Cleat Problem

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I have the shimano mo88 shoes with the pd m520 spd pedals on my road bike.
For quite a while now i have had problems with the left cleat,the right one is fine.
As soon as i set off the i have to jiggle round to get the cleat to snap into the pedal then when i want to release it i am finding it gets stuck and only a lot of effort will release it.
i have adjusted the pedal to it's lowest setting but to no avail.

Once the the bolts came off the shoe and were stuck in the pedal and today i checked the shoe while i was out on a ride and the cleat was loose because i had lost a bolt.

This is now really frustrating me now,is it the cleat or is it the pedal?

 

[StuAff]

Been there, done that....if it's like what happened to me on the Normandy trip the other week, it's most definitely the cleat. Do not, whatever you do, try and clip in with only one cleat bolt in place. This is what may well happen.....

Tighten them up well- probably tighter than you think- (good idea to grease the threads first for when the cleat wears out) and you should be OK. If you don't already do so, carry a suitable allen key/multi tool just in case you need to retighten.

 

[Smurfy]

I'm with StuAff on this. It sounds like the cleats might be rotating on the shoe. When the cleat bolts are sufficiently tight the little ridges on the cleat should dig into the shoe sole until the main body of the cleat is fully contacting the plastic sole. After a little while the plastic sole will have compressed slightly and you'll need to re-tighten the bolts, so keep an eye on it and try tightening them again after a few days/weeks.

Be careful to get this right. Having a cleat that rotates on the shoe can be a good way to trash the shoe and rip a huge hole in the shoe where there should only be two little slots!

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Thanks stuAFF and tim for your comments

Greased and really tightened up the cleat bolts and adjusted both pedals so they were level and now no more jiggering around trying to get the cleat in and out of the pedal.

Thanks once again lads.....happy days.