A couple of newbie questions (tubes, SPD pedals, tires)

First bike, had it for a while and I got my first flat today. I have a pair
of Bontrager tires both front and back and after going over the tire in the
garage I caught a fairly obvious piece of glass embedded into the tire.
Picture a piece of glass, about the size of a watermelon seed, about 4-5 mm
square, wedge shaped. I worked it out of the tire, and resigned myself to
going by the bike store to replace the tube.

My first question is, do I need to replace the tire too? I mean, it was,
like I said, about the size of a watermelon seed, and after working it out
of the tire, there's definitely a "spot" there. But once you put a new tube
in, is it an issue? I'm not *that* strapped, so a new tire isn't out of the
question, just a pain in the wallet. I know it sounds like a stupid
question, but this is my first "nice" bike and I honestly dunno how these
things behave at higher speeds on roads filled to the max...

Second. I was riding today to test out some new cleats, and I liked them, I
just wish they were more...I dunno..."snug"? It just seems kinda like they
'float' a little in the pedal. They're SPDs, Shimano, and I was wondering if
it was as easy as turning the allen bolt on the leading edge of the pedal,
and if so, do I rotate it and tighten the other one the same amount? And
what's the best way to determine how tight you're going, just hop on and
keep pedaling around a little after you tighten it a little until it's as
"snug" in the pedal as you're comfortable with? Is it even *supposed* to be
"snug"? I don't personally like it when the pedal moves around a lot, it
makes me feel like my cleats are all lose. I like to clip into them and be
tight. At least that was my experience on my mountain bike, and it felt
really nice and secure. Is this what I'm after? Just a little tightening of
that allen bolt?

Thanks, like I said, sounds kinda silly, but this is my first Road bike, and
I wanna make sure I'm doing the right thing...

First, why don't you patch the tube instead of replace it? Judging from
your description of flat, the tube couod be patched and the tire may
only require a small boot (glued in) to insure that the casing break
doesn't expand.

Both your mountain and road clipless pedals have float. Sometimes it's
adjustable, sometimes not. Are they SPD, SPD-R or SPD-SL? Regardless,
tightening the binding force doesn't eliminate the float, it simply
makes entry and exit harder.

SPD-sl has no adjustable float, I don't know if SPD or SPD-R do or not.

I hope that helps



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--------------------------
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Jeff wrote:
First bike, had it for a while and I got my first flat today. I have
a pair of Bontrager tires both front and back and after going over
the tire in the garage I caught a fairly obvious piece of glass
embedded into the tire. Picture a piece of glass, about the size of a
watermelon seed, about 4-5 mm square, wedge shaped. I worked it out
of the tire, and resigned myself to going by the bike store to
replace the tube.

My first question is, do I need to replace the tire too? I mean, it
was, like I said, about the size of a watermelon seed, and after
working it out of the tire, there's definitely a "spot" there. But
once you put a new tube in, is it an issue? I'm not *that* strapped,
so a new tire isn't out of the question, just a pain in the wallet. I
know it sounds like a stupid question, but this is my first "nice"
bike and I honestly dunno how these things behave at higher speeds on
roads filled to the max...

Second. I was riding today to test out some new cleats, and I liked
them, I just wish they were more...I dunno..."snug"? It just seems
kinda like they 'float' a little in the pedal. They're SPDs, Shimano,
and I was wondering if it was as easy as turning the allen bolt on
the leading edge of the pedal, and if so, do I rotate it and tighten
the other one the same amount? And what's the best way to determine
how tight you're going, just hop on and keep pedaling around a little
after you tighten it a little until it's as "snug" in the pedal as
you're comfortable with? Is it even *supposed* to be "snug"? I don't
personally like it when the pedal moves around a lot, it makes me
feel like my cleats are all lose. I like to clip into them and be
tight. At least that was my experience on my mountain bike, and it
felt really nice and secure. Is this what I'm after? Just a little
tightening of that allen bolt?

Thanks, like I said, sounds kinda silly, but this is my first Road
bike, and I wanna make sure I'm doing the right thing...


It's not the pedal, but the cleat.
Shimano sells an SPD cleat that has no float, one with a little horizontal
float and one that floats all over the place. I like the one with a little
horizontal float. I believe it's called SH-51, but I'm not certain. Your LBS
will be sure to know.
--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Jeff wrote:
"Per Elmsäter" wrote
It's not the pedal, but the cleat.
Shimano sells an SPD cleat that has no float, one with a little
horizontal float and one that floats all over the place. I like the
one with a little horizontal float. I believe it's called SH-51, but
I'm not certain. Your LBS will be sure to know.
--
Perre

Hmmm, I tried looking online every place I could think of, and
couldn't find any information about *which* cleat is which. I was
hoping to be armed with at least a little knowledge before I went to
my LBS, but no luck. Hopefully he'll know what I'm talking about.

Well at least you should be able to read on your cleats what kind you have.
If you have good eyes and some good light.

I think 50 is the no float cleat. 51 is a little horizontal float and 55 is
the floating all over the place cleat. Correct me somebody if I'm wrong.
This is of course if you have SPD cleats and not SPD-R or SL

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

From your description of the glass shard, it's probably safe to assume a
few of the tire's cords were sliced as well as the tube. I would buy a
new tire, but try the new tube in the old one any ways. If the spot
where the glass cut "opens up", or the tire bulges slightly in that
area, dump it.

If not, you san still use it as an emergency replacement tire if
something happens to one of your other ones.

As for the cleat, most (all?) Shimano SPD cleats have some float. You
can tighten the bolts until they strip and this will not go away. The
float is between the cleat and the pedal and it is designed to do that
so cyclists whose feet do not stay in the same direction as they pedal
don't strain their knees.

May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!
Chris

Chris'Z Corner
"The Website for the Common Bicyclist":
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

(Per=A0Elms=E4ter) Wrote:

Shimano sells an SPD cleat that has no
float

What model has no float? Does it come with dual entry (forward or
backwards)?

I'm not as smart as a robot! ;-3)

May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!
Chris

Chris'Z Corner
"The Website for the Common Bicyclist":
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

http://bike.shimano.com/Footwear_Ped...ries/index.asp
http://bike.shimano.com/footwear_ped...hart/index.asp
sh-51 floats as Perre said
l think the sh-52 doesn't have float (but it doesn't say that on the site)
hope these links help