Q-Factor too small on road bike.

**Timbuk2**

I am using two bikes at the moment, a Hybrid and a Peugeot Racer. I use the hybrid much more often but I am trying to get into using the road bike more now.

Both bikes have Shimano M520 pedals, so as I can use the same shoes for either bike. On the Hybrid bike the distance between my two feet is fine (forget the technical word for this, possibly Q-distance or something?) and my feet (although toes are pointing outwards) clear the crank arms.

On the road bike, I think the pedals are closer together as my heel sometimes brushes the crank arm. My feet also feel uncomfortably close together. I do not wish to adjust the cleats as they are correct for the hybrid. When I am on the road bike, if I look straight down at the cranks, it looks like they bend back in slightly towards the centre of the bike (if you know what I mean). On the hybrid, they appear to bend outwards.

How can fix this problem on the road bike? My friend suggested spark plug washers (I think that's what he called them, anyway). But surely these would only affect the position by mere millimetres, which would not make a significant distance. Are there any other good fixes? Thanks

Al Wright

you may need pedal extenders, Highpath Engineering in Wales do something in that line;

http://www.highpath.net/cycles/special/pedals.html

IM0

In short no, not if your sticking with the same cleats and shoes. Of course getting another pair of shoes (and adjusting cleats to compensate to push feet out/move in) is the best way to solve this, sounds like its out of the question.

On my touring bike I have 168.5mm cranks, a tripple (much wider Q factor) and bent crank arms (you know what I mean :P ) wheras on my roadbike (which gets 95% use) its 172.5mm cranks, a double (much narrower Q factor) and straight crank arms, and the only solution is to deal with it, it works out ok.

sy

Time pedals allow you to increase the Q factor by swapping the cleats between shoes. The cleats are clearly marked as to which shoe they must be fitted etc

tunney

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

I am using two bikes at the moment, a Hybrid and a Peugeot Racer. I use the hybrid much more often but I am trying to get into using the road bike more now.

Both bikes have Shimano M520 pedals, so as I can use the same shoes for either bike. On the Hybrid bike the distance between my two feet is fine (forget the technical word for this, possibly Q-distance or something?) and my feet (although toes are pointing outwards) clear the crank arms.

On the road bike, I think the pedals are closer together as my heel sometimes brushes the crank arm. My feet also feel uncomfortably close together. I do not wish to adjust the cleats as they are correct for the hybrid. When I am on the road bike, if I look straight down at the cranks, it looks like they bend back in slightly towards the centre of the bike (if you know what I mean). On the hybrid, they appear to bend outwards.

How can fix this problem on the road bike? My friend suggested spark plug washers (I think that's what he called them, anyway). But surely these would only affect the position by mere millimetres, which would not make a significant distance. Are there any other good fixes? Thanks

Millimetres may as well be miles when it comes to Q-factor. I have a set of cranks I switch between bikes. On my TT bike the BB is about 1-1.5 mm wider. I only found this out because I noticed something "wrong" with how the set up felt.

I think the better solution is a second set of shoes for you though.

blorg

The Q factor (width between the pedals) is larger on a double all right. General wisdom though is the narrower the better so you might be better off trying to get used to the road bike Q factor. I ride both triples and doubles with the same shoes/cleat setup without difficulty- everyone is different but I just say this to indicate it is certainly possible.