# Issue with my new 05 LS Teramo



## sungchang (Sep 20, 2005)

*FOLKS THIS IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE - received the confirmation that this is a common issue with road bikes.*

I finally got my new 05 Litespeed Teramo built up by bike shope yesterday, and ran into couple of issues. One is a temporary, but the other one is something that I am really concerned with.

1. When I turned around the stem to give me the upmost height, the cable housing and cables are a little short. It was precut/prebuilt with stem in lowered position. It looks like for short term, it's rideable, but for long term, I will need to get new cable housing, cables and new tape (maybe salvage the current one) to give the appropriate slack. I'm planning to ride with this stem position and slowly lower it as I feel more comfortable with road riding position.

2. This is the issue that I am trying to get your feedback on. Since I didn't want to change shoes/clips, I put on Time ATAC XE mtn pedals. Due to top tube length and tire sizes of the mtn bikes vs. road bikes, something unexpected showed up. With my pedal and crank arm at 3 o'clock position, if I turn the wheel sideways (as making not so tight turns), my shoe bangs against the front wheel. I took the clip out and moved it as far forward as possible on my bike shoe, and it still bangs against the wheel. I'm not sure what length is on my FSA Gossamer compact crank arm (I think when I measured it was 6.8" inches - didn't have cm ruler), but not sure 5 mm is going to do much to alleviate the issue. Is moving to road shoes and road pedals going to make a difference, or am I screwed? I'm 5'8" with 75cm (29.5 ") inseam. I have a size Medium (54.0 TT) 05 Litespeed Teramo. I wear size 10 shoes. Other than the shoe issue, the bike seem to fit me really well.

My local bike shop didnt have Teramo in stock so I wasn't able to catch this issue before buying the bike from a shop opposite coast from me. I did test ride Firenze which I don't recall having this issue.


----------



## TurboTurtle (Feb 4, 2004)

sungchang said:


> I finally got my new 05 Litespeed Teramo built up by bike shope yesterday, and ran into couple of issues. One is a temporary, but the other one is something that I am really concerned with.
> 
> 1. When I turned around the stem to give me the upmost height, the cable housing and cables are a little short. It was precut/prebuilt with stem in lowered position. It looks like for short term, it's rideable, but for long term, I will need to get new cable housing, cables and new tape (maybe salvage the current one) to give the appropriate slack. I'm planning to ride with this stem position and slowly lower it as I feel more comfortable with road riding position.
> 
> ...


Issue 1 - It was set up for the stem that was on it. I see no problem unless you specified otherwise.

Issue 2 - All of my bikes have toe overlap. It only causes a problem with sharp, very low speed turns. If you ride a lot of sidewalks and bike paths, you may need something with more front-to-center length. Most road bikes are designed to turn at speed where the bars are never turned near that far.

TF


----------



## sungchang (Sep 20, 2005)

I will try to take picture of the overlap later, but you can see from the bike pic that I took last night, how close the pedals are to the front tires.


----------



## sungchang (Sep 20, 2005)

TurboTurtle said:


> Issue 1 - It was set up for the stem that was on it. I see no problem unless you specified otherwise.
> 
> Issue 2 - All of my bikes have toe overlap. It only causes a problem with sharp, very low speed turns. If you ride a lot of sidewalks and bike paths, you may need something with more front-to-center length. Most road bikes are designed to turn at speed where the bars are never turned near that far.
> 
> TF


TF, thanks for the reply. Issue 1 is not a big issue as I mentioned before. When I talked to the bike shop mechanic, he said that for that specific reason, he builds his bikes with stem turned up to measure the appropriate cable housing and cable length. Then if the buyer wants to lower the stem, it just adds a little bit more curve to the cables and is not an issue like the reverse. In my case, the bike was already built with stem down, although, I knew that I was going to turn it around when I had to put it together, but it didn't occur to me that I should have checked the cable length. I just check it as lesson learned 

Issue 2 - is bigger concern for me, but I didn't know if that was specific to my case or not. Coming from mtn bike where TT is longer and the wheels smaller, I never had to worry/concern myself about it. But it's good to get some confirmation that this might be a common case. Being new to road riding, I was dumbfounded last night when I took it for ride around my blocks.


----------



## midlife_xs's (Jun 18, 2004)

sungchang said:


> TF, thanks for the reply. Issue 1 is not a big issue as I mentioned before. When I talked to the bike shop mechanic, he said that for that specific reason, he builds his bikes with stem turned up to measure the appropriate cable housing and cable length. Then if the buyer wants to lower the stem, it just adds a little bit more curve to the cables and is not an issue like the reverse. In my case, the bike was already built with stem down, although, I knew that I was going to turn it around when I had to put it together, but it didn't occur to me that I should have checked the cable length. I just check it as lesson learned
> 
> Issue 2 - is bigger concern for me, but I didn't know if that was specific to my case or not. Coming from mtn bike where TT is longer and the wheels smaller, I never had to worry/concern myself about it. But it's good to get some confirmation that this might be a common case. Being new to road riding, I was dumbfounded last night when I took it for ride around my blocks.


