Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi there, has anyone heard of there being a connection between carbon sole road shoes and insertional achilles tendinopathy. The reason I ask is I've just had 3 months of my bike from this injury. I had my new bike, new shoes and pedals for 2 months before I felt any pain. I had previously ridden my first road bike for 14 months with MTB shoes and had zero problems, bike setup between the two bikes is identical to the millimetre. The distance travelled weekly is about the same. When I started rehab on my bike I used the carbon shoes which only seemed to aggrivate the injury, swapping back to my MTB shoes and pedals seems fine and I'm riding without pain the only difference I can see is the sole material ie carbon verses plastic and the cleat offset as I have the MTB cleats further rearward and yes the cleats on my road shoes are as far back as possible. The seat height has been given the tick of approval by an experienced bike fitter I have thought of buying speedplay pedals and cleats as they can be set further rearward but Iam holding off in case it could be the road shoes causing the issues. Thanks for any help cheers

marriedwith3bikes wrote:and the cleat offset as I have the MTB cleats further rearward and yes the cleats on my road shoes are as far back as possible.

If all things are the same except for cleat positioning, wouldn't that tend to indicate vthis is the issue?

I use the speedplay's with the offset plate to get them further back. The original setup was too far forwards, and after a hammer session back in Jan I ended up with achillies pain. It's never completely gone away, either, I have to be really careful to warm up.

Saddle too high strains Achilles. Will take a few weeks or more to flare up though ( possibly )... Try dropping your saddle a touch.
Also as mentioned moving feet further forward on the pedal takes pressure of the heal.
Type of shoes shouldn't effect it too much.