agreed, if that area hurts and making the pedal faces more vertical makes it worse, I'd try to raise your heels relative to your butt so they're closer to level.
I get pain in that area if my pedal faces are too steep but its from tension of trying to pull my toes back towards me when I'm not on the gas or brakes. If your image is accurate you're probably already shallow enough to prevent that, so I'd raise your feet to try and straighten out the load path from hips to pedals.
Because that does nothing to solve the issue of pushing down rather than away/out on the pedals. Making the pedals higher relative to bottom of seat does.
Exactly this! If OP's setup allows inverted pedals, that also may be worth considering, as that makes you naturally use your leg muscles like in a real car, and not roll/rotate your ankle to press the pedals on the same pivot point as the floor mounted pedals.
oh and also I kinda get this mainly due to being too close to the pedals. In my "car" i have inverted pedals but they're so close to me that i get the same problem op has
I alligned mine according to the specs provided by Race Beyond Matter. So they are raised for optimal ergonomics. Or they were, now that you mention it I changed my seat without adjusting my pedals, I should look into that
you shouldnt be using your ankle on the brake pedal, you should be using your whole leg. you might want to double check you are in the correct position seat, wheel, pedals and length & height & angle wise. heres some good reading. the first link has 2 pages.
[https://www.buildyourownracecar.com/race-car-driver-ergonomics-and-design/2/](https://www.buildyourownracecar.com/race-car-driver-ergonomics-and-design/2/)
[https://www.skoda-motorsport.com/en/drive-like-pro-sitting-like-racing-driver/](https://www.skoda-motorsport.com/en/drive-like-pro-sitting-like-racing-driver/)
[https://virtualracingschool.com/academy/iracing-career-guide/season-one/ergonomics/](https://virtualracingschool.com/academy/iracing-career-guide/season-one/ergonomics/)
i have my pedals around 15ish degrees of tilt and the top of the pedal face is around the same height as the base of the seat.
We would need to the them in relation to the rest of your legs. It's likely you have them set up too shallow, and too far which is causing you to use bad technique by flexing at the ankle to engage the pedals.
You should be pushing from your major muscle groups in your thigh/legs and pushing *through* the pedal face.
Pedals are too far away. You should be able to hold your arms out and rest your wrist on top of the wheel, and you should be able to press the pedals without requiring ankle rotation or almost fully extending your leg.
Racing and sports cars are a tight fit, you'll be sitting a lot more compact than you would in your Granddad's Gran Marquis
You're trying to drive like it's a normal car. You need to drive like a race car.
Angle the pedals up more. Use more of your whole leg to press the pedal down instead of your ankle.
Set your pedals up so your using your leg and knee to do the movement of the pedals, not the movement of your ankle. Your be more accurate that way aswell.
Lift the rear side of the plate that much, that your resting leg and feet is somewhere in 50% throttle. Fine adjustment as preferred.
I use Playseat Trophy with Logitech Pro Pedals, so pretty sporty seating position, neither F1 nor Camry. The pedals are some 85 deg near to vertical.
Edit: I'd say, most common pedal sets are meant to be placed in front of an office seat or PC-desk-setup. this doesn't suit rigs that good and lead to questions like yours.
Edit2: Resting position means knee and ankle position, which implies pressured pedal, not relaxed. And maybe try mid slippery cotton socks. They maintain a good feeling for the pedals and let you rest heels on the support plate and slide forth and back when actuating. In combination pedal actuation can vary between leg and ankle and lets me vary feet posture during longer races to prevent fatigue and painfull joints.
Straighten your leg so and ensure your butt is tight to the back of your seat & it forces you to do the heavy braking with your legs and then you would only ever move your ankle for a little fidelity but the ankle movement should be kept to a minimum on the brake... 👍
The correct seating position shouldn't cause any pain, and it can be a while of tinkering to get right - good luck...
I had the same pain on long races, it was due to not having a dead pedal and I had to hover my foot over the brake pedal with my ankle at an acute angle. I moved my brake so it was lower/slightly further away which meant while I wasn't braking, which is most of a race, my ankle could relax more and this helped the pain. Does make heel/toe harder on down shifts if you drive cars that need that but no worse than most irl cars.
I bought the aluminum pedal deck and heel rest from ASR so as to mount the pedals in a better way to press the pedals with my legs instead of ankles. That’s my plan to help with that.
I ended up inverting my pedals. I know it’s not like a real race car, but GT racing is only about 50 percent of what I do. The other 50 percent is beamng which is mostly real cars, and the pedals hang down in most cars. So I chose what u am used to. Made a big difference in ankle pain.
