My left leg always aches after a ride . Today as I was riding along I could feel my toes curling on on my left foot.
Then I remembered what a bonkers lady had told me at some Screamy Yoga place I once tried.
She told me I was beautiful person and as I laid on the floor she pulled my ankles and said my left leg was shorter.
Does anyone else have a similar predicament ,if so what do you do?
I’m contemplating putting 4 of those metal shoe protectors between my sole and the cleat.

Put on a blindfold and go for a walk. If you end up back where you started……

Fit a shorter non driveside crankarm.

You can get proper cleat spacers to compensate for this. Few people are wholly symmetrical.

If you do that, use longer cleat bolts. If you don’t have any, I have quite a few spare you could have.

I got some of the Specialized ones.

Mrs Yak has one shorter than the other. Various problems led to a bikefit to sort this. Ended up with one shoe shimmed for height and an angled shim too. Fixed everything.

Most people have non symmetrical legs iirc.

I broke my leg badly when I was younger. The only thing the two legs have in common is how my feet stick out, which was a relief to the surgeon who wasn’t sure if he’d reattached it straight.

More than likely it’s not your leg length but your hip alignment

Ties into what cp says – your body isn’t symmetrical cos of how your internal organs are aligned

Liver weighs 3-4lb, spleen weighs a few oz, left side lung has two lobes while right has three. Heart sits on left side of the body and if you sit a lot your core loses tone and your posterior chain shortens / ribs flare and you end up with a twisted posture

Net result is you end up with a lot of impingement around your left hip capsule and your pelvis can end up tilted so your leg will always appear to be shorter

Go find a PRI physio or do some reading ont web about it – it’s relatively easy to fix but takes a while

Or just get cleat spacers

More than likely it’s not your leg length but your hip alignment

Mrs Dubleyou thought she had one leg shorter than the other for years. Went to an osteopath and a few clicks later she was back level again!

Helped a friend who had a hip replacement fit a longer crank on one side. This sorted out his knee problems he was having when doing longer road rides.

Very commonly found during a bike fit or physio session.

I thought I had it, but physio found it was caused my muscle tightness in my hips luckily.

Try some insoles in your riding shoes.

When I was having physio and being measured after tearing my Achilles, I was told my left leg (the borked one) was shorter than my right. More common than you’d think, apparently.

Leg length discrepancy is very common amongst the population. For walking/running it’s generally not an issue because the pelvis is not fixed and will accommodate discrepancy

On the bike, the pelvis is fixed at saddle and cannot accommodate the same way.

Whether a physical (femur or tib/fib) or functional (muscular/tight ligament or asymmetrical presentation) it does not matter as end result is same

On my road bike shoes I have 3 Bikefit leg length shims under my left cleat, my saddle is set on the extension of my longer right leg. The difference is simply unreal, I’ve been riding bikes 30 years and have never experienced such symmetry in leg function and power output.

Well worth having investigated by an experienced bike fitter familiar with foot correction and length discrepancy

It’s not something cured overnight as many have been riding for years with lld and the body requires a reset in the cpg in terms of muscle memory, my shims were installed over a week with soft rides and increase to saddle height

Pretty much everyone’s legs are different lengths, for a lot it’s close enough not to matter, but for a sizeable number it will be noticeable at certain times, like on a bike. A good bike fit should check and sort this out, generally with shims under one of your cleats.

My left leg is about 8mm shorter than my right when I worked in a job where I was on my feet all day it was a problem and gave me back problems, changed jobs and it went away my left knee sometimes aches when cycling I allways set the seat height to the shorter leg I dont use the heel wedges anymore.

@wicki

the problem with setting the saddle height to the length of your shorter leg is you always compromise your longer leg

in the short term you decrease the efficiency and range of your longer leg, as it cannot reach extension during each rotation. this means your shorter leg does more work as your longer leg is compromised

if you look at your legs carefully whilst riding a flat quiet road (so there is no traffic danger) you may notice your longer leg is not able to extend through the pedal stroke

this is often seen as your thigh staying flat relative to ground level, and also your ankle rotation restricted with your toe up and heel down – the body tried to make the longer leg “shorter” this way

in the long term you can start to suffer with ankle and knee issues

its well worth getting sorted out

Id check cleat position; you may have set them the same for each shoe, whereas in reality one might need to be further forward (on your left foot by the sounds of it) due to the “balls” of your feet being in different locations on each foot.

Well worth having investigated by an experienced bike fitter familiar with foot correction and length discrepancy

+1

I’ve been running 4 of the metal shims the man was selling on here under my left cleat. It’s a lot better.

Also worth seeing a good Osteo, I had a problem with this and a couple of tenderisings later I was much better.