- Cycling shoes and cleats.
The chances are, if you ride a bike, at some point
you're going to need to replace one or the other.
If it's your cleats you're replacing
on a current pair of shoes, that's really easy.
You simply draw around the cleat on the shoe
and attach the new cleat in exactly the same position.
But, if like me, you're fortunate enough
to be upgrading to a new pair of shoes,
either the same model or a similar model,
but in a different color or whatever.
Then you're going to need to apply a little more thought
to make sure the new cleats go on the new shoes
in exactly the same position to prevent any niggles
or injuries that could occur.
To make the job easier, there are a few things you should
prepare before hand.
A tape measure, for measuring your
cleats' position on your shoe.
An Allen key or screwdriver depending on the cleats
that you have, for removing the cleats
and putting the new ones on.
Some anti-seize or some grease
for the threads of the new cleats.
A pencil, if I can pick it up.
A pencil, some paper and some masking tape.
Because we don't want draw on our new shoes.
To start with, we're going to begin
by slipping on our old shoes.
And then we're going to locate the ball of our foot.
And this is just at the head of our metatarsal bones.
Or as I like to call them the sticky out bits.
Once you have located this area,
place a strip of masking tape over
the four outer parts of these bones.
Interior, exterior of both feet.
Now, pay careful attention
to where the center point of the bone is.
This is where the pencil comes in.
Draw a nice clear line down through this bone.
You should now have four lines
at 90 degrees to the work top or to the ground.
Now that you've got your markers in place,
it's time to measure the difference from them
to the center point of the pedal axle and the cleat.
To do this you'll paper, the pen
and the tape measure.
What you want to do is start
by placing each shoe on the piece of paper
and pushing hard into the paper
until we start to create an indentation.
You may find it's actually really difficult to do this,
and standing on a softer floor in your shoes
is actually the easiest way to do this.
At the same time as doing this, and without moving the shoe,
you want to start to mark on the shoe
where the metatarsal bones would lie
if you went straight down onto the piece of paper.
So make sure you're really careful to line these up,
as this is one of the most crucial measurements
that you're gonna make.
If you want to be extra cautious to make sure
that everything lines up accurately,
you could also draw around to the two rear corners
of your cleat whilst your shoe's in this position.
Whilst doing that, you also want to make sure
you mark the foremost tip of the shoe accurately
on the paper and the same for the rearmost point as well.
This should give you now four good corners
to line everything up when it comes to the new shoes.
Yep, you've guessed it.
Once you've done one shoe it's time to do the other.
If you're using the majority of cleat types out there
you will now have your shoe outlined around the cleat
along with the most prominent markers from each foot.
If you're using speed plate feet however,
this is actually much easier.
As all you need to do is dial in the adjustment screws
on either side of the cleat
to exactly the same position as the old ones.
Really simple.
It's now time for your new shoes.
The first thing you need to do is slip them onto your feet,
pick up your tape and your pencil,
and mark your metatarsal bones as we did before.
After that, you can start greasing your cleat bolts
and then looking at loosely tightening the cleats
onto the bottom of your new shoes.
I have to remove a sticker first.
One thing not to forget though,
is if, like myself, you use a custom orthotic insole,
now's the time to remove them from your old shoe
and slip them into the new ones.
Snug.
(upbeat music)
One of my favorite steps to forget
when it comes to attaching new cleats,
is actually forgetting the grease or the anti-seize.
Much to my dismay when it comes to trying to remove them.
When I find that they're seized onto the bottom of the shoe.
Anyway, you can now go back,
attach your cleats to your shoes.
If you do want to be really precise with your measurements,
now is the time to get out your tape measure
and measure where the cleat comes
within reference to the front and the back of the shoe.
This way you can guarantee
that when the cleat goes on the new shoe
it's exactly in the same four and a half position.
Now that you have loosely tightened the cleat
to the bottom of the shoe,
enough that you can still adjust it a little if you need to.
It's the time to bring back in those bits of paper
and start to line everything up.
If you are using a different brand of shoe,
or even a different size of shoe for whatever reason,
this is an area where you may find a little discrepancy.
But, bear with it.
Line up all the markers that you've made
and you will get there eventually.
If you are struggling to get your markers to line up,
start by putting the cleat into its indentation
that you made in the paper
and then adjust the shoe around the cleat.
It may take a little bit of time to make sure
that you do this step 100% correctly,
but it's worth spending that extra bit of time
to make sure that you get it right.
Once you are happy, you can now tighten your new cleats
onto the bottom of your shoes.
If for whatever reason you aren't quite happy
with the way things are lining up,
it could be that you've drawn the line
in a very slightly different position on your new shoes
to on your old shoes.
Tighten your cleats to about 90% full tension.
If you've got a torque wrench,
this is a great time to use it.
Tighten them enough that allows you to
clip into the body without them moving
and then you can test them accurately on a turbo trainer,
which is leaned up against the wall.
If you are changing brand of shoe,
then you need to be aware of your stack height.
Stack height is essentially the distance
from the bottom of your foot to the top of the pedal.
Most of this information is available online,
but if you are changing brand of shoe,
you may need to consider changing your saddle height
if the stack height has changed.
No matter what your setup is,
you should now be ready to test it out.
This is always best done on a short easy recovery ride
or and indoor turbo trainer.
This will ensure that you can make
any final minor adjustments to your cleat positioning.
And if, like myself, you've changed
the type of cleats you're using.
I've gone from the fixed ones here
to the free floater version here.
You need to make sure that the neutral position of the cleat
falls within that free float movement.
Free float is the travel that your foot can make
before you start to disengage from the pedal.
If you are 100% confident in your bike set up,
then I would always recommend going for a floater cleat.
You should now be completely satisfied
with the positioning of your cleats underneath your shoes.
In which case, it's time to finally tighten them
up to the manufaturer recommended values.
Be careful not to exceed these though,
because you could damage the bottom of your shoe
or your cleat.
And when you've done that, you will be the proud wearer
of a brand new pair of shoes.
But which color do you prefer?
Red or white?
Let me know in the poll
up in the top of your screen right now.
I'm thinking the red ones.
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