Cycling UK Forum

People, having acquired some look keo pedals I may have a try at some road shoes. Just a see how it goes, why not type of thing. I've ridden with SPD for years by the way, happily. Cleats for keo come in floats of 0, 4.5 and 9. Any thoughts on which I should plump for? Thanks, Robert. P.S. if it helps in 44 and 6'3".

depending on which exact SPD pedals and cleats you have been using, you will have been using a certain amount of float already. A safe bet would be to have a similar amount in the LOOK cleats.

cheers

Depends how dodgy your knees are. Mine are quite bad and I use the Red 9 degree float cleats. This allows your foot to move about a bit and find the most comfortable position.

robert17 wrote:People, having acquired some look keo pedals I may have a try at some road shoes. Just a see how it goes, why not type of thing. I've ridden with SPD for years by the way, happily. Cleats for keo come in floats of 0, 4.5 and 9. Any thoughts on which I should plump for? Thanks, Robert. P.S. if it helps in 44 and 6'3".

Impossible for anyone to recommend which particular cleat, really - because none of us are you. A friend of mine swears by black (0) cleats. I used Look red (9) for years, before switching to Time RXS. Now back on Look for the last few years and now I'm on grey (4.5). Tried the red ones again for a few days recently and hated them. Fortunately they're not that expensive, so maybe give a couple of different sets a try out.

I always think get the most float. If you don't need it would you notice? If you have no float and need it you will notice. Or am I way off with my thinking?

I agree with your principle, however I hate the huge foot twist necessary for the release with red.
I find I don't bump against the edge of the float, so why have more? Clearly if you need 6 degrees of float then go with red as constraining necessary float is a worse idea.

robert17 wrote:People, having acquired some look keo pedals I may have a try at some road shoes. Just a see how it goes, why not type of thing. I've ridden with SPD for years by the way, happily. Cleats for keo come in floats of 0, 4.5 and 9. Any thoughts on which I should plump for? Thanks, Robert. P.S. if it helps in 44 and 6'3".

A confession.

Look cleats wear on the side you normally put your foot down when stopped.

Being an utter cheapskate, I replace just the worn one rather than both at the same time.

For whatever reason, the new ones were grey rather than the extant red. I replaced without a thought and didn't even notice having a mixed pair.

So, bottom line, I don't think it really matters! I suspect the black ones are intended for the hard core sprinter only.

when LOOK first came out there were only black (floatless) cleats. Red cleats took several years to appear, long enough for lots of people to develop serious knee injuries in the meantime. I could never get on with black cleats, and didn't like the feel of red ones, so having tried LOOK I ditched 'em and went back to ciips and straps for another decade or so.

cheers

Ke1th wrote:I always think get the most float. If you don't need it would you notice? If you have no float and need it you will notice. Or am I way off with my thinking?

My experience is that too much float has my feet wobbling all over the place, its one thing i hate about SPD's, the constant movement they allow plays hell with my dodgy knee, i am much more comfortable with my feet locked more tightly and have no issues with disengaging from my 12nm release carbon Keo's.

Okay, maybe some trial and error. I'll give a 4.5° pair ago. See how we do. Thank you.

A word of advice: check the clearance with your cranks and frame chainstays too, in the last years I've seen frames and cranks being horribly marks by the shoes, due to incorrect cleat position