Only twats don't grease cleat bolts

What a ball ache. Learn from my mistake :-(

I had the ace idea of tweaking my cleats ever so slightly on monday.
Cue shooting pains in my knee, clicking ankle and arse cramp.
Why do I do these fucking stupid things?

Cue shooting pains in my knee, clicking ankle and arse cramp.

Just another day in the office.

What a ball ache. Learn from my mistake :-(

Stuck? Rounded allen socket? If so, me too. But I did grease them.

At least no-one's gonna nick my left cleat!

I am faced with this too. Cleat is totally stuck... What the hell do I do? Plastic Look cleat, may resort to destroying it...

Allen key is long rounded off, screwdriver slot is going to go same way if I continue to feebly attempt to remove it.

Any ideas ?

Drill it out. I did that before on a well rusted set of mountain bike shoes. It cracked and melted the sole around the cleat - so I'd advise either more caution than I used, lots more drilling / cooling fluid or a different method...

You can buy a drill bit which has a... um... something like a left hand thread. You put the drill on reverse or something and it grabs the rounded allen bolt and screws into it and rotates counter-clockwise so it comes out or something like that.

I had a similar problem some time ago so bought a set.

Didnt work though.

It's worth melting some candle wax into the bolts of the cleats that touch the floor to stop shit getting stuck in there.

If you rounded out the bolts by using the wrong size allen though...

You can buy a drill bit which has a... um... something like a left hand thread. You put the drill on reverse or something and it grabs the rounded allen bolt and screws into it and rotates counter-clockwise so it comes out or something like that.

I had a similar problem some time ago so bought a set.

Didnt work though.

You, sir, are like Yoda.

You can buy a drill bit which has a... um... something like a left hand thread. You put the drill on reverse or something and it grabs the rounded allen bolt and screws into it and rotates counter-clockwise so it comes out or something like that.

I had a similar problem some time ago so bought a set.

You mean bolt extractors, which are basically reverse threaded taps. You drill a hole first then screw them in and the bolt comes out.

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Screw-Extractor

Just fucken said that, i did.... mmmmm

But yeah, thats what I meant... I obviously missed the bit about drilling first which may have had soemthing to do with the failure.

Some of them have a little bit of drill bit on the reverse end of the extractor especially for the purpose.

I have 100% success with drilling stuck cleats, admittedly it's only 3 cleats in my time, and none if them were my shoes.

Drill till head if bolt pops off, repeat till all bolts are free and you can remove cleat then grab remained of bolt with a pair if pliers (in my experience this can usually be done without pliers)

Once wd40 had soaked in and I gave it extra welly they eventually came free, fortunately didn't have to resort to drilling...

My preferred method is:

1. Go to cycle shop
   
2. Remove shoes
   
3. Ask them to pop on new cleats
   
4. Pay
   
   

Works every time.

Once wd40 had soaked in and I gave it extra welly they eventually came free, fortunately didn't have to resort to drilling...

Hmmm. Cycling wellies. Nice.

borrow dremel, with dremel cutting disk grind a slot in the bolt, use slotted screwdriver to remove bolt

rounded my allen bolt, last bolt i had to undo. fucking annoying, going to have to drop it off at bike shop and get them to sort it out for me as i have no tools. shall i suggest that they just drill it till it comes free? i dont really need the cleats anymore so i dont care if they get screwed up

Hit the bolt with a hammer, shock tends to free them, another way is to *strike them with the arc off a welder, everyone knows a welder, that instant moment of heat is normally enough to unstick a bolt n it won't damage the shoes

*taught by engineer mate works for most things, I accept no responsibility for blindness, arc eye, burns etc ;)

cheers man, i will try both these things.

i think i've lived a sheltered life up to now as i know no welders :(

Any local engineers, car garage etc

Drill the head off the bolt. Even easier than finding a welder. Everyone's got a drill right?

nope, living in a small flat for a year so brought minimal tools with me, will get one at work tomorrow im thinking

dont have a drill, dont know a welder. life sucks