Clipless Pedal Maintenance

I seem to learn something every day.  Today it was that not only does pedal maintenance exist for clipless pedals but it is required.

I posted here that I went clipless (almost a year ago).  I really like clipless pedals (I’m using these Shimano pedals) and the improved performance is obvious to me (up stroke and all that).  The only problem that I had was getting out of them quickly when trail riding and needing my feet on the ground. right. now!  This resulted in a few skinned elbows and one encounter with a cactus.

I mentioned this over on the Mtbr.com forums. Amongst the useless advice and posts by forum trolls; a couple of people gave me some useful advice that my pedal clip tension may be too tight.  It was.  After loosing the tension, I was able to get out of the pedals very quickly and my problem ceased to exist.

This was four months ago.

Recently, I began noticing that my pedals seemed harder to get out of than they were when I reduced the tension.  I stared at the pedals and pondered this problem. I hoped that the pedal would speak to me and tell me how it was feeling and why it was behaving as it was. It did not speak and nothing obvious came to mind, I carried on.

Recently one of my pedals has been squeaking. It is very minor but very annoying.  After trying a variety of things, I shot some lubricant on it.

Wow! What a difference.

It was almost like standing on ice, my cleats would zip out of the pedals with the slightest of side pressure  – but only on the side that I sprayed.  It didn’t take me too many miles to figure out what was going on!

Obviously, clipless pedal maintenance and lubrication is necessary and was not being performed by my maintenance shop.  I’ve fired the mechanic (same bozo that is sitting at this keyboard).

I’m now back to tuning the pedal tension and getting used to being able to get out of the pedals very easily.  If you are having a problem with this, my suggestion is to lubricate your pedals and then reduce/adjust the tension.  You may be surprised at how easy they are to get out of!

It may be worth noting that muddy conditions can effect the performance of your clipless pedals.  I don’t ride in mud very often (I do live in the desert after all) but have stuck my foot in it once or twice and immediately noticed the difference.