The first several rides on the phattie went flawlessly with no mechanicals and lots of the fun factor mixed in. I had been riding with some cheapie platform pedals that I had sitting around and was planning on upgrading the platform pedals once things got a little more dialed in with the bike (and rider).
After a couple of rides, I noticed that my right foot started to really ache. It was around the heel/arch and it got to the point where I could not weight the foot while walking. It turns out I was dealing with a case of plantar fasciitis. I did a ton of searching on-line to figure out if anyone else had a similar experience in regards to platform pedals.
The original choice to go with platform pedals while riding in the snow was I was counting on being able to keep the feet warmer while riding in hiking boots that offer more insulation, etc. There was little to no info out there making the correlation between platform pedals and plantar fasciitis. I knew the pain was being caused from riding the new bike but did not have anything definitive to say it was specifically the platform pedals.
On a hunch, I decided that I would order a pair of winter riding shoes and swap the pedals out to clipless pedals. My theory was that the feet did not have the support in the power transfer while pedaling and most importantly the sole of hiking shoes were not stiff enough (unless you compromised on the bulk and clunkiness factor and that was still no guarantee it would resolve anything).
The winter riding shoes came in on Monday and I quickly went to swapping out the pedals for the next snow ride. The verdict: Thumbs Up!!! The plantar fasciitis has gotten much better over the last few days and most importantly, my 2 hour ride in the snow yesterday did not aggravate the feet - at all!!!! Success....yeehaa!
More to come on the shoe review but for those out there riding in platform pedals and having foot pain....try the clipless shoe and pedal combo.
After a couple of rides, I noticed that my right foot started to really ache. It was around the heel/arch and it got to the point where I could not weight the foot while walking. It turns out I was dealing with a case of plantar fasciitis. I did a ton of searching on-line to figure out if anyone else had a similar experience in regards to platform pedals.
The original choice to go with platform pedals while riding in the snow was I was counting on being able to keep the feet warmer while riding in hiking boots that offer more insulation, etc. There was little to no info out there making the correlation between platform pedals and plantar fasciitis. I knew the pain was being caused from riding the new bike but did not have anything definitive to say it was specifically the platform pedals.
On a hunch, I decided that I would order a pair of winter riding shoes and swap the pedals out to clipless pedals. My theory was that the feet did not have the support in the power transfer while pedaling and most importantly the sole of hiking shoes were not stiff enough (unless you compromised on the bulk and clunkiness factor and that was still no guarantee it would resolve anything).
The winter riding shoes came in on Monday and I quickly went to swapping out the pedals for the next snow ride. The verdict: Thumbs Up!!! The plantar fasciitis has gotten much better over the last few days and most importantly, my 2 hour ride in the snow yesterday did not aggravate the feet - at all!!!! Success....yeehaa!
More to come on the shoe review but for those out there riding in platform pedals and having foot pain....try the clipless shoe and pedal combo.
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