Have a road bike with SPD cleats because as a beginner I wanted the comfort of being able to walk off the bike etc. Also pull kids in a trailer sometimes and have to get off during the rides for various kid related reasons.
However since doing trainer work from September onwards, and especially doing the quadrant / pedaling / kick, push, scrape and pull drills, I feel my pedal shoe interface has too much slop…
I like the angular float of the SPD’s since I do have sensitive knees.
But
when I do the “scraping” motion on the bottom quadrant, I feel I am pulling the shoe with my foot before it eventually “hooks” onto the pedal and I can do the scraping motions
when I go from scraping to pull, I feel again that I an pulling on the shoe before it hooks onto the pedal and it actually starts pulling. I even hear the click of the metal cleat as it “hooks” on the pedal.
I am wondering, is this a looseness typical of an SPD setup, that can be remedied by an SPD-SL setup? Again, I like the side float but want to eliminate the back-and-forward and push-pull float.
I want to feel a tighter “connection” in those degrees of freedom
Check and see which SPD cleats you have. There are two types. SH51 and SH56. The 56’s release and engage in multiple directions. The 51’s are more secure. If you’re running the 56’s, switching to 51’s might solve your problem. Having said that, changing to SPD-SL will definitely feel like a more secure connection, but it’s an expensive change since you have to buy both pedals and shoes.
I do have the multi release ones. I have some of the one direction only ones too but I didn’t know these could affect the various directions of float too so never tried them !
FWIW: I always strongly recommend against the multi release cleats as they can come out at inopportune times with the potential of causing a crash. I do not have any significant slop or play beyond angular float with my SPD cleats and pedals, which I currently use on my gravel bike. I use Look Keo pedals on my road bike and trainer. SPD-SL are very similar, and are in fact Shimano’s version of the Look design which predated the Shimano pedals.
If I’m not mistaken, the float in an SPD system is in the pedal vs and SPD-SL where it’s in the cleat. That being said, definitely ditch the 56’s.
What pedals are you using? I have a few different models and some have a bit more than others. However, non have any noticeable front to back movement that I’m aware of.
Yeah, always use the black cleats. One LBS only sold the shiny cleats, and didn’t realize they were the 'multi’s. I bought them once because they looked ‘clean’, but sucked for ANY vertical pulling, and returned them complaining about how useless they were. Oops… I would have thought they would have known the difference?
Ive got the silver ones on my commuter shoes (for a few weeks they were my turbo shoes). They were the only spds I could find post lock down after I determined that SPD-SLs were not ideal for the train part of my commute. They did take some getting used to. The more circular/ balanced L/R pedaling style Ive developed seems to have been to my advantage on TTs, so Ive left them for now
Large feet + getting a bigger shoe to compensate + only one boa strap = not ideal