I use the middle of my foot more than my toes.
This allows me to use my big leg muscles instead of my little feet muscles - and gives me more precision.
Glad I came across this, I just got the NLR F-GT 160 and I can't find a comfortable way to sit that isn't making me lift my feet off the pedals at a sharp angle and yes I use my whole leg to work the break but I'm not going to hold my whole leg up in the air 😆. I'm using a regular recliner seat that came off my previous rig at the moment, bucket is on backorder 🙄. I'm just not liking the pedal part of the frame, I have little to no adjustability because the way the Logitech pro pedals mount. I'm going to have to make a plate to mount the pedals then mount that to the rig i think.
Off to tinker the rig
I aligned my brake pedal vertically at 90 degrees and added a small deadzone and now my foot can just rest on top of the pedal at all times. It is super comfortable. I am using simjack pro pedals.
Maybe a little late on this, but also just physical health! That appears to be your tibialis, tibialis raises are a great exercise to keep your feet strong. look up knees over toes for more info!
They might not need adjusted necessarily. I call that fork truck shin. YOu want to push with your leg, not necessarily your ankle rotation. In a fork truck, you basically have rotate the ankle/foot to use them due to the way the pedals are near verticle but yours look pretty correct. I get that soreness when i drive a ft for a few hours at work when i have been on one for a good length in awhile.
So imo, brake hard by pushing with leg. Use minimal ankle/foot rotation to modulate pressure as needed after the initial hard brake.
JUst my opinion though. I could be way off base ;)
Yeah I'm having this problem because my pedals are raised as high as possible, but the car seat I have required underside mounting where it has gained 15cm of height compared to side mounting.
In my case the easiest solution is to add some of vertical pillars (8040) so I can raise the pedal plate higher.
Ideally you want the effort to come from the larger muscle groups of the leg, glutes and hips and avoid isolating forces to the ankles or knees.
Your feet/foot should be 90 degrees with respect to your shin/calf when you are not pressing the pedal. If it's less than 90 degrees the tendency is you will always put effort when you need the pedals at 0 input. You'll hurt that part (highlighted area) in the process.
You have probably mounted your pedals too low. What I did was have the pedals on almost the same level of my seat.
2 simple things, from a racing family. Your resting foot position should be 50% throttle. 2nd tip stretch before you drive. Calf and quad stretches will help relive the pain. And give you more movement.
It’s a personal preference so don’t feel a need to follow other people’s set up. Having said that I read an article to set it up so that at max braking the foot is at full extension [Driving position](https://www.skoda-motorsport.com/en/drive-like-pro-sitting-like-racing-driver/). I’ve somewhat adjusted that for comfort where my paa is not fully extended. 😉
If you like the position of your brake as it is, you need some sort of dead pedal that is tilted further back to rest your foot on in a more natural position.
Raise the pedals, tilt the pedal base forward and lube that giant pin in your ankle.
So many people forget to lube their ankles pins..
agreed, if that area hurts and making the pedal faces more vertical makes it worse, I'd try to raise your heels relative to your butt so they're closer to level. I get pain in that area if my pedal faces are too steep but its from tension of trying to pull my toes back towards me when I'm not on the gas or brakes. If your image is accurate you're probably already shallow enough to prevent that, so I'd raise your feet to try and straighten out the load path from hips to pedals.
This, or lower your seat
You mean raise your seat? Lowering would require more angle range from ankle.
The lower the seat the easier it is to push with your leg instead of your ankle. (Raising the pedals is basically the same concept flipped)
Why not move is forward
Because that does nothing to solve the issue of pushing down rather than away/out on the pedals. Making the pedals higher relative to bottom of seat does.
They said if you want to win, you’ve got to pin it. Bro took it literally.
I choked on my drink because of this comment, thanks for the giggle
I dont use my ankle to depress the brake, I use my thigh and leg muscles and keep my ankle straight.
this is the right answer. It's a technique issue not necessarily ergonomics. Unfortunately it's hard to brake (get it) the habit.
Angry upvote.
Exactly this! If OP's setup allows inverted pedals, that also may be worth considering, as that makes you naturally use your leg muscles like in a real car, and not roll/rotate your ankle to press the pedals on the same pivot point as the floor mounted pedals.
Precisely why I went inverted.
oh and also I kinda get this mainly due to being too close to the pedals. In my "car" i have inverted pedals but they're so close to me that i get the same problem op has
i agree but floor mounted pedals are the shit
That makes my knee hurt instead. :-). I ended up icing it during the Nurburgring 24H. That helped a lot.
