Quick Cleat Fitting Question

Secteur

I have just received my Shimano PD-R540 pedals & cleats.

I also have Specialized Sport shoes, which are compatable.

How tightly do I screw the cleat onto the shoe - do I leave it slightly loose to allow the "float", or should they be firmly affixed to the sole of the shoe?

I dont have a torque wrench, so I have just fixed them firmly but without obviously over-tightening the bolts.

Is that right?

Ben6899

Firmly fixed to the shoe. The float is between the pedal and the cleat; NOT the cleat and the shoe.

T-Rekster

Tighter than I did, would be an over simplistic answer I suppose.

however tight you make them, take it from one who learn't the hard way & check them on a regular basis. extremely loose cleats make it exceptionally difficult to detach, to find this out when you have just come to a stop only results in a mess on the road, as I recently found out....


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Secteur

OK I will give them a good crank!

I plan to play around with them tonight and see if I can get them set up right.

Cleat Eastwood

check them every couple of weeks they do tend to work a bit loose.

Pross

If you do them too loosely they will just keep turning when you are trying to unclip - not something you want to happen!

ShutUpLegs

Secteur wrote:

OK I will give them a good crank!

No, that would be too tight

ForumNewbie

Secteur wrote:

I have just received my Shimano PD-R540 pedals & cleats.

I also have Specialized Sport shoes, which are compatable.

I have also received new PD-M540 pedals today to use with my Specialized shoes, for my Audax bike. I think the cleats need to be reasonably tight, but I am wondering whether it will be easier to unclip with the cleats positioned nearer the toe end than the heel end of the shoe (there is a 20mm range in which you can position them on the shoe). I will experiment with them tomorrow and see what seems best.

The strange thing I found is that the instructions say that as they are single release cleats you can only twist them outwards to release them, but I found with previous M520s I had, that I could release easier by twisting my heel inwards. i found that when I was cruising up to a junction and my right pedal was at the top of the crank arc, it was easier for me to release my foot by twisting my heel inwards towards the bike. I posted on here before about this and was advised that although they are called single release you can release both ways - just not upwards like multi-release ones. Seems funny that the Shimano instructions don't say so.

nickel

ForumNewbie wrote:

Secteur wrote:

I have just received my Shimano PD-R540 pedals & cleats.

I also have Specialized Sport shoes, which are compatable.

I have also received new PD-M540 pedals today to use with my Specialized shoes, for my Audax bike. I think the cleats need to be reasonably tight, but I am wondering whether it will be easier to unclip with the cleats positioned nearer the toe end than the heel end of the shoe (there is a 20mm range in which you can position them on the shoe). I will experiment with them tomorrow and see what seems best.

The strange thing I found is that the instructions say that as they are single release cleats you can only twist them outwards to release them, but I found with previous M520s I had, that I could release easier by twisting my heel inwards. i found that when I was cruising up to a junction and my right pedal was at the top of the crank arc, it was easier for me to release my foot by twisting my heel inwards towards the bike. I posted on here before about this and was advised that although they are called single release you can release both ways - just not upwards like multi-release ones. Seems funny that the Shimano instructions don't say so.

The cleat should be positioned so the ball of your foot is over the pedal axel. Ive also found that I can unclip the M520s on my mountain bike by turning my heel inwards.