Pros:
- You can walk in them! The additional screw on plugs are nice but seems mostly unnecessary as the aero cover does a pretty good job of keeping the cleats away from the ground. Maybe if you end up walking in grass or mud? But for me, no more carrying around the coffee shop covers in my jersey since I'm mostly on pavement.
- Lighter than v2 cleats, by about 8g on each cleat than the v2 cleats. Not too scientific as I just threw them on a kitchen scale, and my old v2s were pretty worn down already. The metal plates had mostly grinded off.
- Aero covers are supposed to be more aero but I didn't really feel it. Maybe they have to be paired with the aero pedals (not released yet) to get full benefit?
Cons (sigh):
- The screw on plugs fall out, which is surprising because they do fit tightly. I suspect that the flex in the plastic cleat cover makes the screw-on cover just pop-out. I've already lost one, just doing some warm up stretches pre-ride.
- The cleat cover falls off SIGH (5 times total, both feet). For the first 2 hours or so with constant unclipping, no problems at all, aero covers stayed on no problem. But by the third hour, my right aero cover had fallen off, luckily was above to find it again. The grinding feeling from the exposed cleat is crazy, it feels like your cleats are going to explode. Then the left one fell off 4 times consecutively going down some stairs.
- I guess I'm going to need to use some JB weld to keep these things on, should be a workable solution as long as you stay away from the 4 mounting screws. There's lot of nooks and crannies that aren't anywhere near the mounting screws.
- Hopefully the aero covers don't wear too fast, but it seems like they're going to grind down pretty quickly (pics below, just 2 medium rides in), but I guess a better solution than trying to remove worn down screws from v2 cleats.
Thoughts:
- I do like them, and being able to walk around without sliding over smooth surfaces is very welcome. They're slightly lighter and supposedly more aero so that's a good thing. Hopefully a bit of JB weld on the corners of the cleat will be enough to keep them on for at least a year. They clip on the same just like the v2 cleats, so good news there.
- They're pretty much just like Keep-on Kovers, so if you just bought a fresh pair of v2 cleats, I think those do exactly the same thing. But Kovers also have a problem of falling off. Epoxy/JB weld is needed for those too, but more dangerous as the only places you can put the glue is around the screws. Trying to unscrew a JB-welded screw is probably going to require power tools or a lot of patience with a sharp chisel.
- Will keep them, and hopefully the JB weld solves the problem of the aero cover coming off. I also won't be using the plugs for the forseeable future. They don't help when walking, and their only purpose is to keep cleats away from dirt and dust while you walk, and (SIGH) they fall off too.
After 2 rides...
Exposed cleat
On my Fizik shoe
