On the 22nd (Saturday) and 23rd (Sunday) of this month,
I apologize, but I'll be taking those days off.
The reason is not a classical concert.
For that reason, I changed the Niner's pedals
from road LOOK KeO
to Crank Brothers.
The KeO pedal has
a 3mm difference in stack height between the top model
and the cheapest model (14.8mm vs 17.8mm),
which simply means
you need to adjust saddle height by 3mm,
but the Q-factor (from the pedal mounting surface to
the center of the binding mechanism)
is 53mm across all models.
The Crank Brothers Mallet E in the image above
has a Q-factor of 57mm, but
I've swapped it to their short spindle (pedal shaft)
to bring it down to 52mm.
On top of that, I adjusted the cleat laterally
by pushing both shoes toward the crank as far as possible,
and
the crank arm ended up with rub marks from the shoes.
When I look from above after engaging the binding,
there appears to be clearance between the crank,
but the Crank Brothers' so-called 0° float cleats
have quite a bit of lateral play for something claiming to be 0°,
and before I knew it, this happened.
For minor rub marks, there are ways to make them disappear visually.
I normally use the so-called 0° float fixed cleats on KeO pedals,
and in that case, even if the crank arm has no offset
(the outer surface of the crank arm is nearly perpendicular to the pedal shaft),
the shoes never rub against the crank.
The only exception is when I wear full shoe covers in winter.
↑right shoe
↑left shoe
These are 0° float cleats
with standard release. I'll explain standard release later.
The body color should be silver,
but it's worn down to a brass color.
The cleats themselves aren't past their replacement point,
but there's something underneath I need to replace,
so I'm getting new cleats too.
↑cleat packaging.
The contents are the third from the right in the four types shown below,
and explaining from the far right:
The two on the right in the packaging
are "Easy Release" - when you twist your heel outward,
the binding releases at a 10° angle.
There are two different float ranges
0° (fixed) and 6°,
colored bronze and rose respectively.
6° of float means 3° on each side, totaling 6°.
The two on the left in the packaging
are "Standard Release" -
when you twist your heel outward,
the binding releases at a 15° angle.
Like Easy Release,
there are two float ranges
0° (fixed) and 6°,
colored silver and gold respectively.
Additionally, the gold standard release 6° float cleat
can be mounted reversed relative to the R and L markings on the cleat
to increase the release angle to 20°.
The diagram above is exaggerated,
but the gold cleats have offset front and rear hooks
(this position shows an R-marked cleat)
and they're mirror images left to right.
↑like this
Since the silver so-called 0° is far from completely fixed,
I might have been better off trying bronze.
So here's the reason I wanted to replace the cleats "as well."
This is a problem that also occurred
when I used egg beaters in the past -
the cleat shim that comes with the pedal or
spare cleats curls up.
Of course, pushing the cleat all the way to one side is also
a contributing factor.
The sides curling up isn't particularly problematic,
but the problem is when the front curls up,
the curled shim gets caught between
the cleat and the pedal's binding mechanism,
and no matter how much you adjust,
the binding won't engage properly.
In the image above,
the symptoms haven't gotten that severe.
New silver cleats.
I won't use this cleat shim.
You might ask why not just mount the cleat directly without a shim?
The reason is that usually
the shoe's outer sole becomes higher on the sides,
making the binding engagement shallower.
If there's just enough contact without a shim to create moderate friction
between the shoe and pedal platform,
foot movement would be reduced and the shoe
would be less likely to rub the crank arm, but...
Which brings us to the main topic.
This is a stainless steel plate called a shoe shield.
According to the manufacturer, it's designed to protect
the shoe's carbon sole from
cleat bite,
but regardless of sole material, there's no curling,
and the feel after binding engagement improves too.
It's such an essential part that I think
it should come with pedals as standard,
not just spare cleats.
As of writing this article,
the retail price with tax is ¥1,790.
The cheapest egg beater pedals and
Candy pedals both have
a retail price of ¥10,900 with tax (they've gotten expensive),
and even with the cheapest model,
if it became "now with shoe shield included,
retail price with tax ¥12,690!" I suspect
sales numbers wouldn't change much.
