Well got my shoes and cleats, must say they do help!, I got 19mph average over 13 miles yesterday, my highest average was pretty pleased to see these pedals increasing my speed
But clipping in is a nightmare!!, today I was nearly late for college as I was by the curb side trying to clip in for 20 mins, the left foot is so hard then the when clipped in there it takes only seconds to clip in on the right, I decided to turn back home and then they clipped in!!. Its very hard any tips on getting to clip in easier?
The pedals should have a little screw on the back that adjusts the spring tension, allowing you to clip in/out more easily. I suggest you loosen both off fully and then go out for a ride and over time you can adjust them to get tighter as you wish. You'll need a (i think) 2.5mm allen key to do it...so if you don't have one then just pop into your local bike shop and i'm sure they'll give you a hand.
Being fairly new to cleats myself, I must say that my problems were getting the shoes out, but never in! Once you're riding, if you have one foot in then you can generally get some weight over the other one until it clicks...unless you're not actually positioned correctly, and then you're foot slides off and flails around, making you look like an idiot to anyone behind (yes, that has happened many times to me)
Agree with Rob; wind 'em back to minimum tension and only wind them back up if you experience problems with unclipping when you don't mean to. Some sorts of cleats can be very sensitive to mud, stones and similar. Often if I stop on a ride to, ahem, water the hedge, I end up wiggling my feet around for yonks trying to get the *****y things clipped back in afterwards due to having wandered around on a muddy verge...
I just start pedaling without clipping in, eventually they decide to go in now , my shoes were abit wet this morning from walking on the grass aswell.
Just another question, but my shoes seem fine, but on the right shoe my heel is rubbing on the back and its abit sore now, any idea how to stop it rubbing? I have tried tightening them even more but has not helped, left foot seems fine.
Also Arthur I have PD-A515 pedals, SMSH-56 cleats and Shimano MT41 SPD shoes, dont know if they need some surgery.
Arthur wrote:Sorry, that list of numbers doesn't mean anything to me. Have a look at both shoes upside down. Is there more clearance on one side than the other?
Those numbers are model numbers.
Yes there is more clearance on one side than the other, thats because I wanted my foot further out.
Arthur wrote:That's your problem then. Some work with a stanley knife should fix it.
Hmmm I've never thought of doing that to get it further to the left of right :p, dont know if I need to though, is there a correct and in correct position or something?
The general wisdom as I understand it is that you want your feet as close together as reasonably possible (one grumble that some people have about triple chainsets is that they tend to push the cranks and pedals - and hence feet - outwards) subject to the inside of your shoes not fouling the cranks or chainstays or anything else as they go round. But to be honest you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference for a few mill either way - try centering the cleat in the recess - which should sort out the clipping-in problem - and see how they feel.
While your at it get a Dremmel and file off those lips at the back of the cleats. They always seem to trap in the pedal and the only way I can get them out is to twist them.
PhilBixby wrote:The general wisdom as I understand it is that you want your feet as close together as reasonably possible (one grumble that some people have about triple chainsets is that they tend to push the cranks and pedals - and hence feet - outwards) subject to the inside of your shoes not fouling the cranks or chainstays or anything else as they go round. But to be honest you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference for a few mill either way - try centering the cleat in the recess - which should sort out the clipping-in problem - and see how they feel.
They were centered, I moved the right further to the left and left further to the right as I felt too close.
Also I have been trying to go up some hills and I really cant see much difference compared to without clipless, Is there a certain/best method to doing it?
Clipless have a variety of benefits, but for road use it's mainly to do with the fact you can use more of the crank rotation to get forward motion. So rather than simply pushing down on the front 90 degrees or so, you can pull up on the back bit, push forward on the top bit and back on the bottom bit. This all feels thoroughly un-natural at first and takes a lot of practice and a fair bit of time to get smooth at it - getting your brain, your ankles, and the pulling muscles in your legs all working together. But if you watch someone with a nice smooth pedalling action you'll see why they're quick - someone like Steve Savage just goes very quickly without apparent effort.
All of the above is while simply sitting down and turning the pedals. Clipless also has major benefits when you get out of the saddle on steep climbs, or (for racers) when sprinting. They also - assuming you've got them adjusted right - keep your foot in the right place and hence reduce sideways loads on your knees.
BUT.. ..they take a while to get used to. I spend lots of time on winter rides really working at "pedalling in circles" and still see lots of people who are clearly more efficient at it than me!
Hmmm, I'll just keep trying at it yet, I havent tried any big hills yet, I tried one quite steep hill near me, got up it for first time as last time I tried was on my saracen but was slow getting up, the road will rough and dirty, was a dead end in a forest.
I guess I have seen one benefit so far, I seem to be more comfortable on a racing bike when off the saddle now and I get into 9th gear and just accelerate quickly to 20mph and try to keep it there when I get back on the saddle. Today the wind picked up, hopefully it was about 15mph, anything lower and I would think I am pretty slow, and I was trying to find the way into the headwind but no road around me goes directly into it, on one part was going about 15mph but pushed up to about 17mph on a windy stretch and I am hoping the pedals are helping me, I'd try with my normal pedals again if it was not so much messing about to swap the pedals around.
When the wind is behind me I can keep 23+ most of the time going down to 19mph for a quick breather and then doing some parts keeping 26-27mph since I got the pedals.
, my shoes were abit wet this morning from walking on the grass aswell.