one small but important difference between spd and road cleats

[alecstilleyedye]

there's a load of hot air, for which some i am responsible, talked about the benefits or otherwise of road cleats (look, time, spd-sl etc.) versus spd.

today i was changing the cleats around due to an incoming new pair of shoes and it struck me that if i didn't do all the bolts up tight, as long as only one was lost i would be able to unclip safely and, i hope, be mindful to replace the bolt before venturing out again.

with spd, there's only two bolts; lose one and the cleat is almost impossible to remove from the pedal, as the cleat will just pivot on the remaining bolt. it's not hard to imagine the possible outcomes of that.

whatever system you use though, keep those bolts tight!

 

[Drago]

Genuine Shimano spd screws come pre treated with Loctite. If you lose one of those you deserve the walk home.

 

[vickster]

Genuine Shimano spd screws come pre treated with Loctite. If you lose one of those you deserve the walk home.

I lost one, from genuine Shimano cleats...Shimano shoes too

My only clipless moment, couldn't get the flipping cleat out of the pedal, ouch

 

[Drago]

In over a decade and dozens of spud shoes I've never had one come loose on SL or SPD, so I think I can be forgiven for not losing any sleep over this. It's the proverbial 20p scenario.

 

[vickster]

Lucky you. New shoes, new cleats, presumably the bolt had worked loose...

 

[Drago]

One makes one's own luck with weekly kit inspections.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i should say that i've never lost a bolt. as a dad, i'm putting looks on my son's next pair of shoes to minimise the risk. he's running some bought-at-lidl spds at the mo (which, in fairness, have never lost a bolt, but have rattle a little lose when i had them) currently with no issues…

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Lucky you. New shoes, new cleats, presumably the bolt had worked loose...

no new cleats; i've got keos on the posh bike, and deltas on the commuter, so the current (over 10 year-old and worn out) commuter shoes go in the black bin whilst the new ones go on the posh bike and the other shoes move down the line to the commuter…

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Lucky you. New shoes, new cleats, presumably the bolt had worked loose...

no new cleats; i've got keos on the posh bike, and deltas on the commuter, so the current (over 10 year-old and worn out) commuter shoes go in the black bin whilst the new ones go on the posh bike and the other shoes move down the line to the commuter…

 

[Drago]

And I never bother swapping used cleats and bolts to new shoes. I've still got Ultegra SL pedals and SIDI shoes hanging up.in the shed and I wont be rushing to furiously swap them back into one of my bikes of the strength of the OPs dire warnings.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

each to their own, but i don't see the point of relegating perfectly good cleats with lots of wear in them to the toolbox and then have to pay for a new set of deltas and a new set of keos, which would just add to the cost of the replacement of the worn-out shoes…

 

[alecstilleyedye]

One makes one's own luck with weekly kit inspections.

quite. it never ceases to amaze me, as a club rider, how the first appearance of winter/summer bikes on a club run is always punctuated by plenty of pneumatic failures due to failure on the part of the riders to put in the required amount of air to keep such problems at bay. more casual riders are, i imagine, even more laissai-faire with inspecting all aspects of their kit…

 

[Milkfloat]

Never lost a bolt on SPDs, lost 2 seperate ones on SPD-SLs, each time I clipping was incredibly hard. I now locktite the SPD-SLs.

 

[andrew_s]

it struck me that if i didn't do all the bolts up tight, as long as only one was lost i would be able to unclip safely
with spd, there's only two bolts; lose one and the cleat is almost impossible to remove from the pedal, as the cleat will just pivot on the remaining bolt

It doesn't just happen with SPDs - I have seen someone loose a second screw on a Look cleat and have to take off the shoe atoa separatea themaselves from the bike.

 

[Saluki]

I lost a screw on an spd cleat the other week. Right foot, so that was OK then. I had to take my shoe off at the far end of the ride, to unclip.