My first (and last) attempt at going clipless.

Bustacapp

So a while back I bought some Shimano A530 pedals(Ribble) which are platforms on one side and SPD on the other with the idea that one day I'd see what all the fuss was about with this clipless riding lark. So when I saw that Aldi were selling some dirt cheap SPD compatible shoes I decided to get some thinking that if I didn't like it, it would only be £20 wasted. I dule fitted the cleats and had a sit on my bike. The pedals (or so I thought) seemed to clip in and out very easily. I thought to myself "nice and loose, I'll leave it like that and go for a little ride round the block before I decide to tighten them up". So off I went down the road. I was getting annoyed a bit about the shoes coming away to easily and thought to myself "are they actually in properly?". So I applied a bit of pressure and then heard a very solid "CLICK" on each pedal. It seems that when I thought the pedals were attached loosely, they weren't attached at all - but now they were. So I decided to see how easy it is to take the shoes off the pedals which was when it became horrifyingly clear to me that the pedals wouldn't release at all. I effectively became a part of the bike. Unfortunately I only realised this whilst facing heavy oncoming traffic from the East Lancs as I was trying to make a turn in the middle of the road. There was nothing to fall on to except cars whizzing each way. Fortunately I kept my cool and managed a track stand just long enough for the last oncoming car to pass and managed to turn into a quiet street. I dread to think what would have happened if there were more cars to come.

I gingerly rode back home and still could not get the cleats to release from the pedals. I ended up having to rip my feet from the pedals using brute force, tearing the sole clean away from the cleats which remained stuck in the pedals which destroyed the 2 sets of holes in the cleat plate thing. I managed to pry the cleats out with a screwdriver and decided to reverse the cleat plate and attempt to adjust the pedals all they way to the '-' setting (rounding off the hex bolt in the process). Guess what? It made no difference whatsoever and I had to rip the shoes from the pedals again.

So now I have a completely destroyed pair of cycling shoes and useless SPD pedals. Do you think Aldi will refund me for my shoes?


In b4 karma.

sloppyschleckonds

No.

imposter2.0

looks like you didn't tighten the cleats enough..

fludey

So I'm guessing you left the bolts lose!!! :shock:

If the bolts are lose how on earth did you ever expect the cleat to twist and release!

I think you will be very lucky to get any money back as it is clearly customer error!

It's a shame if this has put you off clip in shoes, as if you had tightened the bolts properly you would have had no trouble in twisting your foot and the cleat releasing.

Bustacapp

Imposter wrote:

looks like you didn't tighten the cleats enough..

They were tightened appropriately. The shoe just did not budge from the clip.

MountainMonster

Definitely sounds like the cleats weren't tightened up enough. I've had my cleats slide all around on the bottom of my shoe before, which does suck.

You do know you disengage them by twisting your heel away from the bike? It is your first time trying the so you can't expect everything to be perfect.

Bustacapp

fludey wrote:

So I'm guessing you left the bolts lose!!! :shock:

If the bolts are lose how on earth did you ever expect the cleat to twist and release!

I think you will be very lucky to get any money back as it is clearly customer error!

It's a shame if this has put you off clip in shoes, as if you had tightened the bolts properly you would have had no trouble in twisting your foot and the cleat releasing.

erm.... the bolts were tightened to the max.

Bustacapp

MountainMonster wrote:

You do know you disengage them by twisting your heel away from the bike? It is your first time trying the so you can't expect everything to be perfect.

Yes. I didn't expect it to be perfect but I did expect the shoe to eventually seperate from the pedal.

I think the pedals are at fault.

imposter2.0

Bustacapp wrote:

Imposter wrote:

looks like you didn't tighten the cleats enough..

They were tightened appropriately. The shoe just did not budge from the clip.

if they had been tightened 'appropriately' (ie correctly) then the serrations on the cleat would have left an imprint in the sole of the shoe. The fact that there is no imprint visible (other than the damage incurred while twisting the cleat off) suggests that the cleats were not tightened sufficiently.

imposter2.0

Bustacapp wrote:

I think the pedals are at fault.

SPD is a 30-year old design which is both proven and 'fool-proof' - the pedals are not at fault.