Both of these issues are common with road bikes aka racers. In the olden days most road stems are actually angled so that the part holding the handlebar is horizontal just like the toptube at that time. Now with the coming of threadless fork and stem, you can invert it to suit your needs. With your preferred setup you said that the cables are shorter. Do they bind when you turn the handlebar? If they do then you cannot ride it that way. If not, then it is mostly aesthetics.

Most road bikes with racing geometry will have toe overlap or simply stated your foot in the 3 o'clock position will hit the front wheel when the handlebar is turned in the 10 or 2 o'clock position as viewed on top. I don't know how you negotiate a turn while riding. If you are going at speeds, you lean the bike to turn. And because road bikes are built low (bb closer to the ground than mountainbikes) your inside foot in a turn should be in the 12 o'clock position so you wont scrape the pedals on the pavement while leaning. The only time you turn the handlebars so much like in the 10 or 2 o'clock position is when you are going so slow that you probably have your inside foot unfastened anyway, to prop yourself or your inside pedal in the 12 o'clock (again so as not to scrape the pavement) which should put the other foot in the 6 o'clock positions out of the way of the turned front wheel.


----------



## sungchang (Sep 20, 2005)

*Thanks for the reply*



midlife_xs's said:


> Both of these issues are common with road bikes aka racers. In the olden days most road stems are actually angled so that the part holding the handlebar is horizontal just like the toptube at that time. Now with the coming of threadless fork and stem, you can invert it to suit your needs. With your preferred setup you said that the cables are shorter. Do they bind when you turn the handlebar? If they do then you cannot ride it that way. If not, then it is mostly aesthetics.
> 
> Most road bikes with racing geometry will have toe overlap or simply stated your foot in the 3 o'clock position will hit the front wheel when the handlebar is turned in the 10 or 2 o'clock position as viewed on top. I don't know how you negotiate a turn while riding. If you are going at speeds, you lean the bike to turn. And because road bikes are built low (bb closer to the ground than mountainbikes) your inside foot in a turn should be in the 12 o'clock position so you wont scrape the pedals on the pavement while leaning. The only time you turn the handlebars so much like in the 10 or 2 o'clock position is when you are going so slow that you probably have your inside foot unfastened anyway, to prop yourself or your inside pedal in the 12 o'clock (again so as not to scrape the pavement) which should put the other foot in the 6 o'clock positions out of the way of the turned front wheel.


The cables are rideable right now as it's not totally binding. I am able to turn the handlebar quite a bit, but at 3 o'clock position (of handlebar), the cable doesn't look right. I will either recable it or lower the stem to take of this minor issue.

Yeah the toe overlap shouldn't be a problem while riding, but it concerned me. And I didn't know if this is a common thing or just that i bought a wrong frame. Thanks to many for your reply back.


----------



## Juanmoretime (Nov 24, 2001)

*Overlap.*

It is sometimes an issue with smaller frames. As the previous poster had mentioned, your foot might hit the front wheel in a slow parking lot turn but it shouldn't be an issue at faster speeds. I wouldn't worry about it.


----------



## Lazywriter (Mar 8, 2002)

*Toe overlap is endemic and nothing*

to worry about or nothing you can do about it. I would worry more about the situations you would find yourself in where you would overlap (ie. too sharp a turn at higher speed). I mean, toe OL is a part of a road bike and there is not any circumstance under normal riding or racing where you would even notice it. Making a U turn in your driveway at 1mph is the typical example where overlap would happen. Don't worry.




Juanmoretime said:


> It is sometimes an issue with smaller frames. As the previous poster had mentioned, your foot might hit the front wheel in a slow parking lot turn but it shouldn't be an issue at faster speeds. I wouldn't worry about it.


----------



## mikey_mike (Feb 13, 2006)

How much did you pay for the frame?


----------



## ewitz (Sep 11, 2002)

By moving the cleat as forward as possible on your bike shoe you are probably not going to have the ball of your foot aligned with the spindle of the pedal which is the optimal position for power transfer. You might also find that your foot hurts/gets tired. Moving the cleat to alleviate a perceived fit problem is probably a bad idea.


----------



## sungchang (Sep 20, 2005)

*I got the confirmation that I wanted...*

Thanks for all the reply. I just needed the check and I have gotten the confirmation that toe overlap is a common thing for a road bike, and that it's not a specific bike fit and size issue. All the fitting has been done and I'm riding 



ewitz said:


> By moving the cleat as forward as possible on your bike shoe you are probably not going to have the ball of your foot aligned with the spindle of the pedal which is the optimal position for power transfer. You might also find that your foot hurts/gets tired. Moving the cleat to alleviate a perceived fit problem is probably a bad idea.


----------



## sungchang (Sep 20, 2005)

mikey_mike said:


> How much did you pay for the frame?


I bought as a complete bike.


----------

