Lifespan of Cleats

Russell Smith

How long /and or how many rides should a set of cleats last for on average.

Cheers In Advance


Russ

azzerb

Depends how much you walk in them etc. I'd say 6-12months.

Crapaud

azzerb wrote:

Depends how much you walk in them etc. I'd say 6-12months.

Depends on which type of shoes. My last pair of shoes gave up the ghost before the cleats. I'd had them for at least 6 years and commuted 6 days a week, regular Sunday runs, extra training runs and crossing a continent. Eventually the sole cracked, but the cleats were fine. The shoes had recessed cleats.

deal

i have had the same pair of spd (mtb version) cleats on my shoes for over 3 years, i use them on my both mtb and road bikes, cant stand hobbling about in proper road shoes

McBain_v1

Shimano SPD-SL cleats do not last long if you do any amount of walking, even if its from your bike to the cafe :?

Gussio

I have a paid of recessed SPDs that have been going strong on the daily commute for almost 10 years. On my third pair of pedals in that time, the shoes are a little smelly, but the cleats are fine.

On the road bike I went through a pair of Look Keo cleats in a matter of weeks, but only because a chunk snapped off when I walked through a patch of gravel :? replacements have been fine for more than a year and they are showing no sign of needing to be replaced.

Horses for courses I guess.

nickwill

I get about 2-3 months or 1200-1800 miles out of a set of Look Keo cleats. They are then completely shot!

master_grunthos

I use standard SPDs for road use and find that they wear out fast, only a few months of commuting. It's the nose of the cleat that wears first and you can actually see where it's worn away. This is mainly down to wlaking i expect as the left wears much faster than the right as this is the one I unclip and put on the kerb at lights and junctions and also gets clipped in and out more often.

Friends have said they never wear theirs out so it could also be down to pedalling style as SPDs have float some riders may tend to grind them side to side with each stroke hence causing wear.

I think walking is the main issue though as ones in my Sidi Dominators wear much faster than my touring shoes which offer more protection to the cleat when walking.

Expensive little items aren't they though.

redddraggon

master_grunthos wrote:

I use standard SPDs for road use and find that they wear out fast, only a few months of commuting.

Same here. I fitted SPD-SL cleats to my commuting shoes and weekend shoes at the same time - my commuting ones have nearly worn out. I do about 60 miles on pairs of shoes each week, but I do a hell of a lot more unclipping and clipping in while commuting. I should really have used MTB cleats/pedals/shoes for commuting, but it's too late now, I've only got 4 commutes left.

master_grunthos wrote:

Expensive little items aren't they though.

I know! I find that the pedals (inc cleats) aren't that much more expensive than just the cleats, so I tend to buy a new set of 105s - wasteful I know!

wastelander

My SPD-SLs wore out after about 3500 miles but that was mostly down to them wearing out through walking to/from garage, across car park etc rather than wearing out any contact point with the pedal.

One the other hand, my SPDs are still going strong after god knows how long/how many miles.

Let's face it, a recessed cleat will always outlast an exposed cleat.

Monty Dog

For SPD MTB cleats when worn they become increasingly hard to release, whereas for most road cleats they become sloppier and more inclined to release. Look and SPD-SLs don't last too long because the engagement parts are plastic whereas Time literally last years because the engagement parts are bronze and don't get worn down by walking. Clearly, it also depends on how much walking you do in the cleats, rather than the amount of pedalling you do.