Insoles for Cycling: The One Component Nobody Measures

Sep 10

4 min read

Updated: Sep 11

Cyclists measure everything. Watts, cadence, saddle height, stack and reach, the exact angle of the cleat. Then they clip into a stiff carbon sole with whatever insert came in the box and never think about it again.

That insert sits at the single point where all of your power leaves your body. Every watt you produce has to pass through the foot before it reaches the pedal, which makes it the smallest and most overlooked component in an otherwise obsessively optimized system.

Tennis player in blue shorts and sneakers walks on court holding racket and ball, with MOXXIS text in corners and long shadows.

How moxxis benefits you in Cycling

With moxxis, you gain more power and less cramping on every ride:

• More of your power reaching the pedal through optimized force transmission

• A less cramped sole of the foot and less numbness on long rides

• A stable foot position that keeps your knee tracking cleanly

• Feet that tire more slowly over the distance and recover faster afterwards

Impact of Cycling on Your Body

Cycling has no foot strike, which is exactly why riders assume their feet are fine. Here the load builds through repetition under tension instead of through ground impact. You push through the same narrow position thousands of times per ride, with the foot fixed to the pedal and unable to adjust.

Inside a stiff shoe, a foot without support flattens under load. The arch collapses, the foot lengthens, and part of the force you generated goes into deforming your own foot rather than turning the crank. It also changes what happens above: as the foot flattens and overpronates, the knee follows, and the knee is the joint that pays for it over the course of a season.

Then there is the discomfort every rider knows and most accept as normal. The burning in the ball of the foot on a long climb, the numb toes after two hours, the sole of the foot that cramps when you get out of the saddle. Much of that comes down to a fit problem with a mechanical cause, and a foot that is properly supported cramps considerably less.

Typical problems that can develop

Foot and ankle

• The arch collapses under pedal load, so the foot works muscularly to stabilize and begins to cramp (arch fatigue)

• Pressure concentrates on the ball of the foot instead of spreading across the sole, causing burning and pain (metatarsalgia / "hot foot")

• Compression across the forefoot in a tight shoe leads to tingling and numbness in the toes (nerve irritation)

• The connective tissue along the sole becomes inflamed through repetitive overload (plantar fasciitis)

• The tendon at the back of the lower leg is irritated by a foot position that drops or overpronates under load (Achilles tendinopathy)

Knee

• Insufficient foot support changes how the knee tracks through the pedal stroke (malalignment)

• Overpronation of the foot pulls the knee off its intended path, adding shear force to every revolution

• The tendon below the kneecap becomes overloaded, particularly on climbs and in big gears (patellar tendinopathy)

• The connective tissue band along the outside of the thigh becomes irritated where it passes the knee (iliotibial band syndrome)

Hip and back

• When the foot and knee compensate, the hip works asymmetrically and overloads one side (leg axis misalignment)

• An unstable foot platform makes the pelvis move on the saddle, which travels into the lower back over long rides

• Muscles develop unevenly between the two legs, leading to tension and pain (muscular imbalances)

What moxxis does for you

moxxis are made from a dynamic foot analysis. Each pair is engineered around your actual foot geometry and your actual movement pattern rather than an average foot shape, so moxxis are made from a dynamic foot analysis. Each pair is engineered around your actual foot geometry and your actual movement pattern rather than an average foot shape.

They are also built for the sport you buy them for. A cycling moxxis is laid out around the demands of the pedal stroke and around the narrow, stiff shoe it has to live in, which is a different job from the one a running or hiking moxxis does. You get your foot and your sport in the same pair, and both work on the cause instead of the symptom.

• More watts on the pedal. Your foot is supported through the whole pedal stroke, so its work goes into the crank instead of into holding your own arch together.

• A knee that tracks cleanly. With overpronation under control, the knee stops being pulled off its path on every revolution, and that path is where most cycling knee pain begins.

• A platform that holds out of the saddle. Standing efforts and steep pitches load the foot hardest, which is exactly where an unsupported arch collapses and cramps.

• Relief on the long climbs. Pressure spreads across the sole instead of piling up on the ball of the foot, which takes the heat out of hot foot and the pressure off the nerves that go numb.

• Less fatigue, faster recovery. Your feet tire more slowly over the distance and recover quicker afterwards, which matters on back-to-back days and week-long trips.

Riders spend serious money chasing marginal gains in rolling resistance and aerodynamics. The interface between your foot and your pedal is the point every watt has to cross, and for most cyclists it is still built to an average. That makes it the cheapest place left to find a real gain.

Ride stronger. Recover faster.