Speedplay zero pedals what am I doing wrong?

[Shambler]

I bought myself a nice new pair of speed play stainless pedals along with a new pair of Northwave extreme road shoes. I also purchased the Northwave adaptor kit for speedplay pedals.

Last night I put everything together as the manual suggested but alas I cannot get pedal to connect to shoe. What is the likely cause of problem? I realise I might be doing something really dumb and prepared to take a bit of stick.

[option click]

Could be that you've done the screws up too tight - that'll restrict the movement in the cleat and make it difficult to engage.

Could be that you simply have your foot in the wrong position - Speedplays can take a bit of practice.

Could just be that they're new - you need to push pretty hard to engage with brand new pedals and cleats. As they wear, it'll become much easier.

Edit: You haven't got the coffee stop caps on have you?

[drinks]

I would also guess at either screws too tight, or not pressing hard enough to engage. I recall having to exert a higher than anticipated amount of pressure to get them to click the first couple of times.

[nammynake]

Have you tried clipping in with your foot or just using the shoe in your hand? Clipless pedals are surprisingly tough to engage!

[MadDad]

I would also guess the screws are slightly too tight, I use a tiny bit of loctite on mine so you don't feel the need to overtighten the screws....

Just a thought, but you have not put one of the cleats on the wrong way around (in effect upside-down)....?

[Shambler]

I think from the feedback it may be a case of over tightening the screws. Will recheck tomorrow. In the meantime I'm relying on my old xt mountain bike pedals.

[CVP]

I found my Speedplays quite difficult to get into the first couple of times but they loosened up pretty quickly

[BMWBen]

You should feel some clicks on the cleat screws as they start to get tight. You should only tighten to the first solid click. On my shoes that's the third one (the first two are quite weak).

Also, make sure that you've use the right shims for your shoe - the cleat mounting plate should be absolutely flat. If you haven't got the shims right you may have forced a bend into the plate as it was tightened up against the sole. If that happens then things go wrong.

Good luck!