Shimano PD A520 pedals

davman

Evening

can anyone who has a pair of the above pedals (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... g%20Pedals) confirm the distance from the centre of the cleat system to the crank arm.

My reason for asking is that i've recently moved to using SPD's on my winter bike (in advance of becoming a commuting cyclist in about 3 weeks time due to moving) to enable easier walking. However, the SPD's i fitted have resulted in a bit of knee ache (right knee). I've never had problems with my knees, either on the road or MTB, so it's a bit of a bind, but obviously something i want to resolve.

On measuring the SPD's i've been using, they were 5mm longer than the Look's previously on the bike, so i'm assuming this has contributed to the problem.

Cheers in advance

Simon

Dunedin397

I'll try and check this for you tomorrow, as my partner has a set of these on her Trek 1000. However I'm slightly confused as you seem to be wanting the width but you mention the length may be a problem. I'd be surprised by this as I also use SPD-SL pedals and shoes any they're much bigger than SPD, so I'm not sure why the physical size of the cleat would cause you problems.

I'd suggest really looking at how you've got the cleats positioned on the shoes, both in terms of fore\aft and left\right position but also how the cleats are angled. Make sure you know how your feet point, straight, toe inwards or outwards? Angle the cleats to suit. As an example, I've my left foot toeing outwards more than my right foot, so I need to angle the cleats to suit.

Dunedin

ean

About 55mm from the outside of the crank arm to the center of the cleat. Which is about the same as a M520.

davman

ean

thanks for the measurement, which is the same as the spd's i was using which were contributing to the issues i had with my right knee.

Dunedin, thanks for you comments, i did actually stop and re-position the cleats on my right shoe three times on Saturday to try and make things a little more comfortable. However, it didn't have the desired effect. I've never had problems with setting up cleats (on any pedal system) and have always had both shoes set the same as regards cleat position. I don't have any major differences between my right and left shoes as regards cleat position

Thanks

Simon

djb1971

Time atac pedals have a good angular/lateral float that can help with knee problems caused by other spd pedals, maybe worth a try

I use them on all of my bikes

Smokin Joe

By coincidence, I recently fitted a pair of SPD's to one of my bikes and also had a problem with my right knee twinging, in my case during out of the saddle climbs. I had the pedals set up so there was no restriction on the float and I put it down to the fact that the narrower platform was allowing my foot to roll over the outside edge of the pedal and causing a strain on the knee.

Switching back to the wider road type clipless pedals cured the problem immediatly.

Dunedin397

Smokin Joe wrote:

By coincidence, I recently fitted a pair of SPD's to one of my bikes and also had a problem with my right knee twinging, in my case during out of the saddle climbs. I had the pedals set up so there was no restriction on the float and I put it down to the fact that the narrower platform was allowing my foot to roll over the outside edge of the pedal and causing a strain on the knee.

Switching back to the wider road type clipless pedals cured the problem immediatly.

I'm in no way an expert, but I was trying to figure out why your foot would roll. Whilst float is a great feature to have, I think there can be too much of a good thing. Certainly the wider road cleats, such as Look and SPD-SL, mean the shoe has less scope to roll, but I wouldn't have thought smaller cleats would allow a big problem like that. Perhaps the answer was to have less float?

Dunedin

Dunedin397

davman wrote:

ean

thanks for the measurement, which is the same as the spd's i was using which were contributing to the issues i had with my right knee.

Dunedin, thanks for you comments, i did actually stop and re-position the cleats on my right shoe three times on Saturday to try and make things a little more comfortable. However, it didn't have the desired effect. I've never had problems with setting up cleats (on any pedal system) and have always had both shoes set the same as regards cleat position. I don't have any major differences between my right and left shoes as regards cleat position

Thanks

Simon

Just in case you didn't know, there's a couple of types of Shimano SPD cleat and there's also at least 1 other manufacturer that makes SPD compatible pedals and cleats.

Shimano SH51cleats only allow you to clip out by twisting the heel outwards.

Shimano SH56 cleats allow you to clip out by twisting the heel outwards, inwards or upwards.

Perhaps check which cleats you have and maybe try the other model?

Dunedin

Smokin Joe

Dunedin397 wrote:

Smokin Joe wrote:

By coincidence, I recently fitted a pair of SPD's to one of my bikes and also had a problem with my right knee twinging, in my case during out of the saddle climbs. I had the pedals set up so there was no restriction on the float and I put it down to the fact that the narrower platform was allowing my foot to roll over the outside edge of the pedal and causing a strain on the knee.

Switching back to the wider road type clipless pedals cured the problem immediatly.

I'm in no way an expert, but I was trying to figure out why your foot would roll. Whilst float is a great feature to have, I think there can be too much of a good thing. Certainly the wider road cleats, such as Look and SPD-SL, mean the shoe has less scope to roll, but I wouldn't have thought smaller cleats would allow a big problem like that. Perhaps the answer was to have less float?

Dunedin

What I meant by "Roll" is that the narrower pedal allows the foot to overhang the outside edge of the pedal and my foot was twisting down over that edge when i was out of the saddle. I can't think of any other reason I had a problem, like I said it went immediately I went back to road pedals.