Advice on drilling out SPD cleats

Ant

Hi all,

One of my cleats is badly worn and my foot pops out far too regularly and usually at the most inopportune times. A couple of months ago, Greyspoke was good enough to provide me with a pair of new Shimano SH51s. Unfortunately, both of the old cleats are so worn that there's no way that they can be removed with an Allen key.

I've tried to drill the cleats out a couple of times without any luck and yesterday, I decided I'd make a serious effort. I went into town and purchased a new set of HSS drill bits for €25 as I though the old drill bits might have been worn. However, after over half an hour of drilling with the new 55mm bit, I had still made very little progress. This half hour includes taking breaks to let the cleat cool down as it would get so hot the compound in the sole of the shoe would start smoking even though I was using a little oil to keep the bit lubricated. The drill has only one speed (3000rpm) - and wasn't set to hammer action mode. While drilling, I applied as much pressure as I thought I safely could without damaging the sole of the shoe and had a piece of wood inside the shoe to provide some support for the sole.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or what I could do better but if anyone has any advice or experience, I'd be happy to hear it. Advice on other biking forums seems to indicate/assume that this operation should be relatively straightforward and uncomplicated.

Dr.Millah

Sounds like a bit of a mess.

I would remove all the cleat from the bast of the shoe by whatever means (snips, hacksaw etc) until you are just left with the bolts in the shoe.

Then apply some oil to the bolts in an effort to loosen them up, after leaving them for a while try giving them a moderate hit with a hammer directly to the top of the bolt (this sometimes breaks the bonding in the threads.

Now as the tops of the bolts are most likely in a right mess i think the best option would be to hacksaw 1/8" into the bolt head to allow room for a flat headed screwdriver to be inserted. The bigger the screwdriver the better as it will give more grip.

the magician

3000 rpm is too fast.Is it a mains drill? I Usually find that a mains drill is 2 fast for drilling steel. It wont take log to burn out the bits at that speed against the hardened steel.
If the drill bit has discoloured it has probably lost it's sharpness.

Take the smallest bit you can safely put a decent bit of pressure on and pulse the drill.(pull the trigger let go and keep doing this to control the speed.) once you get a pilot hole drilled. get a bit the size of the head and take the head off.

or alternatively get a loan of a cordless drill that you can control the speed on.

The oil is a good idea so keep using that.

Ant

Thanks to both of ye for the tips. I'll probably try both methods (with each shoe) and see how I get on.

@the magician: It's a mains drill alright. Pulsing sounds tricky enough but I've been able to sort out getting a loan of a cord-less drill. I see this guide to drill speeds recommends 700-1000 rpms for steel. I'll have to use a different bit, alright as my new 55mm bit has indeed become discoloured.

@Dr.Millah: I'll be borrowing an angle-grinder along with the cord-less drill so I might try using that to cut a groove into the head of the bolt.

ednwireland

i once took an angle grinder to spd cleats ( on my beloved sidi dominators :eek: ) worked but you have to be really careful not to damage or melt the shoe

Gavin

Ant wrote: »

Thanks to both of ye for the tips. I'll probably try both methods (with each shoe) and see how I get on.

@the magician: It's a mains drill alright. Pulsing sounds tricky enough but I've been able to sort out getting a loan of a cord-less drill. I see this guide to drill speeds recommends 700-1000 rpms for steel. I'll have to use a different bit, alright as my new 55mm bit has indeed become discoloured.

@Dr.Millah: I'll be borrowing an angle-grinder along with the cord-less drill so I might try using that to cut a groove into the head of the bolt.

An angle grinder for a cleat !! A dremel multitool with a cutter will do the job to make a groove for a screwdriver.

Dr.Millah

Gavin wrote: »

An angle grinder for a cleat !! A dremel multitool with a cutter will do the job to make a groove for a screwdriver.

I agree. You would have to be very careful with the angle grinder. I would try a hacksaw or dremel tool long before the grinder.

Also, if and when you do get them out make sure to apply some grease so bolts before tightening down.

Junior

What you need is a left handed tap, and a screw extraction set... link

sean_d

A 5.5mm drill bit is far too small - you're drilling at the wrong part of the bolt.
You just need to take the head off, a 9.5/10mm bit is the correct size for this. Once you've taken enough of the head off, the cleat will pop off and you can remove whats left by gripping it with a pliers.
Slow and steady while drilling steel, with a bit of cutting fluid if you have some to hand.

Ant

Many thanks to the posters above for all the useful advice. I just thought I should update this thread in case anyone else has to do the same.

Related Aside: Last October, I posted my most recent response to this thread just minutes before I left to go mountain biking with a friend. After cycling all the way up to the top of Three Rock, we were ready for the downhill (fun) part. While starting off on a very rocky section, I got my right foot clipped in and as I attempted to get the left foot clipped in and gain some forward momentum, the front wheel stuck against a large rock and caused the bike to topple over to the right. As I had the pedal tension tightened to the max to compensate for the worn cleats, I couldn't get my foot out of the pedal to stop the fall. More unfortunately, the way the rock had caused the front wheel to be turned meant that the handlebar was pointing upwards and my chest fell hard on the business end of the riser bars. Cue shouts of pain, writhing on the ground in agony and much shortness of breath due to pain caused by breathing in.

Eventually we were able to walk down to the masts and luckily, there's a well-surfaced road from there so I was able to freewheel all the way down to the pub at the bottom (Taylors?). My friend cycled home to return with a car to bring me to hospital. After a 9 hour wait in A&E, it turned out that I had fluid in the lungs from bruising and a fractured rib which kept me off the bike - and the Cycling forum - until just over a month ago. That was one painful lesson in the value of ensuring that cleats and clip-less pedals are replaced when worn!


Anyhow before getting back in the saddle again, I bought a cord-less drill/screwdriver with variable torque/speed settings. I used low speeds to drill the cleat while applying oil and pausing regularly to make sure the cleat and the bit didn't overheat. Sean's advice on the size of the drill-bit was very useful. 8mm was the largest drill bit I had but it did the job just fine. Once I'd drilled off the head of the bolt, it was easy to use the pliers to unscrew the bolt.

However, it still took about an hour for each bolt to come off so for the second shoe, I was feeling less patient. In the interests of scientific discovery / mischief, I thought I'd try out the angle-grinder. This actually worked out quite well and it was satisfying to see the hard steel of the (cursed) cleat being cut away in a shower of sparks. The cleat came off in about 5 minutes including the time it took for regular dunking of the shoe in water to minimise the build up of heat in the cleat which would soften or melt the sole of the shoe. I probably wouln't recommend this method to anyone else as you do need to have steady hands and to be careful that you don't cut into the sole of the shoe but it's much much quicker than drilling.