Not every review needs to be about some expensive exotica that is more aero, more comfy, and more capable. Here’s an example: Shimano cleats… when they’re worn out, replace them. And clack! It’s like everyone kicked a goal.

 

 

There’s no need for a long narrative about this video. It’s me, going for a ride on a Monday morning, talking about something that I swapped over the weekend. Yep, after weeks of procrastinating, I finally got around to bolting on a new pair of Shimano cleats; yellow replaced some worn and battered old blue ones, and my subsequent ride was a lot quieter.

It’s not complicated. It’s not expensive. It’s not exotic. It’s just a bit of plastic that clips into your pedals and, after a few months of use, it inevitably gets old and decrepit and needs replacing.

Yellow SPD-R cleats by Shimano offer six degrees of ‘float’.
Blue = 2 degrees of float.
Red = zero float.

We don’t talk about the boring stuff too much in cycling-product-review-land but, as you can see, I’m able to stretch a simple yarn out to almost 10 minutes just by going for a ride with a camera in my pocket.

The aim was to say: swapped my cleats, it’s good. But I got distracted by a few things…

  • A new skatepark in Sydney Park.
  • The need for a sunnies storage facility.
  • A new helmet.
  • Tradies in traffic.
  • And, at the end, a story about my family and fishing.

In the middle of commentary about all that, is a brief overview about why you’d consider swapping cleats on your cycling shoes and a tiny bit about what Shimano’s colour coding is all about.

Watch the clip if you feel like seeing the #StoryOfMyRide.

 

Cheers,

– Rob