Cycling shoe fettling
May. 25th, 2004 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
armbI tried some different cycling shoes for the first time this morning (not all the way from home, just from the Park and Ride - I did cycle all the way yesterday). The SPD cleats seem to be releasing the wrong way, but usable. I went via the Sustrans path by the river for a change, partly because it's quieter and I was unsure about the cleat release.
The shoes are Time Elans, which I bought from Halfords heavily reduced because they were discontinued, and possibly missing one of their adaptor plates (I say "possibly" because they came with two different inconsistent sets of instructions (which I might scan before I turn this into a Usenet post asking for suggestions, along with taking some photos)).
They are road shoes, with rigid soles not designed for walking any distance at all. (Similar to this, though the Time logo is different).
The illustration of the adaptor that might be missing shows it with a hole surrounding an SPD cleat bolted to the base of the shoe, giving a profile similar to my other shoes, but there's another adaptor that could take an SPD (or SPD-R) cleat bolted to it not directly to the shoe, looking a bit like Shimano's SM-SH85. But I don't have the pontoons, and didn't want to buy another set of cleats, so have tried cutting the Time adaptor plate into the shape of the adaptor that doesn't exist.
However the metal plates with threaded holes than an SPD cleat bolts onto wouldn't fit either inside the shoe, nor inside the adaptor that does exist, unless I ground one end of them off (which I have now done).
The cleats are SM-SH51's which are supposed to release when you twist your heel outwards, as shown here (though my pedals are actually the older M323's, not M324). But actually they seem to release much more easily twisting inwards (difficult at some points on the stroke). I tried taking off the cut up adaptor plate, but it didn't make any difference, so it's not just that catching somewhere. (I tried swapping the cleats between shoes too, though there is no L/R marking on them, and that didn't make a difference either.)
Tried the other adaptor plate - leaves cleats totally exposed and even less walkable in, and doesn't help (my current theory is that the recessed SPD fitting was replaced by a non-recessed SPD-R fitting (which also takes SPD) when SPD-R was introduced, and the instructions weren't updated.
Do to: try different pedals (on other bike), try different cleats (swapping with other shoes). I can probably get used to them as they are though. They aren't an obvious improvement on the other shoes, but that might be different if I was more confident in them. It does mean having another pair of shoes with me (or left at work previously), whereas the other shoes are wearable all day.
The shoes are Time Elans, which I bought from Halfords heavily reduced because they were discontinued, and possibly missing one of their adaptor plates (I say "possibly" because they came with two different inconsistent sets of instructions (which I might scan before I turn this into a Usenet post asking for suggestions, along with taking some photos)).
They are road shoes, with rigid soles not designed for walking any distance at all. (Similar to this, though the Time logo is different).
The illustration of the adaptor that might be missing shows it with a hole surrounding an SPD cleat bolted to the base of the shoe, giving a profile similar to my other shoes, but there's another adaptor that could take an SPD (or SPD-R) cleat bolted to it not directly to the shoe, looking a bit like Shimano's SM-SH85. But I don't have the pontoons, and didn't want to buy another set of cleats, so have tried cutting the Time adaptor plate into the shape of the adaptor that doesn't exist.
However the metal plates with threaded holes than an SPD cleat bolts onto wouldn't fit either inside the shoe, nor inside the adaptor that does exist, unless I ground one end of them off (which I have now done).
The cleats are SM-SH51's which are supposed to release when you twist your heel outwards, as shown here (though my pedals are actually the older M323's, not M324). But actually they seem to release much more easily twisting inwards (difficult at some points on the stroke). I tried taking off the cut up adaptor plate, but it didn't make any difference, so it's not just that catching somewhere. (I tried swapping the cleats between shoes too, though there is no L/R marking on them, and that didn't make a difference either.)
Tried the other adaptor plate - leaves cleats totally exposed and even less walkable in, and doesn't help (my current theory is that the recessed SPD fitting was replaced by a non-recessed SPD-R fitting (which also takes SPD) when SPD-R was introduced, and the instructions weren't updated.
Do to: try different pedals (on other bike), try different cleats (swapping with other shoes). I can probably get used to them as they are though. They aren't an obvious improvement on the other shoes, but that might be different if I was more confident in them. It does mean having another pair of shoes with me (or left at work previously), whereas the other shoes are wearable all day.