NeXXus

Bustacapp wrote:

So a while back I bought some Shimano A530 pedals(Ribble) which are platforms on one side and SPD on the other with the idea that one day I'd see what all the fuss was about with this clipless riding lark. So when I saw that Aldi were selling some dirt cheap SPD compatible shoes I decided to get some thinking that if I didn't like it, it would only be £20 wasted. I dule fitted the cleats and had a sit on my bike. The pedals (or so I thought) seemed to clip in and out very easily. I thought to myself "nice and loose, I'll leave it like that and go for a little ride round the block before I decide to tighten them up". So off I went down the road. I was getting annoyed a bit about the shoes coming away to easily and thought to myself "are they actually in properly?". So I applied a bit of pressure and then heard a very solid "CLICK" on each pedal. It seems that when I thought the pedals were attached loosely, they weren't attached at all - but now they were. So I decided to see how easy it is to take the shoes off the pedals which was when it became horrifyingly clear to me that the pedals wouldn't release at all. I effectively became a part of the bike. Unfortunately I only realised this whilst facing heavy oncoming traffic from the East Lancs as I was trying to make a turn in the middle of the road. There was nothing to fall on to except cars whizzing each way. Fortunately I kept my cool and managed a track stand just long enough for the last oncoming car to pass and managed to turn into a quiet street. I dread to think what would have happened if there were more cars to come.

I gingerly rode back home and still could not get the cleats to release from the pedals. I ended up having to rip my feet from the pedals using brute force, tearing the sole clean away from the cleats which remained stuck in the pedals which destroyed the 2 sets of holes in the cleat plate thing. I managed to pry the cleats out with a screwdriver and decided to reverse the cleat plate and attempt to adjust the pedals all they way to the '-' setting (rounding off the hex bolt in the process). Guess what? It made no difference whatsoever and I had to rip the shoes from the pedals again.

So now I have a completely destroyed pair of cycling shoes and useless SPD pedals. Do you think Aldi will refund me for my shoes?


In b4 karma.

Bustacapp

Imposter wrote:

if they had been tightened 'appropriately' (ie correctly) then the serrations on the cleat would have left an imprint in the sole of the shoe. The fact that there is no imprint visible (other than the damage incurred while twisting the cleat off) suggests that the cleats were not tightened sufficiently.

They were tightened until they didn't tighten any more without me putting what I (and most other normal people I suspect) would believe to be excessive force.

Ben6899

The cleat bolts weren't tight enough. Then again, you didn't come here looking for advice so I'll pipe down.

TakeTurns

The fact that you stated you managed to pull the shoe off from the cleat goes to show they were loose.

craker

It's not clear whether you were using the correct technique to unclip (twisting your ankle outwards).

Anyway, this did happen to me once when I got some new SPDs. I set off on my way to work, got to a junction and failed to unclip. I'm a seasoned enough user to know when this should happen, so I cycled round in a circle for a bit trying and trying again. Eventually I just fell over sideways, sticking my arm out to ensure a dignified landing. I took my shoes off while they were attached to the bike (don't tri types keep their shoes attached to their bikes?) and was able to use a decent force with my hands to unclip them.

Basically the release force screw was wound way too tight. One allen key later, I set off for work again.

Are your shoes properly broke? (I'm sure bolt plates can be sourced from somewhere). Have another go ... somewhere safe.

englander

I'm literally just putting my socks in in preparation for my first clipless ride! Although I'm just going to check my cleats are on tight, and that I've fully loosed (all!) the bits on the pedals.

imposter2.0

Bustacapp wrote:

Imposter wrote:

if they had been tightened 'appropriately' (ie correctly) then the serrations on the cleat would have left an imprint in the sole of the shoe. The fact that there is no imprint visible (other than the damage incurred while twisting the cleat off) suggests that the cleats were not tightened sufficiently.

They were tightened until they didn't tighten any more without me putting what I (and most other normal people I suspect) would believe to be excessive force.

The evidence in the pics you posted suggests they were not tight enough, for the reasons stated above. If they had been tight, they would have left imprint marks on the sole. There are no marks visible. You clearly think you did them tight enough, but the actual evidence suggest otherwise.

Ben6899

As a pointer. When I attach KEO cleats, I tighten until the Allen key starts to bend a little.

seanoconn

Englander wrote:

I'm literally just putting my socks in in preparation for my first clipless ride! Although I'm just going to check my cleats are on tight, and that I've fully loosed (all!) the bits on the pedals.

And practice somewhere quiet first

seanoconn

And don't try and unclip on a hill (as I did )

antfly

Did you loosen the pedal as much as as it would go first, it sounds like it was on it's tightest setting ? You were obviously doing something wrong as spd pedals are easy to get out of. You can also get multi-release cleats which come out even easier. Also, you could have just removed the shoes from your feet when you got home instead of ripping them off the pedal.

shadow4532

or it could be that the mounting plate was made of toffee?

englander

seanoconn wrote:

Englander wrote:

I'm literally just putting my socks in in preparation for my first clipless ride! Although I'm just going to check my cleats are on tight, and that I've fully loosed (all!) the bits on the pedals.

