Cleat Woes

I never pay much attention to my cleats. I always carry a few spare bolts since the time I lost a bolt on a ride and the cleat wouldn't disengage. Recently I started to feel soreness in my left foot and decided to experiment with moving the cleat position. I look at the cleats and realized the cleat bolts appear to be rounded out.

I spends the next 10 minutes digging out sand mud and whatever else out of the bolts. I try to loosen it and the hex key slips. Now I'm starting to sweat, imaging having to drill the bolts out of my Sidis. I sprayed some silicone on the bolts and things got better from here on. The bolts were very tight, at the verge of rounding out, but eventually they gave way. No surprise that they were completely rusted.

I decided this was a good time for new cleats an bolts. I had new Candy and Eggbeater cleats from previous purchases. The Candy cleat is a bit beefier and is what I ride on most so opted to install those.

Candy cleat left, Eggbeater right

I installed the dotted cleat goes on the right shoe for the 15 degree disengagement. About 6 years ago I spent a few hours riding in Moab and falling on my side until it was black and blue as I couldn't get out of the pedals. I later realized the cleats were on the 20 degree setting and my ankles don't like to twist that much.

Oh yeah, and I greased the bolts this time per the instructions. I didn't have a torque wrench that goes as low as 5 NM so I had to guess on tightness.

Update Second ride and both cleats almost came off near the end of a ride. Perhaps a torque wrench is what's need but in lieu of not having one I'm going to try anti-seize on the threads instead of grease. I miss my rusted bolts already.