AJS914 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2018 1:35 am
Here is what is happening with my SPD cleats and shoes. I wonder if I could have the wrong cleats? Or the issue is my shoes. I never noticed an issue riding my mountain bike with the same shoes but I don't ride the mountain bike that much and maybe the cadence is slower.
On your mountain bike, it is also likely that you stand up and move about a lot more, which generally relieves the wear and tear a bit as you aren't doing the same exact motion over and over.
The issue is that with SPD pedals (and most other 2-bolt cleat/pedal designs) there is a very narrow area of the pedal binding mechanism/cleat that interfaces and transmits loads when pushing down on the pedals. This contact point is generally somewhere around 20-25mm wide. This is wonderful for mud clearance, but it also means that if the center of pressure (COP) of your leg's driving force on the downstroke is even slightly to the left/right of that narrow point, then you will get the shoe wobbling either medially or laterally, leading to pronation or supination respectively.
As a secondary support point, Shimano and most other manufacturers have those little platforms on the inner and outer edge of the cleat binding area where they intend the shoe's tread to make contact with the pedal body, thus providing a sort of outrigger support. The thing is, the tolerances on those shoe tread/pedal body interfaces are terrible. It is common for there to be several mm gap between the shoe and the pedal, which again, is great for mud clearance and ease of clipping in, but is terrible for providing a wobble free shoe/pedal interface. On the other hand, there are some companies who have made shoes with excessive tread depth where the cleat pocket is recessed too far, and in these cases it can be difficult or impossible to clip in as your weight is borne by the shoe tread/pedal body before the cleat ever reaches the engagement mechanism. As a sidebar, when you run into that situation of excessive tread depth, you either need to trim the tread down, or shim the cleat out until the heights correspond properly, but that is the inverse of your problem. Even if you get a shoe/pedal interface that is perfect, which is most likely with a matched brand shoe/pedal, it won't stay that way for long, particularly if you walk a lot or even just from wear against the pedal body, because for every mm of tread wear you lose a mm of lateral stability in the shoe/pedal interface.
Juxtapose that whole mess I just described with the simple and stable interface of road shoes and pedals. With road shoes and pedals, the shoe tread plays no role in lateral stability, in fact there isn't any tread at all. With a road pedal, you have a much wider cleat/pedal interface with very tight tolerances. The much wider platform (often around 50mm) of the cleat/pedal interfaces allows your COP to move quite a bit more to either side before it gets beyond the platform and would tend to cause a medial/lateral lean. Even if the COP does get beyond the platform, you may not even notice, because the more precise fit between the cleat and pedal prevents it from wobbling.
So let's look at what your options are:
1. You could try building up your shoe tread with some Shoe Goo or similar hard glue type substance, that will allow you to essentially re-mold the depth of the contact points so that there is a closer fit. This could be worth a try as it's quite inexpensive and doesn't require changing out any of your equipment, however with the minimal pedal bodies you are using it will likely have limited success, as there is so little contact area to work with.
2. You could look at getting other pedals, but don't even think about getting any of those ones where there is a big flat cage surrounding a standard SPD type mechanism including for/aft of the binding mechanism. On cursory inspection of those pedals, it seems like there would be a ton of contact between shoe/pedal, but if you were to actually clip in you would see that due to the curvature of the shoe sole there is nearly none. The only area of the pedal body you need concern yourself with is directly to the left/right of the cleat binding. From your picture, a wider pedal could be good, IF the the tread depth of your shoe allows it to match up. If your shoe tread is too shallow, it will still allow a wobble.
One remedy for that is, as Silvalis mentioned, the Crankbrothers pedals that have little nylon pads of varying thickness, which you can interchange to get the precision of fit you want. You'd probably want to look at the "Candy" model, and in order to get the varying pads included you need to get the Candy 3 as a minimum:
https://www.crankbrothers.com/products/candy-3
Another pedal to look at is the Speedplay Syzr. They have mixed reviews for MTB riding, but for gravel their shortcomings seem minimal, and they have 1 big advantage over other 2-bolt cleats, which is that they don't rely on the shoe tread at all. They have a wide cleat, with built in outriggers, that contacts the pedal body in several places, so in that way they are much like a road pedal. This also allows wedging of the cleat for fitting purposes, which I'll touch on in point 4:
http://speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.syzr
3. In combination with a pedal with a wider, but non adjustable, support platform like Shimano, Time, etc...you may want to look at shoes where you could tune the tread depth. This would allow you to get the precise fit you want, and then continue to tune it as your tread wears down. The only brand that jumps to mind is SIDI. Their higher end shoes have replaceable tread, and with a little creativity it is possible to place thin shims under the tread as it wears down, to maintain a precise fit to the pedal body. See this pic of the sole for an idea of how that would work:
http://www.sidi.com/files/prodotti_cicl ... O-MATT.pdf
4. Last but not least, you may want to consider the possibility that the supination is a symptom of a fit issue. It suggests that your knee is tracking to the outside of the pedal. Without seeing you pedaling it is tough to tell why this is. Depending on the cause, it could be that through some combination of sliding your cleat laterally, wedging in the shoe insole, washers on the pedal spindle to adjust the position of the pedal relative to the bike, etc...you could bring your COP back over the center of the pedal body. If the COP is perfectly centered, then even with the narrow SPD interface you should still have a stable foot.
Well, that's about it. I know it is a long tome, but I like to be thorough, and knee issues are nothing to be trifled with.
