A Quick Guide on How To Set Up Cleats For Clipless Pedals
In this instance we’re going to show you using a Dura-Ace cleat, and a Dura-Ace pedal. So we’re back with Oli Beckingsale, an expert bike fitter, who’s gonna explain exactly how to do it. We’ve already mounted the cleat, and it’s quite simple to do, and it’s hard to get wrong But if you are stuggling, then go back to the instructions which came with your pedals and cleats So we’ve mounted it, just loosely, on the sole of the shoe
What’s the next step that we should take?
Okay, so before we start bolting things down, and getting too carried away, it’s important to look at you Okay, so establishing where your feet, an angle of your feet, where they naturally sit on the bike. And then also establishing where the balls of the feet are, in relation to the shoe, and the cleat . Yeah, I guess, in terms of setting up the angle. How do we know, you know, where our feet should be, an angle
Okay, so – on the pedals?
A great one to do, is sit on a table, and just let your feet dangle over the side at 90 degrees. And just look down and see where your feet naturally sit. The majority of people will sit slightly heel in So a good place to start, putting the cleat in a mid-position on the travel sitters. An adjustment for an aft, on most cleats, it’s a couple of centimeters. So put them in the middle of the travel. And the best thing to do then, is to put your foot in the shoe.
And then, find the ball of the foot for the big toe, and put a little dot on that one. Draw a little bit on your shoe And then move onto the bike. And what we’re looking to do, is to get the balls of the feet, okay, they come across slightly at an angle, okay. And we’re looking to get the balls of the feet to dissect the pedal axel.
So all the pressure is going through the bones, and not through the toes for example So what we’re looking to do, is get this marker, just to the front of that pedal axel. So, I’ve undone the bolts again, and I’m just gonna slide that one back, making sure I keep, the angle was correct before. So, I’m going to make sure that I keep the same angle, and just come back a notch. So, I’m just moving the ball of my foot, further in front, by moving the cleat back.
Most pedals come with availability of different cleats. There’s some that are completely fixed so that your heel can’t move at all. Some got a bit more float. Some I think up to nine degrees. So how do you know whether you want to have your feet kind of locked in position, or whether you need quite a lot of movement? So, for most people I think kind of standard float cleat.
So with a look, pedal out of the box, makes four and a half a grey cleat. I don’t think there is any reason to go up to a seven degree, or a nine degree red rook cleat for example, or down to a fixed cleat. Unless they’ve got a real specific issue. Most people have a benifit from having some float. Okay we’re looking to get a bit of that float either side from where your feet naturally sit.
So we’ve got a good guess of where that is by sitting on the side and looking where our feet naturally sit on the side of the table And I’m just going to pause. Okay, and I’m also looking for a bit of float each side So there’s a bit that side, and a bit that side, from where our feet naturally sit. So, we’ve got those cleats spot on.
If you’re right up against the spring, so you don’t have any float at all, or that float isn’t either side of the travel. You could end up causing a knee injury because of a minor back problem that you don’t know about. So having that float gives you a little bit of back up – All right, thanks very much indeed And if there’s anything more in terms of bike fit, which you’d like us to come back and ask Oli, please let us know in the comments section below this video.
Getting your bike well setup to your body, can make the difference between riding in comfort, and riding in pain. And for those of us chasing performance, it can be the cornerstone to reaching your full potential.