New Shoes

Just purchased some new shoes specifically for the Rome to the Dome charity ride. They have the
option of SPD fittings and so I have blagged a set of SPD pedals from EvansCycles. The shoes are
Diadora Cayman's and the pedals are Shimano M324 SPD's. As I have never ridden SPD or any locking
pedals I have no idea how to go about fitting the cleats to the shoes. Do I use the ones that come
with the shoe or do I get cleats with pedals? How do they attach? ETC ETC.

Any help would be appreciated.

Gadget

 

Gadget wrote:
> As I have never ridden SPD or any locking pedals I have no idea how to go about fitting the
> cleats to the shoes. Do I use the ones that come with the shoe or do I get cleats with pedals?
> How do they attach? ETC ETC.

There should be cleats supplied with the pedals. If not, go and bend the ear of the supplier.

The cleats will fit into either pre-drilled and threaded holes or apply with locking nuts/bolts
through slots (varies from shoe to shoe). It's probable that you'll have to remove a cover on the
bottom of the sole to reveal the mounting, which could either be a screw on cover plate or a cut
around the area (where should be obvious).

Once the mount area is exposed, how to mount the cleats should be obvious. You'll generally have a
choice of exactly how far back or forward they go (continuously variable with slot mounts, or a
selection of pre-threaded holes). Mount it so the bit of your foot that would normally be over the
pedal axle is over the centre of the cleat, but it never hurts too much to experiment until you have
it just where you want
it: go for a few laps of the block with an appropriate allen key in your pocket and adjust them
until they're in the best spot.

Start with the SPuDs set on minimum release tension. Most people are naturally completely paranoid
about releasing in good time for stops to start with, so no need to suggest that! ;-) Only worry
about cranking up the release tension if you find you're pulling your feet out. Entirely possible
you'll not ever need to bother. For a ride as long as you have planned it may be a Cunning Plan to
pop a spare cleat in the toolkit.

<HOW_TO_SUCK_EGGS_FOR_GRANNIES>

Sorry if this is insulting, but just in case... when removing the old pedals don't forget that the
left pedal has a left hand (i.e., reverse of normal) thread, so turn it the "wrong" way to undo it.
And don't forget to grease the threads on the new ones before you put them on. Pedals that have
never been removed often take some fairly serious thuggery to budge, and if you don't have the
spanner for the job the LBS probably will. But penetrating oil/Plusgas or even WD40 left to soak in
for a while will help.

</HOW_TO_SUCK_EGGS_FOR_GRANNIES>

HTH, Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email protected]
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

On Thu, 15 May 2003 13:38:52 +0100, Peter Clinch
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Gadget wrote:
>> As I have never ridden SPD or any locking pedals I have no idea how to go about fitting the
>> cleats to the shoes. Do I use the ones that come with the shoe or do I get cleats with pedals?
>> How do they attach? ETC ETC.
>
>There should be cleats supplied with the pedals. If not, go and bend the ear of the supplier.
>

[SNIP & 2p's worth]

Attaching the cleats straight under the ball of the foot works just fine and OK for me. I think it
was "Callas" who wrote a treatise on this very subject a year or so ago. Google Groups search
time, Gadget.

As Peter says, you should certainly be given your cleats along with your shoes. More so, the shop
should do the fitting of the cleats, IMO, at least the initial fitting.

James

--
It's a CD-ROM drive, not a cup holder.