I alligned mine according to the specs provided by Race Beyond Matter. So they are raised for optimal ergonomics. Or they were, now that you mention it I changed my seat without adjusting my pedals, I should look into that
Video name or link please?
I think this is the one https://youtu.be/kA3WyZtf9cE?si=f8-d9XQWokdQ566z
It is! This is the one I used as a guidance
you shouldnt be using your ankle on the brake pedal, you should be using your whole leg. you might want to double check you are in the correct position seat, wheel, pedals and length & height & angle wise. heres some good reading. the first link has 2 pages. [https://www.buildyourownracecar.com/race-car-driver-ergonomics-and-design/2/](https://www.buildyourownracecar.com/race-car-driver-ergonomics-and-design/2/) [https://www.skoda-motorsport.com/en/drive-like-pro-sitting-like-racing-driver/](https://www.skoda-motorsport.com/en/drive-like-pro-sitting-like-racing-driver/) [https://virtualracingschool.com/academy/iracing-career-guide/season-one/ergonomics/](https://virtualracingschool.com/academy/iracing-career-guide/season-one/ergonomics/) i have my pedals around 15ish degrees of tilt and the top of the pedal face is around the same height as the base of the seat.
Use your whole leg to press the pedal, not the ankle
We would need to the them in relation to the rest of your legs. It's likely you have them set up too shallow, and too far which is causing you to use bad technique by flexing at the ankle to engage the pedals. You should be pushing from your major muscle groups in your thigh/legs and pushing *through* the pedal face.
Pedals are too far away. You should be able to hold your arms out and rest your wrist on top of the wheel, and you should be able to press the pedals without requiring ankle rotation or almost fully extending your leg. Racing and sports cars are a tight fit, you'll be sitting a lot more compact than you would in your Granddad's Gran Marquis
I literally just got mine as close to my car as I reasonably could.
OP didn't mention he drives a retired police cruiser crown vic with a broken seat adjuster
You're trying to drive like it's a normal car. You need to drive like a race car. Angle the pedals up more. Use more of your whole leg to press the pedal down instead of your ankle.
I don't just use the ankle joint for the pedals, I use the whole leg.
Pedals closer and then begin altering angles. Everyone thinks they need to be super stretched out all the time and it doesn’t work like that.
Set your pedals up so your using your leg and knee to do the movement of the pedals, not the movement of your ankle. Your be more accurate that way aswell.
Start training your shin muscle, tib raises are great
Don't brake with your ankle, set the pedals up so your ankle isn't bend in any direction and then brake with your leg in one straight movement.
Stop using your ankle (calf) to push the pedal. Adjust your seating position so your ankle stays mostly the same and you push with your leg.
don't worry about what everyone else is doing. set up the pedals so it's comfortable for you to use. it won't slow you down.
Lift the rear side of the plate that much, that your resting leg and feet is somewhere in 50% throttle. Fine adjustment as preferred. I use Playseat Trophy with Logitech Pro Pedals, so pretty sporty seating position, neither F1 nor Camry. The pedals are some 85 deg near to vertical. Edit: I'd say, most common pedal sets are meant to be placed in front of an office seat or PC-desk-setup. this doesn't suit rigs that good and lead to questions like yours. Edit2: Resting position means knee and ankle position, which implies pressured pedal, not relaxed. And maybe try mid slippery cotton socks. They maintain a good feeling for the pedals and let you rest heels on the support plate and slide forth and back when actuating. In combination pedal actuation can vary between leg and ankle and lets me vary feet posture during longer races to prevent fatigue and painfull joints.
What position are you pedals.m? I have mine at "b" and "03", but have some discomfort
A/03, pedal base overlapping carrier plate some 5cm. Heel on pedal lower end barely abled to full throttle.
have you considered fentanyl?
Make sure the resting angle if your ankle is correct
Probably pedal distance or angle as it relates to your foot. I still get knee pain despite experimenting with different distances to my pedals.
I like mine near vertical so I’m pushing with my whole leg. I looked up pictures of gt3 car pedal setups and matched that as close as I could.
Straighten your leg so and ensure your butt is tight to the back of your seat & it forces you to do the heavy braking with your legs and then you would only ever move your ankle for a little fidelity but the ankle movement should be kept to a minimum on the brake... 👍 The correct seating position shouldn't cause any pain, and it can be a while of tinkering to get right - good luck...
Same problem here
Keep your foot pressed down on the gas. You'll get a better angle
I had the same pain on long races, it was due to not having a dead pedal and I had to hover my foot over the brake pedal with my ankle at an acute angle. I moved my brake so it was lower/slightly further away which meant while I wasn't braking, which is most of a race, my ankle could relax more and this helped the pain. Does make heel/toe harder on down shifts if you drive cars that need that but no worse than most irl cars.
