Hey all, what are your opinions on the relationship between pedal cleat float and proper knee alignment. As I was performing a workout recently, the in ride instructions told me to watch my knees for lateral tracking. During the interval, I was playing around with my foot position and reflecting on how it affected how the knees tracked. I have Speedplay Zero pedals which allow me to adjust how much or how little float I have.
Questions:
If I train and get consistent knee tracking, would that reduce the need for any float?
How much float do you folks use, and with training your knee tracking have you been able to reduce your float (or need for it)?
My perspective on this is if you’re not in pain or have any obvious need to change leave it alone.
My tracking per the fitter is fine so (in a nutshell) I just focus on pushing down harder when I want more power. I use the yellow Dura-Ace cleats that have some float. 6 degrees maybe?
I changed from 6 degree float to 0 degree float. Wow, after about 1 week of training I started having real knee pain. I took another week of training for me to figure out that it was the 0 degree float change. I went back to 6 degree float but it took a month for my knee to feel right again. Be careful messing with float. As @KorbenDallas said, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
I started out on Shimano yellow 6deg and after a year I tried out the Shimano blue 2deg and haven’t looked back since! Felt way better for me. And after doing a professional bike fit about 4 months ago, it was confirmed through testing that the 2deg float was perfect for my body. I can’t remember how it was tested but there was a certain range in which wouldn’t injure me or prevent me from maximum flexibility and so the Shimano blues were good to keep!