Richard Greenberg wrote:
Hi all. I have one leg that is about 1/2 longer than the other. I can't
quite decide whether to order a bike (I'm looking seriously at the folding
BikeFriday) with two different length cranks, or not. I ride a recumbent
exercise bike every day and find it comfortable, but in order for it to feel
right, one of my feet ends up contacting the pedals (there are straps on the
pedals that do not restrict front to back foot position) in a different spot
than the other foot.



Any thoughts on this?

Which leg?

My right leg is half an inch shorter than my left. I haven't done
anything special to compensate for it, aside from really paying
attention to the cleat alignment on my SPD shoes. Adjusting the cleats
so the left one is further back than the right one (they're different
angle-wise, also) allows me to pedal somewhat smoothly. When I'm tired,
my right leg can still spin while my left leg wants to stomp.

I've heard that if you use shims to compensate for the difference, you
should only compensate for about 2/3 of the difference. The muscles and
joints of your legs, hips, and back have grown to match the leg-length
difference, and you could create problems by forcing your body in the
other direction.

Unless *all* of the difference you have is in the upper leg (femur),
I'd avoid using different size cranks. A general rule is to compensate
for upper leg differences with the cranks, while compensating for lower
leg differences by shimming cleats or pedals.

One of these days I'm going to have a full bike fitting done by a local
bike fitting professional. Fortunately, the guy I'd be dealing with is
an expert- he's a guy that trains bicycle shop staff on fitting, all
over the U.S.:
http://www.bikegallery.com/content/B...D-fitting.html , and
he's not recumbent-adverse.

Jeff