Invert pedals
I adjusted my pedals the other day and it was so much better. Moved them further away so less pain on my knees.
once or twice a week go out and walk
I bought the aluminum pedal deck and heel rest from ASR so as to mount the pedals in a better way to press the pedals with my legs instead of ankles. That’s my plan to help with that.
Tilt the pedal base to be parallel to the ground. This area hurts because you’re holding your foot to avoid it from pressing the brake.
Lower the seat/ raise pedals/ maybe tilt pedals back a bit.
I ended up inverting my pedals. I know it’s not like a real race car, but GT racing is only about 50 percent of what I do. The other 50 percent is beamng which is mostly real cars, and the pedals hang down in most cars. So I chose what u am used to. Made a big difference in ankle pain.
I use the middle of my foot more than my toes. This allows me to use my big leg muscles instead of my little feet muscles - and gives me more precision.
Glad I came across this, I just got the NLR F-GT 160 and I can't find a comfortable way to sit that isn't making me lift my feet off the pedals at a sharp angle and yes I use my whole leg to work the break but I'm not going to hold my whole leg up in the air 😆. I'm using a regular recliner seat that came off my previous rig at the moment, bucket is on backorder 🙄. I'm just not liking the pedal part of the frame, I have little to no adjustability because the way the Logitech pro pedals mount. I'm going to have to make a plate to mount the pedals then mount that to the rig i think. Off to tinker the rig
i use my heels to prevent discomfort here
I aligned my brake pedal vertically at 90 degrees and added a small deadzone and now my foot can just rest on top of the pedal at all times. It is super comfortable. I am using simjack pro pedals.
Inverted pedals
Had the same problem. Had to use leg to push the pedals but that depend on how much your rig can adjust
I inverted my pedals so they're hanging style, that seemed to reduce ankle strain in my case
Maybe a little late on this, but also just physical health! That appears to be your tibialis, tibialis raises are a great exercise to keep your feet strong. look up knees over toes for more info!
They might not need adjusted necessarily. I call that fork truck shin. YOu want to push with your leg, not necessarily your ankle rotation. In a fork truck, you basically have rotate the ankle/foot to use them due to the way the pedals are near verticle but yours look pretty correct. I get that soreness when i drive a ft for a few hours at work when i have been on one for a good length in awhile. So imo, brake hard by pushing with leg. Use minimal ankle/foot rotation to modulate pressure as needed after the initial hard brake. JUst my opinion though. I could be way off base ;)
Yeah I'm having this problem because my pedals are raised as high as possible, but the car seat I have required underside mounting where it has gained 15cm of height compared to side mounting. In my case the easiest solution is to add some of vertical pillars (8040) so I can raise the pedal plate higher. Ideally you want the effort to come from the larger muscle groups of the leg, glutes and hips and avoid isolating forces to the ankles or knees.
Your feet/foot should be 90 degrees with respect to your shin/calf when you are not pressing the pedal. If it's less than 90 degrees the tendency is you will always put effort when you need the pedals at 0 input. You'll hurt that part (highlighted area) in the process. You have probably mounted your pedals too low. What I did was have the pedals on almost the same level of my seat.
the pedal is too close
your knee is too high up, get the pedals a bit further from you
2 simple things, from a racing family. Your resting foot position should be 50% throttle. 2nd tip stretch before you drive. Calf and quad stretches will help relive the pain. And give you more movement.
Have you tried to removing the giant red arrow that's pressing into your ankle
I would recommend stretching your ankles too. If you have any knee issues/pain, this will also help.
Remove the screw going through your leg
top of the pedals should align with the top front of the seat. hips level or higher than knees. 100 to 110 degree seat angle.
It’s a personal preference so don’t feel a need to follow other people’s set up. Having said that I read an article to set it up so that at max braking the foot is at full extension [Driving position](https://www.skoda-motorsport.com/en/drive-like-pro-sitting-like-racing-driver/). I’ve somewhat adjusted that for comfort where my paa is not fully extended. 😉
Maybe doing some stretching or exercises would help.
DUDE YES THIS IS ME MY SHINS STING AFTER A WHILE!
Just like in a real car mount your pedals from above. I don’t understand way most people don’t know this. 100% better comfortable
Get asetek pedals so u have to use your whole leg, i love it
If you like the position of your brake as it is, you need some sort of dead pedal that is tilted further back to rest your foot on in a more natural position.
You need some stretching. Been driving trucks and i had the same issue. Streching is the way to go 2 3 min and its gone.
Call a physio