↑from a 2014 catalog.
↑the shoe shield.
The plate is slightly warped,
with the front and back slightly raised in the left image,
and the center section slightly raised in the right image.
Installed.
But both the shoe shield and cleat
are slightly angled.
Plastic cleat shims suppress rotation by deforming
and settling, but
the shoe shield rotates very easily,
so it requires careful attention.
This was installed at home, but
I rode it to the shop.
The wear on the shoe shield is almost entirely
on the front of the cleat.
The factory cleat shim also
curls up on the front in the end,
damaging the binding function.
↑without grease, the shoe shield
slides this much under the cleat.
On the screw threads and the tapered section of the countersunk screw,
applying grease is important.
If you tighten one side completely first,
it will still rotate even with grease, so
I alternated tightening left and right gradually,
and was able to fix it parallel to the shoe's scale markers.
For road pedal fixed cleats I'd normally
angle the right foot slightly,
but with Crank Brothers pedals and
their so-called 0° float cleats, because
the play is larger, that's not necessary.
Back to the opening image.
Among Crank Brothers binding pedals,
the Candy and Mallet E can have
the plastic pedal platform "traction pads"
on either side of the binding mechanism
swapped for higher ones.
If the outsole and traction pads make contact,
or if friction increases, binding movement play
might be reduced.
Also, all Mallet-series pedals except Mallet 1 and 2
have hex socket pedal pins that can be
adjusted in length.
In the image above, I've removed all
four front pins and two rear pins,
and this can
stiffen shoe movement when binding
is engaged.
The four front pins - the gap between the shoe's outsole
and even the stock-length hex socket was enormous.
The two rear pins:
loosening and extending the factory hex socket somewhat
let them reach the outsole,
but the threads in the pedal are shallow,
and the stock hex socket comes with threadlocker
and already has very loose tension.
It would be best to prepare
hex socket screws of appropriate length
so the pedal body can be tightened fully while achieving this screw protrusion.
I apologize, but I'll be taking those days off.
The reason is not a classical concert.
For that reason, I changed the Niner's pedals
from road LOOK KeO
to Crank Brothers.
The KeO pedal has
a 3mm difference in stack height between the top model
and the cheapest model (14.8mm vs 17.8mm),
which simply means
you need to adjust saddle height by 3mm,
but the Q-factor (from the pedal mounting surface to
the center of the binding mechanism)
is 53mm across all models.
The Crank Brothers Mallet E in the image above
has a Q-factor of 57mm, but
I've swapped it to their short spindle (pedal shaft)
to bring it down to 52mm.
On top of that, I adjusted the cleat laterally
by pushing both shoes toward the crank as far as possible,
and
the crank arm ended up with rub marks from the shoes.
When I look from above after engaging the binding,
there appears to be clearance between the crank,
but the Crank Brothers' so-called 0° float cleats
have quite a bit of lateral play for something claiming to be 0°,
and before I knew it, this happened.
For minor rub marks, there are ways to make them disappear visually.
I normally use the so-called 0° float fixed cleats on KeO pedals,
and in that case, even if the crank arm has no offset
(the outer surface of the crank arm is nearly perpendicular to the pedal shaft),
the shoes never rub against the crank.
The only exception is when I wear full shoe covers in winter.
↑right shoe
↑left shoe
These are 0° float cleats
with standard release. I'll explain standard release later.
The body color should be silver,
but it's worn down to a brass color.
The cleats themselves aren't past their replacement point,
but there's something underneath I need to replace,
so I'm getting new cleats too.
↑cleat packaging.
The contents are the third from the right in the four types shown below,
and explaining from the far right:
The two on the right in the packaging
are "Easy Release" - when you twist your heel outward,
the binding releases at a 10° angle.
There are two different float ranges
0° (fixed) and 6°,
colored bronze and rose respectively.
6° of float means 3° on each side, totaling 6°.
