Curious how often I should need to replace my yellow SPD cleats? I have ridden one set all summer. Few hundred miles on them. They seem to work just fine but they are wearing rapidly (one side of the yellow pads is completely gone on both sides). So Im curious if any of the experts with more experience on this forum can help me out. Thanks.

LOL there are no experts on bikeforums. Other than the armchair variety.

That said, on SPD-SL cleats the yellow or red plastic bits are simply wear indicators and don't affect the cleats, my personal experience with the yellow cleats is that the plastic wears off extremely quickly and the cleats themselves are good for a long, long time. I wear them until they don't seem to clip very well, and I can't actually remember how many miles or the last time I replaced them was, but it's a lot.

I've read that when they start to unclip on their own while riding, it's time to replace them. I wouldn't know, though, as I've never replaced mine.

I'f they are un-clipping while you are riding, it's past the time to replace them.

Mine seem to wear out fast. but we do a lot of these multi-day cycling events where we do a lot of walking around on pavement etc during lunch stops etc...and sometimes i forget to bring my cleat covers.. i really think it depends a lot on how much ground contact yours get off the bike. if you can minimize that, they should last a long time.

I have never had one unclip on their own, but they do seem to get harder to clip in. I replace them about every 4-5000 miles but it will really depend not on your riding mileage, but on your walking yardage.

Depends in part on things like how often you walk around in them, the types of surfaces you walk on and how often you put you feet down for things like traffic control devices.

When you get excessive play in them, and/or pull out unintentionally, I'd replace.

I have about 4000 miles on my current pair, but I only put a foot down at the beginning and end of my rides and don't walk around in them, so they can go for quite a while.

SPDs: ~10,000miles
SPD-SL: ~1000mi(right)/~4000mi(left)

Why not simply tighten the tension?

I'm gonna guess that you've never had a cleat break(or pull out) during a sprint.

I only started using cleats last year so no, no breakage so far but I did have a few pull out last month while climbing and tightening the tension half a turn fixed that for me.

You can rotate cleats...

what's the point, just replace the one that needs it, it'll look like the other one after a few days

Is there really a point to much of what we do?





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I've purchased all of my steel SPD cleats used, and have yet to wear one out, although a couple have been battered by gravel.

However, my left XPEDO Titanium pedal is showing wear and causing pullouts Too much left unclipping. And, unfortunately the spring tension is already at the max.

Which model XPEDO? How many miles on them?

I ask because I just purchased my second pair of M-Force 8.

Agreed, I just replace on each side as needed. Last set of pedals I got came with blue cleats, so I've been running right/blue - left/yellow for a while now.

The R-Force has the forward part of the cage is supposed to be Titanium, and the rear is steel.

I'm seeing a slight beveling on the titanium front portion of the pedal which I think is related to my issues with unclipping.

I don't know the total miles. They were also a second hand purchase, but I think I have < 5000 miles on them.

I find the M-Force 8 pedals to be quite grippy... like little rat traps, grabbing my shoes wherever I put them in the pedals. But, otherwise, they seem to be holding up. I'll look at them a bit more, but they may well be immune to this issue due to having steel clipping surfaces, plus have multiple surfaces, so one would expect at least double the wear.

Thanks. I really appreciate the feedback.


-Tim-