AngryScientist 

i think i have to pick up a different grade of threadlocker tonight, i keep losing the screws out of my speedplay cleats despite religiously checking their tightness in the detents in the cleat.

anyone else having this problem?

merlinextraligh

Yes. It didn't end well.

Dr. Banzai

Nope. No threadlocker either. Never lost one.

DScott

Never had problems with the cleat screws. My experience has been that once installed, it's pretty much set-and-forget. But that also assumes you give the threadlockler enough time to set up (overnight).

I will say that I have had problems with the flathead screws that hold the baseplates on becoming loose. I suspect that my regular (i.e., once every week or two) use of tri-flow to lubricate the cleats may eventually defeat the blue thread locker. Could this be happening to you?

Also, if you have installed the cleats correctly using the blue threadlockerand then move the screws at all, you break the grip of threadlocker compound, rendering it useless after a short while. That could include the regular tightening you describe.

Good luck!

merlinextraligh

The screws come from Speedplay with Locktite.

merlinextraligh

+1. That's what I was thinking.

dstedman

I lost two of the screws on one of my Speedplay cleats during a ride and by the time I got home the cleat had broken and I could barely get out of the pedal. Between that and their problems with any sort of dirt at all, they are now currently for sale on eBay. Gonna stick with my trouble-free Shimano 105's.

Dr. Banzai

I know. I don't use it.

DScott

So you go to the trouble of actually removing it from the screws you get with the cleats?

Is it some kind of a religious thing, or what?

WhyFi

No problem yet and I don't expext to have that problem with Shoe Goo over the front and back of the cleat and on top of the screws.

aggarcia

On my Zero's I kept having the screws loosen. It learned that I was not tightening them down hard enough. Once I really tightened them no problems - 1K miles later and the screws are still tight.

Dr. Banzai

I use torx bit screws. Any fastener place can get them for you. Special order with taper head.

DScott

Why?

AngryScientist 

i definitely think my problem was that i broke the original "seal" of threadlocker.

i'm going to give it a go with the strongest, most permanent stuff they have at the auto parts store and see how that works.

hopefully i can remedy this problem before something catastrophic happens.

noise boy

Don't do that, use the service removable for small fasteners loctite, otherwise it will likely work too well, and you will be stuck buying new shoes and new cleats next time you need them. As mentioned here before, make sure you follow the instructions on the threadlocker bottle re: installation.

Smallguy

they comer with medium I'd stick with medium

permanent is damn near impossible to get off.. heat will work but it will also potentially ruin your shoes and cleats

if you do much wrenching on your bike get a torque wrench.... 20inch pounds is not very much force and hard to accurately achieve without either allot of experience installing speedplays and other low torque parts or a proper wrench.... I think the park wrench is less than 50.00

docjoe

Honestly I would not recommend going for something stronger than Blue loctite.

I would just go with the Blue Locktite. Just remember that when you have to adjust your screws, to first apply more loctite on it. If you do want to go stronger, you might want to consider to go to Green Locktite. When you want to break the green locktite, you'll have to heat it (with a lighter or torch) to break the seal or just risk stripping the screws without the heat. However, if you go for the Red Locktite, then good luck trying to unscrew them off in the future because red is "supposedly" permanent.

Dr. Banzai

So I can tighten them quite tight. And so I can remove them.

When full of crud, torx bits are WAY easier to manage plus my little multi tool had the perfect size torx bit on it too.

Kotts

+1

Torx screws can take a LOT of torque before the heads strip out. Far better than Allen head.

merlinextraligh

But you don't want to torque Speedplay screws tight. The torque spec is very low, and if you ratchet them down, the cleats will not work as intended.

The regular screw with a plain old phillips head works just fine.

thump55

This. Tighten them up.

I put in longer screws (without detents) on one cleat when I added my cleat shims and used the blue Loctite. I have never had one screw loosen in over 3K miles. Those screws only have a 3/64" hex for an allen wrench, so I can't get nearly as much torque on those as the originals, and still no problems.

I do have my doubts that Loctite retains its effectiveness when factory applied, and then sits for who knows how long before you buy it and assemble them. This may be cause of the loosening issue for some. A new application of Loctite and proper tightening should fix it.

DScott

Have you had some kind of problem that made you change the fasteners?

The cleat fastening screws are not meant to be cranked down as tight as possible. They have ridges on the head that bite into the cleat, and combined with the threadlocker, will secure the cleats quite well. Speedplay says:

"Be sure that the 4 x 11mm outer fastening screws of the cleats are not over-tightened. Tighten cleat fastening screws until resistance is felt and then tighten no more than ¼ turn."

If you overtighten them, you can warp the cleat plate, and risk making the cleats harder to get out of, if not completely non-functional. I will admit that the phillips head screws can get gunk in them that makes it hard to turn them, once installed. But the need to do that has been infrequent, IME.

edit: merlinetcetc beat me to it!

AngryScientist 

plus locktite smells like delicious candy.

i'll report back with which locktite i chose and how its working.

Dr. Banzai

No problems. I just wanted to be able to get them off once they were full of crap. Plus way back in my caliper brake days I tried loctite. Never worked the way I wanted it to.

Look, I just saw the stock allen heads screws and said "hell no" since I've pulled $0.02 allen head screws out of SPD cleats. What part of wanting to upgrade the bolt is hard to conceive here?

Upgrade bolt, tighten the piss outta it. Ride. No problems. Speedplays apart from them being dirty little buggers have been the most hassle free setup I've had.

AngryScientist 

you must be talking about different screws than i am, the ones i'm referring to are phillips head - attaches the actual cleat to the base plate, and the cleats certainly wont work if you tightem "the piss" out of them.