- Ah, it's only a cleat, just whack it on.
How wrong can it be?
Well actually very wrong,
because if you have these setup badly
not only will it effect your cycling performance,
and efficiency, but it can also lead to niggles,
and also injuries, and after all,
if you think about it,
your cleat is the only contact point with the bike,
where you're really connected to the bike,
and also where you're delivering your power.
So today I'm gonna show you how to
setup your bike cleats correctly,
and also with a little bit of triathlon advice too.
(upbeat music)
Well 1st of all let's take a look at installing,
and setting up a brand new set of cleats on the same shoe,
and you can tell here,
mine are very worn out, so they do need replacing.
But otherwise they do feel great, they're setup well,
haven't got any symptoms telling me otherwise.
So don't fix what's not broken,
other than replacing and making sure that we replicate
that position as best as possible.
And I've actually set them up
just a millimetre or two off in the past,
and that's left me dealing with a slight niggle in my knee,
and also just feeling
a little bit uncomfortable on the bike.
So one way to make sure that we do replicate that position
is by using a marker like this here,
and doing a line all the way around the edge of the cleat.
So you're sort of outlining that position
or just on the main corners,
and then when we do take that cleat off,
we can then instal the new cleat
in exactly the same position.
Maybe just work with a few micro-adjustments after
to get it spot-on.
But what if you're installing a new cleat
on a new set of shoes.
Well this is a little bit more tricky,
and it is a bit of an art.
Obviously if you're installing
on a like for like set of shoes,
then you are at a bit of an advantage.
But even then, don't fall into the trap
of solely relying on the lines on the bottom of the shoe.
Which probably hard to see on here,
because I've walked around in gravel so much.
But you can see them a bit more clearly here.
Just these lines going across,
because they can vary ever so slightly from shoe to shoe.
Even if you're using exactly the same brand,
and the same model.
So it's much better to set it up to your foot,
and the position of your foot,
rather than by using these lines.
Now in the past, I've got to be honest,
I used to just eyeball it.
Id just put the shoes heel to heel,
toe to toe, side to side,
until I felt like I got the cleats exactly spot on,
and then I'd make some micro-adjustments after.
Not very scientific, I know,
and I have learned over the years of much better,
more precise methods,
and one of which is to put your shoe into,
kind of a ready made template.
So you put the old cleat into a gap in this template,
and we've got brands such as Ergon
with their cleat fitting tool,
and they've got a graph like template underneath,
and you can mark out where the shoe is,
and basically you have that cleat setup,
and then you instal the new cleat into your new shoe,
and you can put that in and
basically get it setup exactly the same to that template.
But obviously you've got to buy a tool for that.
So there are other methods
where you don't have to go out and purchase the tool.
So for that you just want to slip your shoe on,
and then you want to draw around the cleat.
Locate the centre of the ball of your foot
on both the inside and the outside,
and mark this on the edge of the sole.
(gentle music)
Then using a ruler or a straight edge,
line it up between the two markers,
and draw a line across from one side to the other.
Across the bottom of the cleat.
Now take the new shoe and put it on.
Make the same markings for the ball of the foot.
Then remove the cleat from the old shoe,
and place it onto the new shoe.
Aligning the line of the cleat with the two markers.
Now the only issue with this method
is the side to side alignment,
it may not be perfectly accurate.
So take a look at the old shoe and the outline,
and try to set your cleat up as close to that as possible,
and then once you're done, draw around it, remove it,
and align the new cleat with that outer line.
Obviously it's worth pointing out
that most shoes will have a slightly different shape,
and design to their soles.
So wear them if you do choose,
you may have to make some still need to make
some slight adjustments after.
And with that in mind,
do not go installing new cleats on your shoes
the night before a big event,
because you will still need a couple of rides
just to make sure that they're perfect.
Okay, but what if you're starting out fresh,
you have nothing to compare against.
Now we need to figure out
your ideal cleat setup from scratch, and to start this off,
we need to take a look at what's called your fore-aft.
Now this is a reference
to how close you located your cleaters
to either your heel or your toe.
