Clenching toes on one foot...Symptom of ????

[pll]

I tend to pronate (as I put my weight into my foot, it rolls inward) and used to get numb toes on the bike. Insoles make things a lot more comfortable for me. Over the counter insoles tend to be more 'significant' than the insoles that ship with pretty much any shoe (which are very thin). While not designed to make the shoes tighter, in practice they make it slightly tighter.

[KathiCville]

Hi...I thought I'd give a quick update on what I've done about my "toe clenching" problem in case it's of use to anyone else. In brief, I took the bike and shoes in for a good (and probably overdue) fitting last night. :-)

Turned out that the main problems where the foot was concerned were:

1) cleats set too far forward, so my foot was trying to "grab" the pedal. Hence the clenching motion.

2) a leg length discrepancy--right leg slightly shorter (which I suspected was the case)

3) seat set a tad too high, causing me to rock my hips to "reach" the pedal, especially on the (shorter) right side.

So, among other changes, we put the cleats farther back (wow, I could feel the difference on the stand in the shop!); shimmed the right one; and lowered the seat slightly. He also moved the SPD clip-in gizmo on the pedal (ack, don't know the term) a little closer to the frame to align my knees better with the pedal.

While we were at it, we made a couple of upper body related changes too, including shortening the stem slightly, and installing narrower handlebars.

Can't wait to get out on the road tonight and monitor the differences!

Thanks for everybody's suggestions! I hope I'm "good to go" now........