The two on the left in the packaging
are "Standard Release" -
when you twist your heel outward,
the binding releases at a 15° angle.
Like Easy Release,
there are two float ranges
0° (fixed) and 6°,
colored silver and gold respectively.
Additionally, the gold standard release 6° float cleat
can be mounted reversed relative to the R and L markings on the cleat
to increase the release angle to 20°.
The diagram above is exaggerated,
but the gold cleats have offset front and rear hooks
(this position shows an R-marked cleat)
and they're mirror images left to right.
↑like this
Since the silver so-called 0° is far from completely fixed,
I might have been better off trying bronze.
So here's the reason I wanted to replace the cleats "as well."
This is a problem that also occurred
when I used egg beaters in the past -
the cleat shim that comes with the pedal or
spare cleats curls up.
Of course, pushing the cleat all the way to one side is also
a contributing factor.
The sides curling up isn't particularly problematic,
but the problem is when the front curls up,
the curled shim gets caught between
the cleat and the pedal's binding mechanism,
and no matter how much you adjust,
the binding won't engage properly.
In the image above,
the symptoms haven't gotten that severe.
New silver cleats.
I won't use this cleat shim.
You might ask why not just mount the cleat directly without a shim?
The reason is that usually
the shoe's outer sole becomes higher on the sides,
making the binding engagement shallower.
If there's just enough contact without a shim to create moderate friction
between the shoe and pedal platform,
foot movement would be reduced and the shoe
would be less likely to rub the crank arm, but...
Which brings us to the main topic.
This is a stainless steel plate called a shoe shield.
According to the manufacturer, it's designed to protect
the shoe's carbon sole from
cleat bite,
but regardless of sole material, there's no curling,
and the feel after binding engagement improves too.
It's such an essential part that I think
it should come with pedals as standard,
not just spare cleats.
As of writing this article,
the retail price with tax is ¥1,790.
The cheapest egg beater pedals and
Candy pedals both have
a retail price of ¥10,900 with tax (they've gotten expensive),
and even with the cheapest model,
if it became "now with shoe shield included,
retail price with tax ¥12,690!" I suspect
sales numbers wouldn't change much.
↑from a 2014 catalog.
↑the shoe shield.
The plate is slightly warped,
with the front and back slightly raised in the left image,
and the center section slightly raised in the right image.
Installed.
But both the shoe shield and cleat
are slightly angled.
Plastic cleat shims suppress rotation by deforming
and settling, but
the shoe shield rotates very easily,
so it requires careful attention.
This was installed at home, but
I rode it to the shop.
The wear on the shoe shield is almost entirely
on the front of the cleat.
The factory cleat shim also
curls up on the front in the end,
damaging the binding function.
↑without grease, the shoe shield
slides this much under the cleat.
On the screw threads and the tapered section of the countersunk screw,
applying grease is important.
If you tighten one side completely first,
it will still rotate even with grease, so
I alternated tightening left and right gradually,
and was able to fix it parallel to the shoe's scale markers.
For road pedal fixed cleats I'd normally
angle the right foot slightly,
but with Crank Brothers pedals and
their so-called 0° float cleats, because
the play is larger, that's not necessary.
Back to the opening image.
Among Crank Brothers binding pedals,
the Candy and Mallet E can have
the plastic pedal platform "traction pads"
on either side of the binding mechanism
swapped for higher ones.
If the outsole and traction pads make contact,
or if friction increases, binding movement play
might be reduced.
Also, all Mallet-series pedals except Mallet 1 and 2
have hex socket pedal pins that can be
adjusted in length.
In the image above, I've removed all
four front pins and two rear pins,
and this can
stiffen shoe movement when binding
is engaged.
The four front pins - the gap between the shoe's outsole
and even the stock-length hex socket was enormous.
The two rear pins:
loosening and extending the factory hex socket somewhat
let them reach the outsole,
but the threads in the pedal are shallow,
and the stock hex socket comes with threadlocker
and already has very loose tension.
It would be best to prepare
hex socket screws of appropriate length
so the pedal body can be tightened fully while achieving this screw protrusion.