Wear and Tear

It has seemed that wear and tear has caught up with a bunch of my gear this week. First a bottle cage fell off the training bike on Tuesday, then a cleat nearly pulled out of my shoe this morning. Time for a bit of maintenance I think.

Nice ride this morning once I finally got myself going. It was a lovely, although predictably chilly morning on the bike. Still lovely in every other way. The P5 is starting to feel more and more like home as well which is good.


Earlier this week I noticed that one of my cleats was pretty loose, when I looked more closely I noticed that a couple of the screws that hold it in place were missing. I replaced them, but then this morning noticed the other one was pretty loose. Sure enough I had lost a couple more screws. I had a look at the cleats after the ride and I think it might just be a case of their time being up. I ride with Speedplay pedals, and so the locking mechanism for the pedal is on the shoe. I have been riding on these particular cleats for ages. I can't think how long exactly, but it is measured in years. Anyway, my old cleats look like this.

Old cleat vs new cleat

That is a relatively new cleat on the right. It doesn't come across to well in the photo, but the metal part of the cleat on the left is almost paper thin in places. Plus on one of the cleats I noticed that a fairly critical part of the mechanism is missing. I am not sure how long that has been missing. I am also not sure what has been holding the cleat on my pedals during my rides. Good will and fairy dust presumably.

Luckily for me I have a near new pair of cleats just lying around. I just have to remove them from my wife's shoes and chuck them on mine and I will be good to go. I think ordering some news ones might also be a good idea.

Anyway the tour won't watch itself so I had better go.