themidge wrote: ↑Fri Nov 23, 2018 2:03 am
I have my cleats (shimano yellow) set up up so they bottom out, so to speak, before my foot can rub the crank arm. I've ended up riding with my feet in that position, all the way to the inside but because of my setup, pretty straight compared to the bike/the rest of me.
I feel therefore that I might be alright on Shimano red (zero float) or aerolite pedals if I ever get some, but the idea of being locked in fills me with fear of knee injuries, thoughts?
Ok, I don't think whether you use red, blue, or yellow cleats determines your prowess as a rider. And I most certainly don't think you will know within 2 blocks of riding whether zero float cleats are for you or not. What a problem in that short as distance indicates is that your cleats aren't even close to being set up correctly from the get go, regardless what pedals or cleats you're using.
But if you want to try zero float cleats, say the red shimano over the yellow ones, do this first. Release the tension on your pedals as much as possible, so that you can really let your natural foot and leg motion slide around easily. Go for a ride with cleat wrench in hand and make sure that the yellow cleats are in fact optimally set up. You can usually tell if they want to float around a bit. Try to get them adjusted so that they naturally don't float and are tracking pretty straight, or whatever is "natural" for you. If it doesn't look like your feet are floating with the yellow cleats set up perfectly, you'll probably do quite well with the fixed cleats if you want to try them out. Trace out the outline with a white bistro marker or something. Then put the red cleats on in exactly the same position and go for a ride. Take the wrench. Give yourself a half hour or so to really get a feel for them, unless they're so obviously wrong that you know instantly a quick adjustment needs to be made to your starting point. I find that if I have the red cleats not perfectly set it will take a while, but you'll start to feel it in your knee if something's wrong. So try to figure out which way you need to move the cleat to correct for that. Make the change. Ride some more. Repeat this until you don't feel anything that could even be construed as problematic in your knees. Go for some long rides. It's a process. If you get to a point where you don't even think about it, and your legs/feet track perfectly fine, then you're good. You're probably a great candidate to lock those red cleats down and never look back. Conversely, if no matter what you do, you still get knee issues, then maybe the fixed cleats aren't for you and some float may be better.
Getting cleats set up properly is equally as important as getting your saddle position dialed in. I always start with the cleats however.