****ing right cleat

chrisaonabike

Aargh, this is driving me nuts. :roll:

I have Shimano M324 pedals with flats one side and SPD the other.

I have a pair of Spesh Tahoe Sport shoes.

Love 'em both - love the flexibility of being able to use trainers on the flats if I want, and the shoes fit like a dream.

I've fitted the cleats as near as dammit the same on both sides, and I've adjusted the tension as near as dammit the same on both pedals (almost as loose as they'll go).

I spent ****ing ages on a nice quiet road clipping in and out about a thousand times each foot.

However...

... whereas I can clip in left absolutely peasy - offer foot, click, bobs a jobber, can I find the clip with my right foot? Can I feck :evil: . I'm poking about at it, wobbling about like a muppet, and then it goes in by accident.

Any obvious thing I might have stuffed up? Never used clipless before, love em once I'm in - I can even get them out easily. But the right cleat is doing my head in.

Grr. Other than "ride on the flat side you berk", all suggestions welcome.

Sprool

did you check you have your shoes on the correct feet?

Buckled_Rims

The bearings in 1 pedal might just be slacker/tighter (delete as appropriate) then the other. That happened to my SPD-SL 105 pedals. The was a fault happened on the right bearing after a few hundred miles. the left was smooth, but the right was tight. However, the nature of the pedals meant it wasn't noticable clicking in and out. I'd imagine if the same problem happened on M324 (Yes, I have a pair I used for commuting years ago - still have somewhere in the house) it would be annoying.

chrisaonabike

Sprool wrote:

did you check you have your shoes on the correct feet?

God, are they different??? :shock:

chrisaonabike

Buckled_Rims wrote:

The bearings in 1 pedal might just be slacker/tighter (delete as appropriate) then the other.

No, I don't mean that. I can get the pedal the right way round easily enough. Somehow I just can't get the right foot to line up (cleat to clip) as easily as I can the left one.

So I'm fumbling, trying to find the right place. It seems natural with the left foot, but I just can't coordinate the right.

Eventually it goes in, but I invariably fail to clip in just when it's a PITA with the traffic etc. Usually I'm quite well coordinated, but I'm starting to have serious doubts.

Just wondering if there could be anything actually wrong with the clip or the cleat - I've looked at them and can't see any obvious difference, thought maybe someone would have come across this before. Not that I rule out being the single most incompetent user of clipless pedals, of course. :roll:

millsey_awm

Being a newb myself it might get better as you go along. Of course there may be a fault with something that i dont know about.

I have the cleat only shimano r540 road pedals and sometimes i'm forever faffing trying to get them in. Sometimes they all go fine but at other times they go like toast falling butter side down! And like you its proanly always at traffic lights when there's an audience.

I've only been using Cleats meself about 2 months but i try not to beat meself up if i have any 'clipping' issues. One thing i have noticed is that i now anticipate traffic lights more so if possible i dont have to unclip.

May be the experts on here can shed any light as to whether you do have a problem with yours or not.

chrisaonabike

millsey_awm wrote:

One thing i have noticed is that i now anticipate traffic lights more so if possible i dont have to unclip.

There is that. I may be completely shite at clipping in, but I'm getting very good at riding verrrrrry slowwwwwwwwwwly.

chrisaonabike

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

I'm poking about at it, wobbling about like a muppet, and then it goes in by accident.

BTW, just to forestall any helpful comments regarding this line, I'm talking about the cleat here. No, I do mean cleat.

NewTTer

So just leave you right foot clipped in, and un clip with your left foot when you need to stop at lights etc, which as we drive / ride on the left is fairly intuitive anyway

desweller

Are both pedals set to the same tension? Are they both equally easy to unclip?

chrisaonabike

DesWeller wrote:

Are both pedals set to the same tension? Are they both equally easy to unclip?

Hmm... I wound the Allen key all the way out, and then back a quarter turn, so the intention was to have them the same, at virtually the loosest setting.

But I guess the right one (ie the one I keep failing to clip in) is marginally easier to unclip. Should I tighten it up a bit so that it feels the same?

dhobiwallah

Have you tried eliminating a manufacturing defect /wear(if you didn't get them new) on the cleat by swapping them over and seeing if the problem remains on the right or transfers to the left?

chrisaonabike

dhobiwallah wrote:

Have you tried eliminating a manufacturing defect /wear(if you didn't get them new) on the cleat by swapping them over and seeing if the problem remains on the right or transfers to the left?

No :oops:

They were new, but it's definitely worth a try. Ta

chrisaonabike

DesWeller wrote:

Are both pedals set to the same tension? Are they both equally easy to unclip?

I tightened up the offending pedal a quarter turn, and although it now needs a little more force to get in and out, somehow it's also a lot easier.

It might have been quite a while before I thought of that, since I was assuming that because it was looser, it would be easier to get in and out.

So... grateful thanks to Des, it was really starting to get on my tits.

SaintMark

Sounds like you've got your solution, but I have another suggestion.

You said you've set them up to be the same as each other - this might be part of the problem. The human body is not symetrical and there are small differences between left and right sides, they need setting up individually. You might find a couple of mm adjustment on the right side will help. The following method (eventually) worked for me:
1. Prop bike up somewhere where you can sit on it and pedal (not riding).
2. Clip in with the left foot.
3. Now close your eyes, relax and rest your right foot gently over the offending pedal, so it feels like you're in your natural riding position but not clipped in.
4. Slide your foot slowly left/right/forward/back to get it to engage. Do this slowly and you should be able to work out whether you just slid your foot forward, back, left or right to find the cleat (hard to guess when riding).
5. Adjust the cleat slightly, just 2-3mm, in the direction you identified, and see how that feels on a test ride. When you put weight on, the pedal should just click in without you thinking about it.

Worked for me. I found I had my cleats too far back, having come from MTB style riding my road position is a bit more toward the toes.

DesB3rd

And don't beat yourself up if it doesn't pan out; I had years not getting on with SPDs, several pedal types and a couple of shoes - like shuffling my foot in metal gravel until something that felt vaguely mechanical occured...