A Tale of Two Shoes

When I started using my Garmin Vector pedals I discovered that the pedal pod bracket rubbed against my left shoe. (The pedal pod is the battery holder.) I tried adding some of the Garmin supplied washers between the bracket and the pedal axil, but the washers just squished out when I torqued the pedal. They are supposed to go between the bracket and crank arm, but all that would do for me was move the mess sideways.

A couple of years ago I bought a new pair of Sidi bike shoes. The old ones still worked fine -- just beat up looking -- so I kept them for spin class and short, solo rides. Back then I used Dura-Ace pedals, so when I switched to Garmin I put the new cleats on the new shoes. Like I said, they rubbed. Last week I decided it was time to change the cleats on the old shoes, so I went to IT&B and picked up a set of Keo cleats. I got grey rather than red, because I have trouble with my heel striking the chain stay.

When I got home and opened the box I noticed the Keo cleats did not look exactly the same as the cleats that came with the pedals. Similar, but different. Especially the hardware. Wednesday spin class was the first time to try the new cleats, and much to my surprise I had plenty of clearance.

My goal for today was to move the Keo cleats to the new shoes. More like a swap. Before I got started I took some pictures, shoes side by side and while on the bike looking down from above. I was on a trainer, not taking pictures while rolling down the street!

Left: Cleat shipped with pedals on new(er) left shoe.
Right: Keo cleat on old left shoe. Similar, but different.

Left shoe (on your right), Garmin cleat, no clearance between shoe and pedal pod bracket.

Right shoe, just enough clearance.

Old left shoe, Keo cleat, plenty of clearance.

Old right shoe, Keo cleat, plenty of clearance.

At this point I swapped cleats.

New left shoe, Keo cleat, just enough clearance.

Old shoe, Garmin cleat, plenty of clearance.

Apparently my newer, better Sidi shoes combined with the cleats furnished by Garmin result in a combination that is too wide. Swapping the cleats ended up with two pair of useable bike shoes.