General Cycling Discussion - From Clips To Cleats

Well, I finally did it; I converted to cleats. This was a huge step for me, as I had been riding with toe clips for over 25 years. Anyway, I did the deed today and converted my shoes and both my road bikes to cleat style pedals.

Now, I had been lead to believe that my biggest problem as a cleat-novice would be un-cleating at stoplights. I recall hearing many stories about cleat novices falling over when stopping at an intersection.

However, I found that getting out of cleats when stopped was a breeze! It takes some work to get out of toe clips at a stoplight, so twisting my foot to uncleat was no big deal.

But, cleating back into my pedals proved to be a bigger challenge than I had anticipated. Sometimes it takes several minutes of fiddling around to get cleated in. I know that this is not the norm, having watched thousands of people cleat in their pedals in a matter of seconds at the start of a century.

So, my question is: what is the dang secret to cleating into your pedals?????

Thank you,

Jason
Well, I finally did it; I converted to cleats. This was a huge step for me, as I had been riding with toe clips for over 25 years. Anyway, I did the deed today and converted my shoes and both my road bikes to cleat style pedals.

Now, I had been lead to believe that my biggest problem as cleat novice would be un-cleating at stoplights. I recall hearing many stories about cleat novices falling over when stopping at an intersection.

However, I found that getting out of cleats when stopped was a breeze! It takes some work to get out of toe clips at a stoplight, so twisting my foot to uncleat was no big deal.

But, cleating back into my pedals proved to be a bigger challenge than I had anticipated. Sometimes it takes several minutes of fiddling around to get cleated in. I know that this is not the norm, having watched thousands of people cleat in their pedals in a matter of seconds at the start of a century.

So, my question is: what is the dang secret to cleating into your pedals?????

Thank you,

Jason

Practice. I found the same problem, but as time goes on, it is getting better.

It will become natural with time.

KS

There is no secret, man. Practice, practice, and once again practice. Be patient - in a few weeks it will disapear from your problem list.

just keep riding them, you will discover the secret

PRACTICE. Also, I found it was easier to clip in when I took my time clipping in rather than trying to clip in as fast as I could. It was worth an extra 0.5 seconds to take my time, as opposed to trying 5 times to clip in.

Ok, thanks for the feedback.

I have a hard time knowing how far left/right and forward/aft I should move my foot in order to align the cleat with the pedal. Moreover, the pedal receptacle is a pretty small target.

But I'll keep practicing.


Jason

Reducing the tension screw on the cleats for the first few weeks and slowly upping the tension as you get comfortable till you find a tension you want to keep with is the route I've been going with my clipless pedals. Each week I go about a half turn tighter on the tension and think after next week I should have a good balance of resistance to accidental disengagement and ease of entry.

Good luck with clipless - I've been loving mine and just bought a second pair of pedals for my other bike.

A little bit of lubricant won't hurt either.

Something that won't crud up. I use graphite or White Lightning.

Practice clicking in and out of both feet (not at the same time obviously) so you can click out of either foot instinctively as the situation calls for when coming to a stop. You'll thank me later..... :D

It's unClipping not uncleating.

Sometimes it helps to almost stand on the pedal you are trying to clip in on for a split second. And you also push forward a little as you tread down. It usually works, although sometimes you sort of skate around on the pedal for a bit until you find precisely the right angle.

If it's taking you a long time for your foot to hunt for the pedal location, you might also try moving the cleat back/forth and/or your saddle back/forth so that when you step on the pedals, your feet are naturally where the cleats will interface the pedals.

What kind of pedals? I've been using regular spd pedals on a couple bikes ... everything was great. I added "campus pedals" to my Singlespeed run-around so I could use clips when I wanted or regular shoes. All of a sudden I just couldn't get my right foot in. Turned out that my mountain bike shoe's tread was interfering with the clip-in. I have an older pair of shoes w/ less intense tread that work just great. I think this would only be an issue with the campus pedal (which has a cage around the spd part).

So, if practice and moving the cleat around don't help. Maybe, just maybe, you need to trim a little more tread from near your cleat on the shoe.