Cycling UK Forum

Fitted some new cleats to my shoes, they won't go into the pedals. They are shimano spd mountain bike type. My old ones were quite worn so fitted new ones they look identical I have measured them they are the same. I have fitted cleats to shoes many times and am completely mystified ( that doesn't take a lot ). I have tried reducing the tension to no avail.
Any ideas.

which (exact) model cleats and which (exact) model pedals do you have?

cheers

They are the correct part forward?

Hi,

I have m520 pedals my old cleats were sh 51 my new ones sh 56 they look identical. I will refit my old ones to see if they work.

SH56 cleats are compatible with m520 (Shimano say so) so there must be another issue.

fastpedaller wrote:They are the correct part forward?

+1 - this does sound like the most likely or even upside down!

cleats should look like this



when fitted.

If the old cleats were very worn, they might enter the pedal easily even with the tension adjuster set to a high force. With new cleats I would suggest that setting the tension low, and then increasing it as necessary would be the thing to do.

The other thing I have seen happen is that people take spd pedals apart and mix up the parts so that the LH pedal has most of the RH spindle in it, and vice-versa. This has a similar effect to fitting the cleats backwards on the shoes.

cheers

Part of a favourite route of mine being a canal tow-path, I like worn cleats. Can't swim with bike attached.

Re cleats, I thank you for all your replies, I have put the old cleats back on they are fine. When I compared the new to the old there Is a ridge at the back of the cleat on the top of the chamfer which probably stops them engaging. This ridge is missing on the old ones. I bought the new ones off eBay I strongly suspect they are cheap copies. "let the buyer beware".

any pictures of the offending items?

cheers

Audax67 wrote:Part of a favourite route of mine being a canal tow-path, I like worn cleats. Can't swim with bike attached.

I find that when my SPD cleats are worn, clipping out becomes noticeably harder and less predictable. Then I know it's time for new cleats.
They do seem to last well though.

I'm running some genuine SH56 cleats (or likely to be they were bought from a well known chain of cycle shops) fitted this year & they work faultlessly with 3 pairs of M-520 pedals (the newest ones are 2010 vintage, the oldest mid 90s). The SH51 cleats of various ages in other shoes also work fine with all of the pedals.

Rick.

Sorry can't upload photo from iPad it is to large.

Des49 wrote:

Audax67 wrote:Part of a favourite route of mine being a canal tow-path, I like worn cleats. Can't swim with bike attached.

I find that when my SPD cleats are worn, clipping out becomes noticeably harder and less predictable. Then I know it's time for new cleats.
They do seem to last well though.

I find worn cleats release OK from most shimano pedals but become rather obstinate when used in many knock-off pedals. I think that the difference is the 'kicker ramps' in shimano pedals; these are absent in most knock-offs. Once there is a groove in the back of the cleat, you need the kicker ramps to help the cleat out when you twist.

What exact model of pedal and cleat are you using? Do your worn cleats have grooves in the back?

cheers

bazzo wrote:Sorry can't upload photo from iPad it is to large.

two solutions to this

1) put photo on a hosting site and then post a link to it or

2) create a smaller version (<~200kB I think) using a suitable program and post that as an attachment.

For the latter purpose I use 'FastStone Photo Resizer' (freeware) but there are many others.

cheers