How tight do you screw the SPD cleats into the soles?
Hi everyone,
I'm new to clipless, and loving it. I have googled this and cannot find any good information. It feels like a silly question, but I want to make sure my equipment lasts. I had no idea how tight I should have the screws keeping the cleats in place on the soles. I am using a light, fairly soft-soled sneaker-like MTB shoe with Shimano SPD cleats. Since I figured there is a lot of force on them, I have tightened them with my Richey torque key to the 5NM "click" of the key. This leaves a clear impression of the little teeth on the cleat surface into the plastic. Is that what I should be aiming for? I of course ended up moving them around a lot to dial in the perfect position, and this has resulted in a complicated overlapping pattern of teeth marks onto that plastic. Am I going to ruin the shoes? Should I do something different? Again, given that I assume there is a lot of force on them, I was worried that leaving them too lose would risk dragging the cleat along the sole, which sounds a lot worse.
Thank you in advance.