Stoeger

My GF got me some Zeros which I put on the bike last night and thought I had the cleats adjusted just right until I went out for a ride this evening. I was getting pain in both knees like they were twisting so after a few miles I went back to my house and opened the heel out float which made it better, but the pain was still there. Any ideas on what to adjust? I am using some old Time Criterium shoes w/ Bike Fit shims. Thanks in advance.

guadzilla

Possibly left-right alignment of the cleats.

AEO

your legs might not have the muscle tone to keep straight, or your cleats are positioned too far out, causing your toes to point at each other.
as a guideline, not a rule, it's best if your feet are parallel to each other through the entire stroke.

thump55

I assume you had other clipless pedals before these and added the Bike Fit shims for those previous pedals?

saba

Work on your float it takes me about 2 weeks of solid riding to get float and cleat placement correct on the zeros. Once dialed let the power flow

shovelhd

Mine came out of the box with a lot of float, and I hated it. I cranked the left one down to almost locked and left some float in the right one where my foot is pronated. No pain. Keep adjusting, you'll find the sweet spot. These are great pedals.

Tulex

Do any of you just leave the float, or is that a bad thing?

shovelhd

Personal decision.

Zouf

I put as much float as I could, limiting it only so that I'd hit the stop before my heels hit the frame. Rode like that for a while, then slowly brought back the float so I would rarely hit the stops. Did most of that indoors during winter, it's a lot easier to feel what's going on when sitting on a trainer than out on the road. End result, I still have loads of float, but don't have to twist to some weird angle to get out. Standing up feels really weird in the beginning if you have a lot of float, but you'll forget about it after a while. I've been riding Speedplay Zeros for 3-4 years now, best pedal I've ever had for my personal taste.

sbxx1985 

Same here. Putting your bike on the trainer is an excellent idea.

All good advice to the OP. There's probably a reason you chose the limited float of the Zeros over the free float of the X series. I hated the free float. It just takes time and a lot of small adjustments to get them dialed in. Good luck.

thump55

I have adjusted mine to only allow a few degrees of float, however, they are different for each foot (one heel sticks out a bit further).

That's the beauty of the the Zero's- you can adjust each cleat to have all the float, none of the float, or any portion of the float any place in the 15 degree window.

Stoeger

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Previously I was riding old Time pedals w/ the Bike Fit shims. When I put the Speedplay cleats on I thought I needed to move them in a bit to get clearance from the crank arms, I'll adjust them to a more neutral position to see if that helps w/ the knee pain.