Sunday 9 December 2012

Toe Overlap

During my extensive internet research on which frame to use for this project I read confusing and conflicting reports on the subject of toe overlap.

The term toe overlap refers to contact between a cyclist's foot and the front tyre of the bike when the turning of the steering coincides with the pedal / crank arm being at its most forward horizontal position. This is not a problem in normal cycling, but if attempting a tight u-turn you simply have to keep the cranks in a vertical position and move by "tapping" the pedals rather than a full revolution. My road bike has toe overlap, as do most road bikes. It's not a problem.

I have read reviews on bikes having "occasional" toe overlap. What? It either has it or it doesn't. Or one reviewer says it does and another review of the same bike says it doesn't. Confusing.

In mountain biking with lots of tight, low speed manoeuvres, toe overlap would be extremely undesirable. The frame geometry of MTB's avoids the issue completely.

I wanted my tourer to have absolutely no toe overlap - even with mudguards fitted. I want to be able to do tight turns on trails etc. without having to worry about an altercation between foot and front wheel. After reading so many reviews of the Long Haul Trucker / Disc Trucker, I still wasn't sure what I was going to get. So I was keen to have a look at this as soon as the wheels and crank where fitted.

So if you are interested..... a 54cm Disc Trucker with 26" wheels and Schwalbe City Jet 26 x 1.5 tyres with a 170mm crank arm and an old size 9 pair of paint spattered rubber sandals (bigger than my cycling shoes!) DOES NOT HAVE TOE OVERLAP!

There's a huge clearance - plenty of room for bigger tyres and mudguards. Phew!


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