I did forget that one key aspect didn't I. Before I left for my bike trip this summer I changed over to Look Keo's as the SPDs I had ridden on for years seemed to have no life to them, the pedals or the cleats. During the trip the shoes bit the dust on me but I still managed to get home before they could totally fall apart. After I bought new shoes I went to take the cleats off the old shoes but couldn't get the bolts out so I ended up buying new cleats and the only cleats the shop had on hand were the knock off ??Excel??...something real darn close to that name at least. I put them on the new shoes and quite often I end up getting the squeaking. I never had the squeaking with the real Keo cleats, only now with knock offs. Once the squeaking starts if I twist my foot a little I can it to stop as long as I keep the foot twisted.

That should help a lot. Sorry I forgot to mention it originally. Dumb on my part.