TOE OVERLAP, formerly known as TOE CLIP OVERLAP

 

Toe Overlap (TO)-- estimated reading time, one minute

It’s when your foot is all the way forward and you turn the front wheel just so and it hits your foot. It can happen only during 180-degree (or so) turns at speeds below about 5mph, because once you’re riding faster than that, you steer by leaning, not turning the handlebar like it’s a steering wheel.

It’s a phenomenon only on small bikes with a proportionately short “front-center” distance between the center of the crank and the center of the front wheel.

To eliminate all possibility of TO even on small bikes with big tires and fenders would require designing the bike specifically to avoid TO, and there’s no way to do that without fouling up the fit or the handling. It’s not worth the tradeoff.

IF YOUR TOE HITS THE TIRE, RELAX. It’s not a jolt, just a soft rub. Just straighten the front wheel and keep going.

Occasionally online you'll read something by a nutjob who thinks TO is Satan's Plot, but it really is no big deal, If you're a short person looking for a small bike with big tires and fenders and a shortish top tube, you won't get it. It isn't a matter of somebody not being good enough to design or make it, it's just a pure impossibility.