Problems unclipping – bad pedals or bad thing-on-the-bottom-of-my-shoe?

[mstone]

The contract point on the pedal should be lubed, I’d start there if you haven’t been doing so. (Just a little bit, you don’t want the whole pedal platform greasy.) If that doesn’t help, replace the cleat on the shoe. It is normal for that part to wear, and that can make it harder to unclip. Make sure you do something like drawing a line around the old clip before unscrewing it, so you can get the new one in the same place easily.

[hozn]

Yeah, generally it does get easier — at least on Crank Bros and Time Atac cleats. You probably want to check to see if the cleat (on the bottom of your shoe) has become loose. I’ve had it happen when a loose cleat caused me to fall over since pivoting my foot out wasn’t resulting in an equal pivot of the cleat. (Hope that makes sense.)

[jrenaut]

Great, thanks. I will lube the pedal and check the cleat and see if that’s the problem, and next try replacing the cleat.

[Subby]

This happens to me when a cleat comes loose or the cleat loses a screw. Might be worth checking.

[Anonymous]

@hozn 74933 wrote:

Yeah, generally it does get easier — at least on Crank Bros and Time Atac cleats. You probably want to check to see if the cleat (on the bottom of your shoe) has become loose. I’ve had it happen when a loose cleat caused me to fall over since pivoting my foot out wasn’t resulting in an equal pivot of the cleat. (Hope that makes sense.)

I have had this same problem. Except that luckily for me, it was my right shoe with the loose cleat, and I always put my left foot down, so I didn’t fall. The bike just wouldn’t give me my foot back when I wanted to stop for a break.

[TwoWheelsDC]

As others have said, I’d check the cleat screws first…probably just need tightening.

[dbb]

@TwoWheelsDC 74938 wrote:

As others have said, I’d check the cleat screws first…probably just need tightening.

Like many of us on the forum, the problem is diagnosed as having a screw loose!

[jrenaut]

@mstone 74932 wrote:

The contract point on the pedal should be lubed, I’d start there if you haven’t been doing so. (Just a little bit, you don’t want the whole pedal platform greasy.) If that doesn’t help, replace the cleat on the shoe. It is normal for that part to wear, and that can make it harder to unclip. Make sure you do something like drawing a line around the old clip before unscrewing it, so you can get the new one in the same place easily.

I finally got around to lubing the pedals. What do you know, rusty springs don’t work as well as lubed ones! Huh.

Anyway, this fixed my problem so well that I may have to increase the tension on the pedals. Thanks for the help.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@jrenaut 81787 wrote:

I finally got around to lubing the pedals. What do you know, rusty springs don’t work as well as lubed ones! Huh.

Anyway, this fixed my problem so well that I may have to increase the tension on the pedals. Thanks for the help.

PRO tip: lube your pedals with furniture polish!

[Author]

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