Chinertown
Chinese Carbon Road Bikes => Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components => Topic started by: Blueberry on November 22, 2025, 12:27:50 PM
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I'm looking for recommendations on getting a narrower q-factor on my road bike. I'm having issues with my knees where there is a ton of lateral movement during my pedal stroke because my hips are narrow and my feet are too wide so my knees collapse inward and scrap against my top tube during the top of my pedal stroke. I think if I can get a slightly narrower q-factor that'll help my knees stay more straight and not collapse inward so much. I'm hoping there's a pedal option but I also think that might just lead to the sides of my shoes rubbing on the crank arms. There is a little bit of room to play with though. Right now I have one bike with a shimano R9100 crank and another one with a Rotor Aldhu carbon crank. The rotor crank has garmin rally pedals SPD-SL pedals and the shimano crank has Ultegra R8000 pedals.
I commute with my road bikes all the time and just use the SPD-SL pedals as flat pedals with normal shoes. I notice I'm constantly having to adjust my feet so that my shoes are not rubbing on the crank arms. It seems like when I am not forced to clip in, my feet really do want to sit narrower.
Turns out when I got a bike fit, the fitter already moved my cleats all the way out so I'm interested if anyone has any other pedal or crank recommendations. Pedals all seem to bottom out around 53mm q-factor. The narrowest crank I could find was Sram e1 cranks being 145mm (only 1mm narrower than my shimano one). I'm not in a huge rush to change anything, it's more that I want to consider possibilities for a future bike build. Not positive but it seems like the problem is more commonly in the other direction and people want wider q-factors so there's not a lot of options to go narrower.
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Only truly narrow cranks for road I'm aware of are Wattshop https://www.shopforwatts.co.uk/products/sram-axs-quarq-short-crankarms?variant=56336231268735
It's such a niche market that I don't see much changing here.
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Time XPRO pedals are available with a shorter spindle, the shortest results in 51mm distance from pedal centre to crank arm: https://www.sram.com/en/time-sport/models/pd-xpro-10-c1
Some people really dislike Time pedals, but they've become my favourite road pedal system. Not because of the spindle options (I use the standard length), but because of the ease of clipping in, the self-centering float, low weight, and cheap cleats available on AliExpress. (look for the RRSkit-branded ones e.g., https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008670725446.html, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009384441414.html)
For Speedplay, shorter aftermarket spindles are available that can reduce the distance from the pedal centre to crank arm down to 50mm. Just make sure you get the right version - spindles are different on the "classic" models vs Wahoo models. E.g. these ones are for Wahoo models: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009353258301.html
I use Speedplay pedals on my commuter bike. AliExpress has "Alltoo" branded aftermarket cleats that work great and are significantly cheaper than Wahoo. E.g., https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006735957508.html
Though cheaper than Wahoo, the Alltoo Speedplay cleats are significantly more expensive than the RRSkit-branded Time compatible cleats.
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I had the exact same issue and went down this rabbit hole a few months ago. The Wattshop cranks are definitely the best option in terms of achieving your desired fit via a crank swap.
I didn't end up going this route for weight and budget reasons, and instead purchased some FORM extender bolt plates for my cleats. They give you anywhere from 3mm-20mm of additional medial or lateral adjustment (depending on what model of bolt plate you purchase) which was enough for me to eliminate my knee issues.
https://form-bikefitting.com/collections/extender-plates (https://form-bikefitting.com/collections/extender-plates)
hsaus's spindle swap idea is also probably just as good of an option.
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If you're OK with 1x you could also check track cranks, they're often narrower Q-factor and not that expensive. Need to be aware of the chain line (and BB standard/axle width), but should be doable.