G'day, it's Michael here from MTB Direct,
today we're looking at covering
how to install some cleats on your mountain bike shoes.
So cleats, like tires on your mountain bike
are a wearing part.
For a more positive engagement and disengagement,
you want to keep them fresh.
They are quite hard steel,
and they do last quite a long time,
but a fresh set does feel a lot nicer than a worn set.
The other reason you might want to change them
is if you just get yourself a set of new shoes.
So you might not want to put your old cleats
on your new shoes.
Things you're going to need to do your cleat install...
is your set of cleats,
your shoes,
some grease,
a marking pen,
and a 4mm allen key.
Now, this is optional but recommended,
I like to use some Loctite on my cleat bolt thread,
your sole actually can compress
and when that happens your cleat bolt can get loose
and then can just simply fall out.
With Shimano cleats, both cleats are exactly the same,
On Crank Brothers cleats
you can actually adjust the release angle
by which side you put them on
so the one with two dots on the cleat itself
that if you run it on the left side it means
for a later release;
that is how you adjust the release angle
on a Crank Brothers cleat.
The reason you would want to have a later release angle
is if you are a little bit more experienced
and you like to have a bit more float
which means your foot can move left and right a bit more
before disengaging from the pedal,
if you are a cross country racer you would probably want an earlier release,
or perhaps new to clip-in pedals
you would probably want an earlier release just so that
you can get out a bit sooner.
Now if you are replacing your cleat from
your old shoe,
what you will find is there is often
a lot of dirt inside your bolt head,
the best way I find to get that out
is to use a small drill, and just drill it out.
And that works really well to
just remove the old mud.
The other option is you can use a pick like this.
The least preferred option, but it does work
is you can use a 1.5mm allen key
to pick that out as well
but as you'll see now the drill bit method works the best.
Straight out.
If you are installing a new set of cleats
in old shoes,
you will see the detents from the old cleat,
which means if you're going to put them in
if you want to find like a micro adjustment
you'll find the cleat will just kind of automatically relocate
back to the old spot,
which isn't a problem if, you know,
you had them in the right spot to begin with.
but today we're going to put a new set of cleats in a new set of shoes
and I'm going to show you how to find the right spot.
So what we're doing now, I'm just trying to see
exactly how my feet hang,
so I'm just sitting on a stool and just sort of seeing
if my feet are naturally pointed inwards or outwards,
when I relax.
The reason for that is, if they're slightly pointed outwards
I'm going to roll the cleats in,
if they're slightly pointed inwards I'm going to roll the cleats out
so that I'm in a natural position.
So my feet are pretty aligned,
so I'm going to run both cleats pointed in the exact same direction.
So the next step is to determine
exactly where I want to run my cleat,
this is the cleat that clips in to the pedal;
it's possible to run the cleat all the way back
or all the way forward, and everywhere in between.
Beneath the cleat is this cleat plate
which is a piece of steel that is threaded,
that allows us to determine where we want to run that,
now there's a couple of schools of thought on this;
often for cross country for maximum efficiency
or like road cycling for example
they would run the cleat exactly in alignment
with the ball of your foot
that's this knuckle here.
You would run it there, some people would run it perhaps 5mm behind,
but on a set of cross country shoes I would run it right there.
The other school of thought is that
more the Enduro guys or Downhill racers
typically run it further back.
That's because the weight is in the arch of your foot.
More like perhaps a motorcross style
where your weight typically is,
so further forward is a more efficient position
but for descending and more aggresive riding
usually the arch of your foot is a better position.
Now, I typically recommend
one or the other,
like I have experimented with
somewhere in the middle
but I tend to feel that it's
kind of like no man's land,
kind of not one or the other.
So I try to run it further forward
for cross country position
or if I typically do Enduro or Downhill style racing
I'll run it all the way back.
Often your more aggresive shoes
like these Ride Concepts here
the cleat box is potentially a little bit further back
than some of the cross country race shoes.
So for a set of cross country shoes
what I would do is simply
with my other hand
find where the knuckle or the ball of my foot is
and then get my permanent marker
and mark where that is.
That's where the centre of the ball is.
Now then
I'm going to align that
and then put a mark
So that's where I'm going to be putting most of my
downward force and also lifting
and that's how your foot is designed
to work best
so it's going to reduce foot pain
because it puts more load on your skeleton
and less load on your soft tissues.
Now in terms of alignment, left and right,
as I said before
if your feet hang on a bit of an angle
that's where you would compensate for that.
So now I'm going to install one of the cleats
and then match the other to suit.
A lot of cleats are now supplied with
this extra shim,
Now this extra shim is designed to
raise the cleat off the shoe a little bit
that's because some shoes are designed
to have more tread around the cleat
that extra tread is great for walking up
steep climbs or loose climbs,
when you are off the bike, however
it does mean that it can be tricky
to get into the shoe,
so if that is the case
like you find it is really difficult to get clipped
or it's really quite vague
that's when using a spacer
like the one supplied with these Shimano pedals
is good, because that just lifts
the cleat a little and allows for easier entry.
Now this is where we are going to use some grease
and some loctite, so
I'm going to use a tiny bit of grease
under the head of the bolt
and then I'm going to use some loctite on the thread,
so I've got a loctite stick here
same as the other regular loctite
but a bit less likely to spill all over your toolbox.
Now I'm just going to run this in the dead centre
of the shoebox there,
I'm going to align it with my little pen marks,
and then just going to go one then the other,
keep going now,
you don't have to go crazy on this,
the last thing you want to do is
strip out your cleat plate,
if you do, it's not the end of the world,
you can take the cleat plate out,
and rotate it another 180 degrees,
you get a second chance.
That's looking pretty good to me.
So now I'm just going to do the same with the other shoe
but leave it loose,
and then I'm going to align it before tightening it up,
Now I'm going to align the back of the shoe,
and just make sure the cleats are in the same spot
on both shoes.
You can kind of see, they are perfectly aligned.
The only thing to consider
is because your new cleats are new
they've got no wear on them,
you might want to adjust the tension in your pedals,
back it off a little so you have got an easier exit,
so now we've got our new cleats installed,
we're ready to go for a spin,
so if you found that helpful, please subscribe
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Thanks for watching.