightly, although there it's to the right to correct for a left-looking pelvis.

Could be handy, but if you have a leg length discrepancy then you're way past self-fitting.

If the discrepancy is severe enough and you ride a lot, you may even want to talk to the experts, e.g. Boulder Center for Sports Medicine or the nearest equivalent.

I have the same issue. The easiest solution is to ride with regular shoes and use toe clips.
I really like SPD clipless tho, so I called my local framebuilder and had him weld a spacer onto an SPD cleat. Here's a few pics (sorry if they're blurry, darn phone camera):

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...h_IMG_0033.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...h_IMG_0034.jpg

He drilled out a bit of the cleat so that the mounting screws could pass through, but he left a small platform for the lips of the screws to make contact with the bottom of the spacer. (sorry this is hard to explain) This is important, because the cleat doesn't work well when you use long mounting screws. When you unclip from the pedal, you turn your foot and this puts a lot of torque on the shoe's cleat. With long screws the shoe cleat ends up rotating, which you don't want. You need to use regular, short mounting screws to prevent your shoe's cleat from rotating.

Do not use different crank lengths! This will make the reach the same, but you have to consider that on the upstroke, your knee on the short crank side will not come up as high as on the other side, which would create a imbalance in your leg muscles and range of motion. It's better to use the same crank lengths and use a spacer on the short leg side.

From Sheldon Brown's site:

Riders who have one leg longer than the other sometimes attempt to compensate for this by using a shorter crank on the side with the shorter leg. I do not recommend this, however.

When one leg is significantly shorter than another, the shorter leg is also usually weaker than the longer one. Since a short crank results in a higher gain ratio, this setup would ask the the weaker leg to push harder than the stronger one.

A better way to deal with significant leg-length discrepancies is to build up the sole of the shoe, or to use longer bolts and spacer washers between the cleat and the shoe sole, or to build up the pedal by some sort of add on attachment.

Leg length discrepancy can also be somewhat accommodated by putting the cleat on the foot with the longer leg farther back toward the heel.
In some instances

Thanks for the advice
 

Thanks for the advice, the best fitting service locally is £120 $196.4 for a two hour session.That's a lot of wonga think ill try maybe to run a fater pedal on the left side

I only found out because my Chiro could not settle my back pain and sent me upstairs to the Podiatrist he measured me up and said its actually quite common.

Ps iI dont use clips Broke my spine clipped in on the MTB, never clipped again

Yea a variation of kiddy pedals, 2 blocks of wood sandwiched between is the pedal.

no orthopedists thru the NHS?

someone with a bike trainer stand and a video camera on a tripod,
can help a lot as the changes you make blocking up the short leg's pedal
can show you the changes during playback.

Leg length difference? Sure ... mine are different.... one about 1cm. shorter. A long time ago a doc told me this was causing my hip pain. I played along ... did the heel lift thing ..... and on and on. It became a boat anchor. Everything became a "concern". How could I modify this shoe and that shoe? .... what about my cycling shoes? endless endless endless.

It really didn't help .. either. I realized ..... I've live my whole life with this the so called "abnormality" . . . . and it never caused me any issues before .... so all of the sudden it's this? Not! I chucked the heel lifts . . . and just got on with my life. Crank arms? I use the same length . . . . my feet are positioned slightly different on the pedals naturally . . . . so I let it be. I don't use clips or straps or any retention system anymore . . . so I'm free to move my feet around as much as I like . I think that is natural.
We're not machines. . . . and we need not think of ourselves as such. If we inspect our bodies long enough we'd find all sorts of differences between one side or the other. So what? You are who and what you are. Perfect as is. Pain can be caused my many things .... most not even physical. . . . but most people don't want to hear that because it's easier to look at our bodies as physical machines .... not human beings. Humans are capable of enormous ranges or motions and flexibilities. . . . . that's about all I can say here.

Bravo, brother. Bravo!

Yes I am guesssing that Voodoo may also work ^^