Originally Posted by
Cramic
Bought my first ever pair of clipless shoes and cleats at end of September (as well as first bike in about 15 years) and have worn them out already having cycled 1,500km.
I noticed them looking very worn within a week or two (the yellow grippy parts almost entirely gone). I thought I was probably having some extra wear as not used to clipless, but the left shoe failed completely after ten weeks. Luckily was close to a mate’s house who had a set to replace them with.
The new set (also Shimano) already look really beat up after about a week.
I went out and bought four new pairs of cleats (thinking it must be routine to replace them every quarter), but have since found out four pairs of cleats should last me a decade! Haha I know now that they should last at least two years/up to 5,000 miles.
So what am I doing wrong?
In terms of walking in them I do maybe 50 metres from the bike shed to changing rooms at work, four or five times a week. The 50 metre return involves walking down three flights of stairs. Are they so fragile that that amount of walking is the problem?
Attached are pictures of my first set of cleats after ten weeks and the new set after one week.
Thanks!
Original
Original
One week old
Wear looks way excessive. I usually replace my yellow SPD-SLs every couple of years/12000 miles and, while I don't hike in them, I don't obsessively avoid walking in them either - and no cleat covers. The yellow feet don't contact the pedal when riding, so it must be the walking.
First thing I would do is do the cleat cover experiment - get some covers and use them for as much of your walking as possible for a few weeks - it's likely that this will solve the problem.
The other possibility is that they're lower quality knockoffs. Where do/did you buy them? There are any number of "SPD-SL-compatible" cleats on-line - some clearly not Shimano, but I imagine that some are actual knock-offs. The fact that a pair of the real thing can cost up to $30, there's real incentive for knockoffs. I'm happy to buy most things online, but I'm always willing to pay the LBS premium for real cleats.