And practice somewhere quiet first

Absolutely, I've completed the training session in my kitchen doorway and I'm going to move up to the roads around my housing estate (no traffic at all) and then head off to the back roads.

rolf_f

Bustacapp wrote:

I ended up having to rip my feet from the pedals using brute force, tearing the sole clean away from the cleats which remained stuck in the pedals which destroyed the 2 sets of holes in the cleat plate thing.

You see this sort of thing is why nobody takes you seriously. Anyone with any common sense would, instead of ripping their feet from the pedals, have just released the Velcro and taken their foot out of the shoe (you could do that whilst still moving!), had a nice cup of tea and worked out less destructively what they were doing wrong.

How on earth you managed to break the strip of plastic that runs between the cleat bolts on the right shoe I have no idea - if the cleat remains attached to the pedal, but not to the bolt holes, then the sole should be untouched largely - the damage would only be to the bolt holes. You'd only damage the sole if you ripped the entire plate out but that doesn't seem to have happened in the pics. But you really need to control your temper a bit. As has been said already, the shoes were not at fault and the pedals were not at fault. When you were trying to unclip - did your foot swivel but not release or was your foot held pretty tightly with only a little twist available?

FWIW, the cleat bolt holes on these shoes (or at least the earlier ones) are a little delicate and can split if overtightened. But, as I've said elsewhere they are capable of lasting many thousands of miles so they can be correctly tightened.

Still, 10 out of 10 for actually managing to wreck both the shoes and pedals in one go. I hope your job doesn't involve you operating machinery.....

amaferanga

I wonder if the bolt bottomed out so that even though it was well torqued, the cleat wasn't actually firmly held in place.

Still, no point in having a tantrum.

Jon_1976

The common practice, intact it's common sense, to spend 20 minutes practicing clipping in and out (with both feet) several times before going out.
There's no way the screws were tightened enough. Ripping the shoe off the cleat was a pretty daft thing to do, you could have pulled up alongside a wall, fence, etc, leant on it and undo the shoe. That way you could have used a less destructive way of parting the shoe and pedal.

ct8282

Giving up on clipless is a daft reaction to this. The benefits of clipless speaks for itself.

I do understand your pain though, and in fact everyone here probably does. For anyone to say they haven't had that 'oh fu*k' moment when you haven't managed to release your foot and the bike is starting to fall is a liar. We've all been there, and its usually on the first few goes of riding clipless until you become experienced enough to be able to unclip yourself in an instant. During my MTB days I had a number of falls on concrete and into bloody great swamps when my bike got bogged and I didn't unclip in time. Much to the amusement of my riding group of course.

The reality is it does take a little getting used to, like anything new. Surely the fact that a significant percentage of people who ride more seriously than your average commuter or leisure rider all use clipless tells you something? Its not that hard, and as stated earlier if you get stuck just shimmy alongside a wall or other stationary object and free yourself then.

What's that well known saying? Something about a horse.....

Bustacapp

Good news! Aldi gave me my money back in the form of a £20 note so I've actually made a 1p profit from this ordeal.

I now intend to spend the lot of it on ale!!

Cleat Eastwood

And a useful tip - since you have a favoured foot to unclip with why not do a test ride wearing traineys on one foot and cleats on the unclipping foot.

BTW those cleats were my first ever set and I found it easier to unclip by turning my foot inwards.

Glad you're over the panic though it is a scary thing when that happens.

canny_lad

Don't give up on clipless. I went from M520 to A520 SPD's and the A520's are more difficult to unclip from IMO. I have the tension turned right down and they still need a fair bit of force to get out of them.

CiB

ct8282 wrote:

For anyone to say they haven't had that 'oh fu*k' moment when you haven't managed to release your foot and the bike is starting to fall is a liar.

I'm a liar then. 8)

Seriously, this view that no-one on the planet can take to clipless without at least one and probably three guaranteed topples is so defeatist. It involves nothing more than a bit of thought & maybe a bit of practice but it really doesn't follow that everyone who tries clips is unable to retain the awareness that stopping involves an additional action. And after not very long it's a natural instinct that happens without any need to involve the conciousness in the process.

OP - stop messing about. Something went wrong. The fact that there aren't piles of cyclists at junctions and stacks of discarded shoes & pedals at most bike shops would suggest that these things do work and the overwhelming majority of riders prefer them. You've had a poor experience and thrown everything out of the pram, but you'd do well to join in and find out why clipless is so much better.