Now you'll remember before
I was marking up my shoe to highlight the ball of my foot.
Now I'm gonna try and explain what I was doing there
a little bit better now, and I do apologise
'cause I'm gonna use my foot for this.
Yeah, I'm really sorry.
So we need to locate the boney point
on both the 1st and the 5th toe,
and if you imagine two horizontal lines
going across our foot,
and then we want to mark out the centre point
between those two lines.
Now that centre point should be the centre of your cleat,
as a starting point.
Now I say a starting point,
I'm gonna get rid of my foot now, I'm really sorry,
I say a starting point because it is really personal
as to that cleat setup,
and you will actually find a lot of triathletes
actually pushing that cleat further back towards the heel,
and that's basically to try and offload the calves,
and save them for the run.
And I've actually gone that way a little bit with myself,
but not to the extremes that you'll see
some triathletes who're going really far back
into almost the midpoint of the sole.
So to actually instal the cleat,
we need to put the shoe on, find those two boney points,
and the midpoint between those lines.
If you need to, you can draw those on,
and mark them onto the sole of the shoe.
Some cleats, as with the one that I'm using today,
has a removable centrepiece here
that you can instal the cleat
accordingly with that midpoint.
Just mark up around the edge of the cleat, then remove it,
reinsert that centrepiece before lining it back up,
and screwing it into the sole of the shoe.
So once the cleats are on at a really good starting point,
you wanna make sure that the cleats are tightly on,
but not so tight that we can't move them,
because now we need to take a look at their rotation.
Now this is really important,
because most of us naturally have some form of rotation.
Even if it is very small,
and more often than not,
it's actually for our heel to rotate in ever so slightly.
But to find out exactly what you do,
good way of doing this is to literally sit on an edge
with your feet hanging over the edge,
and you just want your knees at 90 degrees.
Relax and you just wanna see how your feet are angled
when they're dangling there,
and then you can set your cleat up
accordingly to match that rotation.
But you only wanna make any adjustments
ever ever so slightly, because it is quite incremental,
and then again this is all a case of trial and error
to really find that perfect setup for you.
Okay, so once you're happy with that rotation,
one more thing to consider and it's a little bit technical,
is the float on either side of the cleat.
Now what I mean by that is
when you're clipped into the pedal
you have a little bit of movement from side to side,
and you don't feel restricted on one side,
and have more play or movement on the other side.
There are varying cleats.
Now here I've got some fixed cleats with zero float,
the idea being that when you're clipped in
you literally have no movement,
and some think that maybe this is more efficient,
and you're not wasting energy.
We have these with moderate float,
so somewhere between 4 1/2 to six degrees of movement
from side to side.
Then we have others with even more movement.
Now the moderate float tend to be the more popular.
It just allow you to be clipped in securely,
but still allow a little bit of movement,
so you feel free and you're not maybe stressing your knee
or ankles or anything in any way.
Now obviously I've played around with ones with zero float,
so when my foot is clipped into the pedal
I have no movement at all,
and that is quite popular with time trialists
or cyclists that are competing over quite short events.
What I've found with the longer events is
that I start to get quite achy ankles or achy knees.
So perhaps, probably a better idea
to go for the ones with the moderate float.
Now finally before you do crank those bolts down,
there is one more big thing to consider,
and that is the lateral position of your cleats.
Now this is sometimes referred to as the Q factor,
and sadly there isn't really any
solid go to method for this.
It is, again, a little bit of trial and error.
So one way of doing it is simply looking at how you stand.
Do you like to stand with a wide stance
with your feet wide apart or feet close together?
Do you cycle with your feet directly beneath your knees
or perhaps do you suffer from ITB issues?
If you do suffer from ITB issues then in that case
you want to go with a slightly wider stance.
Now this is really personal,
so do take your time figuring out
your cleat position for yourself, and again,
that trial and error just trying to ever so slightly
move the cleat around to make it perfect for yourself.
And as I did mention at start,
this is a little bit of an art.
So if you have your own method of doing this,
then please please let us know.
Drop that in the comments section below.
It'd be great to hear from you.
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then just click up there.
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