carleton

I run 0-float Shimano SPD-SL cleats. My shoes are Fizik R1 and R3.

I know exactly where I like my cleat placed and where I want my foot on the pedal. I've painted an outline of the position on the sole of my shoe. I run my cleats as far back as they will go on the shoe. After almost every ride, my cleat will have moved forward and/or twisted some amount.

I've tried:
- Blue Loctite
- Carbon fiber grit paste between the cleat and sole.
- Using the long, phillips-head bolts that come optional for Speedplays (for people who use shims). These provide more thread purchase than the stubby bolts that come with Shimano cleats.

These have all helped, but they still don't hold 100%. After every ride, I can take the screwdriver and tighten them some small amount as they have loosened a bit during the ride. If I forget, they will come loose during the next ride.

Any suggestions? Do I need to nail my cleats to the soles of my shoes?

Thanks

MrTuner1970

Maybe apply a little Teflon grease to the bolt threads? It will allow a bit more tightening.

gerundium

some sandpaper to roughen up the sole and make the cleat grip a bit more? I have Sidi's and SPD-SL pedals and i must say i haven't encountered this problem. I have the cleats tightened down pretty hard though.

Racer Ex 

First thing I'd do is check the bolt length. Make sure you have full engagement and that the bolt isn't stopped by the mounting plate. You may need to get even longer ones.

As suggested sand the bottom of the shoe, AND the cleat. Then clean everything thoroughly with alcohol or lacquer thinner, including the mounting plate and bolts.

Blue Loctite both the plate and the bolt, or you can try some high-temp silicone sealer (see Pep Boys); it's possible that the sweat or sweat residue is creating an issue with the Loctite, I used the high temp on some motorcycle bits that I couldn't get to stick other wise.

Also take a look to make sure the cleat is flat on the bottom and produces full contact with the shoe.

I tighten mine REALLY tight.

Brian Ratliff

Isn't there some sort of grippy sticker you can put onto the bottom of the shoe to solve this problem? If the plastic of the cleat isn't hard enough for the little peg stubs on the back of the cleat to penetrate the shoe sole, then simply roughing up the cleat and shoe won't help much.

Some really strong double stick tape might do the trick as well. You are trying to keep the cleat from moving due to shear force; adhesives are good at shear.

It's possible that you are bottoming out the bolts as well.

MrTuner1970

Campy cleats have a piece of adhesive-backed sandpaper in the shape of the cleat. Should be possible to make your own for Shimano. Maybe look in Lowes or Home Depot for the sandpaper that various electric sanding tools use. I think some come with adhesive backing. Not totally sure. 80-100 grit would be about what Campy uses.

ericm979

Standard SPD-SL bolts are 8mm long. They also come in 10 and 12mm.

You could use skateboard grip tape on the shoe. Or cleat, that might be easier.

I have to tighten up my SPD-SL cleat screws a couple times after I install cleats. They seem to loosen up. I crank them down pretty hard, using a t-handle allen wrench. And they still loosen up. I don't recommend using loctite for these. The problem seems to be the cleat compressing (or shoe sole compressing under the inserts), not the screws loosening.

If your screws aren't long enough get some longer ones. But mostly I think it's going to be tightening the screws enough in the first place and keeping on them for a while until the no longer need to be tightened.

carpediemracing 

Sort of OT but when I tightened my Keo cleats pretty firmly they just cracked. Now I snug them but don't crank them.

I think the sandpaper/adhesive idea would work well.

Also it seems that it's an isolated problem. I don't know what the cleat interface looks like but the SPD-R cleats (metal cleats) had so little surface area contacting the shoe that you normally had more force holding the cleat in the pedal than the cleat on the shoe. It was way too easy to move the cleat instead of clipping out. On that cleat I really tightened the heck out of the cleat bolts.

carleton

Thanks, guys for the suggestions.

I'll double check the length of the screws. I'll make sure that I'm getting plenty of threads biting. I'll try the grip tape and teflon grease.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks, again!

waterrockets 

One note, I once had bolts that were too long and pushed my insoles up in three bumps into my foot. That was on early-90s-era Diadoras, so I'm not sure it's possible with modern shoe construction.

Dolamite02

Hey Carl, one other thing to look at, is to make sure you're tightening to spec, and re-checking the bolts after initially tightening them. If the cleat or something else flexes a little, you could tighten the first bolt, then 2nd and 3rd, but by the time you're done, the cleat has depressed slightly resulting in a slightly loosened 1st bolt. Remember your bolt tightening patterns.

kensuf

I needed longer bolts with SPD-SL's and my Sidi's.

Number400

Mine are so tight that when I went to replace the cleats, there were bumps on the sole outlining were the old cleats were. The new ones lined right up and I cranked them down again. I do make them tight, very tight.

carleton

UPDATE:

As Racer Ex suggested, I checked to see if the screws were bottoming-out. I put the screw in with no cleat and what do you know, it bottomed out with maybe 3mm of space for the cleat. So, that could have been the culprit. I thought that using longer screws would help, but they may have did me in.

Back in 2009 I bought some Sidis and they came with some weird 3M stickers that I never used. I was digging in my toolbox and stumbled across them today. What luck! It's simply 3M Safety Walk tape cut in the shape of a cleat's footprint (no pun intended) on the sole of the shoe.



https://www.shop3m.com/70070543494.ht...-Purpose-Tread
(I'm sure that this is the same as skateboard grip tape. Feels the same.)

So, installed that tape along with some teflon on the standard Shimano bolts. I stuck the tape to the sole of the shoe with the rough side out for contact with the cleat.

I'll let you guys know if it worked. Thanks so much for the suggestions. This has been an on-going problem for me for a long time.

terrymorse 

Correct. The plastic cleat and/or the plastic shoe sole slowly deform under pressure. It's perfectly natural for cleats to need re-tightening soon after they are first installed. Loctite's not a bad idea on cleat screws, though. In case you forget to re-tighten the screws, at least the Loctite will prevent them from falling out.