If you do choose clipless pedals, especially Look or Time, it is important that you fix the cleats to your shoe, so that you get the correct position for cyclist. If the angle of your pedal stroke is wrong you can easily become injured – especially around the knees. What I would suggest is this.
Pedal on ordinary pedals and let you feet find their natural position and angle. Get used to this angle and position before affixing the cleats.
- Note: your feet don’t necessarily have to be parallel to your bike. (My feet tend to point away from the bike at an angle of 7 degrees. When I got my position checked by cycle fit in London, they said this was fine.)
- Attach the cleats in a fairly central position and test to see whether that position is correct. After testing with cleats go back to ordinary pedals to check there is no discrepancy.
- If it is your first time using clipless pedals then it will feel a little different, but that is just the pedals. The important thing is to get the angle correct.
Don’t Lose Your Cleat Position.
Note: When you have worked out your cleat position it is important that you don’t lose it. When replacing your cleats, take a piece of paper or suitable material and cut out a shape of the cleat, highlighting where the 3 screws are. In this way you can have a seamless transition and avoid all that time consuming trial and error.
Cleats May Alter your saddle height.
If you affix cleats to the bottom of your shoes it effectively makes you 1-2cm taller. Therefore, you may need to adjust your saddle height to take this into account.
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