When to change your cleats
Roman, today I want to talk about when you should change your cleats. Let's cure that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question on this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the Roman Podcast. Roman, welcome back to another Roman cycling podcast. As you've been hearing me talking about all week, the Gerona training camp is coming up the link is down below, it's going to be 6 days from the 17th to the 22nd of October in the nicest place in the world to ride your bicycle, Gerona Spain. The home of the pros were also adding into this the roadman rocker coba challenge. It's going to be epic. Can you get up rocker coba in your age plus 10 minutes? No line about your age. I will be checking passports. It's over on the link is in below. I can't let the URL the link is down below. You can click it, go there, book it. There's a couple of places left. Book it now if you're on the fence. Roadman today, I want to talk about possibly the most common question I get asked in my DM's. It's a real newbie question, but it gets asked so often, I thought, you know what, I need to answer this. And instead of me sending 50 DMs, I'm going to just do a podcast on it, lazy of me. I know. When should you change your cleats? And firstly, as opposed, if anyone's listening that isn't using cleats, because I know I've got somebody's message before, should I use clip-ins, should I not make the switch, just do it, your life would be different. You'll be a better person. you'll be integrated into what are called. Do it, do it, do it. Practice on grass, but do it, do it, do it. I remember this, this was funny. I started off with sword cycling club. There are club here in Dublin and I didn't know anyone at club. I didn't know anyone at cycling when I got started, but I got a bike, a fortune bank application loan and done one for a parameter, done one for a bike. Yeah, the bank sorted out my early cycling career. So got my new bike, thought it was so cool. a lot of second hand and borrowed Kate deck to the nine so that I went up to meet this group for the first time and I got up to meet the group and the group are all waiting there. I was literally the last man there and I rolled up past them all because I wasn't sure it was them until I got to the front and then I went to stop and I couldn't clip out and I just went boom down and I was like oh my fucking god I wish a hole had opened up in the ground and swallowed me. And yet that was my introduction to cleats so don't be like me and practice on the grass.
Spotting cleat wear before injury
So, changing your cleats is what I want to talk about today and when should you change them. Firstly, you'll have to change them a lot less frequently if you use cleat covers, especially if you're walking around a lot, you're the sort of guy who walks into sign on and walking into cafes and puts your bike out the backyard and shed at the end and treads along, you know, 100 meters to get your bike. Get yourself a set of cleat covers. They literally slip on over the cleats and protect the cleats and really extend the life in them. Very good. You'll know definitely you need to change your cleats when it's too late. When you start pulling your foot out of the pedal, when you don't want to, in the straight up motion, if you've got a sprint, when your foot pulls out, they need to be changed straight away. If you don't change them at that point, you've got mental problems because you're going to crash. But a more common occurrence is the cleats just sort of erode. They just start slowly wearing away. But that changes the angle of the foot in the pedal. So this becomes very easy to get injured. So what I'm talking to you today is maybe not just for the complete newbies, it's for anyone who hasn't changed their cleats in four or five months plus because you won't notice that slight erosion and your foot will just start tracking in a different direction. And over hundreds of thousands of revolutions, you're going to do yourself an injury, especially when you move back to the proper cleat position. So if you flip your shoe upside down, you have a front and a back contact point on the cleat. inspect both the front and back contact point. The front contact point actually clips you in. That's the bit that goes in under the pedal and secures the clip in. The rear contact point, that keeps you flat on the pedal and keeps you solid on the pedal. It's not the yellow or the colored parts depending on if it's yellow, blue or red if you're on Shimano. It's not the yellowy colored parts you want to be looking at for wear really. It's the cleat platform inside that. The colour bits are really just for walking on and for protecting the cleat. It's the cleat platform. If there's any damage to that, that's an absolute automatic replacement. If the colour is starting to get frayed away and you can hardly see the colour anymore, that's an automatic replacement. I just say cleats are so cheap. I just say if there's noticeably visible signs to wear on those two contact points at the front and at the rear, that's a sign to just change them better safe than sorry. If you pull your foot go for a sprint, it's going to be a bad, bad crash. So, get them changed fast. And the easiest way to do that is get the exact same cleats, get your shoe, get a marker, draw around the outside of your cleats in exact the same position they're in and get the new ones and stick them on in the drawing.
Wrap-up and 8-week challenge
It's a super easy way to do it and it's super fast, as all these ways. Like, find a ball of your full stick tape, like draw a fucking thing around the marker, it works perfect every time. Row men, that is it. How, when you should change your cleats and how to use change weekly. It's all in one. The link for the Jirona training camp, it's down below. Get on it. It's going to be epic. The romance challenge. I can't wait to see who makes this romance challenge. And am I going to make it? I don't know. We could have to open a book on it. And yeah, look, we could get a book on. A culture client who's a bookmaker. We could get a book on this one. This could be an interesting bet. Can I make my age plus 10 minutes? Rowmen, enjoy your weekend, ride safe, the Rowman Group Ride is on tomorrow morning, that's 9.30am, it rolls from Plonterdublin at the bay from 9.30am the morning, two groups going, a slow group, and a fast group, weather looks good, so join us if you can, chat to you then Rowmen. Okay, stop what you're doing, it's Anthony again, I want to talk to you for one second about the next step in the roadman journey. I'm laying down a challenge for you. It's called the eight-week challenge. So for eight weeks, I'm challenging you to be the very best version of yourself, whatever that is. For eight weeks, I want to take you under my wing and I want to personally build for you a customized training plan on our analytics platform. This plan is going to be laser focused on your goal and I'm going to navigate around your life, your work, your social commitment so don't worry about what your circumstances are right now. I remember after I took some time out of cycling and I went off and taught I was a really big businessman. I came back and I realized I wanted to get into cycling but I knew after a bit to try it on a loan it actually wasn't making me any fitter. I needed an entire system it needed a 360 overhaul so for the first time ever I want to share with you this exact system I used to get back in shape. I'm talking stuff like I'm gonna give you my morning routines, the cold therapy I use, the cookbooks and recipes I used and even the motivational audios by listening to get back on track. So right now what I want you to do is pause this audio, go to www.roadmancycling.com forward slash eight week or check out the link in the bio, click that. So one more time it's roadmancycling.com forward slash eight week. Chatty also.