Help - Need to set up my shoes / cleats / pedals!!

[roboxm3]

Morning all.

I have recently purchased the following...

http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/kona_zing...

http://www.excelsports.com/image200/Shimano%20105%...

http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.com/images/bikes-and-gear...

...and am hoping to take them on their maiden voyage this weekend, all being well with the weather etc.

So far I've got the pedals on the bike and the cleats loosely fixed to the shoes but I'm a bit confused as to how I get the cleats in exactly the right position on the shoe and exactly the same as each other without a lot of messing about and trial and error.

Is there a widely accepted method for getting them pretty close before going for a test ride or am I just giong to have to suck it up and spend the morning riding up and down the road, adjusting the cleats until they feel right and postpone the proper maiden voyage until Sunday??

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Rob

Edit for speelong

Edited by roboxm3 on Wednesday 19th January 11:11

[mchammer89]

Basically you want them set up so that the pedal axle is right under the ball of your foot. Start off with that and you should be fine, if not it will only be tiny adjustments that need made.

[NitroNick]

Be very careful.
Make sure the cleats are properly aligned, get cleats with as much float as possible.
You will knacker your knees if you put them on wrong. I went with cleats with zero float and the left one was slightly off centre, after only a few days of cycling I could barely walk I was in so much pain.
I've switched to speedplays now, I would highly recommend them.

[roboxm3]

By "float" within the cleat, are you referring to 'potential for adustment, by loosening and moving' or do you mean 'potential for movement while cycling'?? If you're referring to the latter, I can't see that there's any "float" once the cleats are fixed...but that could be because I don't understand how the "float" is created!?

[Flippin' Kipper]

roboxm3 said:

By "float" within the cleat, are you referring to 'potential for adustment, by loosening and moving' or do you mean 'potential for movement while cycling'?? If you're referring to the latter, I can't see that there's any "float" once the cleats are fixed...but that could be because I don't understand how the "float" is created!?

Float is the amount of lateral movement measured in degrees that your foot has once clipped in, the more float there is the kinder to your knees it is if your cleats are not in the optimal position.

[NitroNick]

Float is the amount you can move your heel from side to side while clipped in, some pedal/cleat combos dont allow any float, others can give upto 15 degree of movement.
They are both perfectly fine but with the ones with zero float you just need to make sure that they are perfectly aligned so that your knee isn't being twisted when you are pedaling. Ones with lots of float allow you to turn you foot to what ever angel they are most comfortable at (i.e your foot is self-aligning)
If you feel your knees getting sore fix your pedal set up straight away, I left it for too long and did permanent damage to my knees.

[roboxm3]

OK, I get what you're saying; I suppose I won't really know how much float I've got then, until I fix my cleats and clip them in!?

As well as starting with getting the balls of my feet over the centre of the pedals, is there a general starting point for how my feet should be aligned i.e. toe-in, dead-ahead or toe-out, or is everyone different in that respect??

...stting myself about knackering my knees now!! haha

Many thanks for the info all.

Edited by roboxm3 on Wednesday 19th January 18:38

[h4muf]

Sit on your bike and dangle your leg to see your natural position.

[Flippin' Kipper]

Apparently your peddles have 3 degrees of float either side - I think my Candy C peddles are 10 or 15 degrees, but they are mountain bike specific so maybe require more.

Anyway, the way to set them up is to sit on a table with your feel dangling and look at how they rest naturally, and then set your cleats up so that your feet face the same way when clipped into your peddles.

Quite a few guides if you goggle setting up SPDs / clipless peddles

[WarrenG]

I seem to remember years ago setting up spd cleats with the use of barstool (or sit on the kitchen side) and a mirror on the floor so you can see how far off parallel your feet are in a natural position of dangle. visualise a straight-line running through the underside of the shoe that would be in line with the bike's centre-line and (tricky bit) slip off the shoe and draw this line on the underside. put it back on and check it's pointing straight ahead. repeat for second shoe and check that they appear parallel. then you can fix the cleats using these lines as the centre-line guide for each cleat. any float in their design will take up any lack of accuracy on your part, anywhere from 5-15 deg is possible depending on which cleats you get.

Go for Crank Bros eggbeaters for better float options - their cleats are reversible to give you (IIRC) 5 or 15 deg clip-out options with the same pair of cleats.

Main thing with Crank Bros is that this design does not have a direct-pull release like spd and therefore you have a better rate of accidental un-clipping, but the side-release is very reliable, I have found them more comfortable on my bikes so far and there's less mechanism to go wrong, wear out or clog.

[mchammer89]

With regard to pedal/cleat designs Times are without a doubt the best i've had, SPDs are more prone to unclipping, Looks are ultra secure but you can't walk in them. With the Time cleats I have you can have them at 13 degrees of float and if you prefer you can turn the cleats around and they offer 17 degrees of float. Though the main advantage with Time pedals is that you also get quite a bit of lateral float on top of the 13/17 degrees of angular float. I run Aliums on my fixed bike and ROCs on my MTB and they're both brilliant. As an aside the ROCs are self-cleaning so they don't get clogged up with mud when riding though sludge.