So, it took about three weeks for the supplier to get through the mistakes they made and get me
a shim kit.
Shim kit arrives today.
I examine shim kit. I examine shoe. I examine shim kit some more.
After 15 minutes, I come to the conclusion the shim kit has bugger all the do with my shoe.
The speedplay cleats, you get a baseplate and the cleat. I happened to have the baseplates on my
desk. I pulled them over to look...
Turns out the baseplate is actually *flat* with a couple of these shim things already fitted to it
(the same things I was sent in the post).
So the shims are totally useless and irrelevent, but when they're removed from the baseplate, well,
that baseplate looks just like a 3mm height adjuster!
But I need longer screws for the cleat.
I've had fun getting screws before, for SPD-R cleats. Fun in the sense of "not possible". Zero out
of ten for Shimano.
This time, miracle of miracles, the screws are standard 4mm! I buy the screws I need. Ten out of ten
for Speedplay.
I get home.
I fit baseplate, the wrong way up, and spend 1.5 hours failing to make the cleat and baseplate not
wobble when pushed.
Turn baseplate the correct way up and Robert did indeed turn out to be my father's brother.
Get on bike.
Ride bike.
Feels very nice. Both legs doing pretty much equal work!
Warm up a bit, up the gear, start pushing harder to get up to 250 watts...
...and the fecking cleat and baseplate *slip*.
Yup. The baseplate is too smooth and the screws can't hold it down properly. Apply any decent force
and the cleat moves.
*sigh*.
So, three steps forward; diagnosed hip issue, found a baseplate, got screws for it.
But two steps backwards; bought something irrelevent which took three weeks when I had what I needed
all along, baseplate doesn't work because it's too slippery.
I will get a better fitting screwdriver tommorow and see if I can apply more torque, but I think,
from the feel of the pressure I've applied already, that it won't work. I don't really want to go
for an in-shoe insole, because it will push the top of my foot up against the roof of the inside of
the shoe, but it may be the only solution with these cleats.
Back to riding with the cleat only for tonight.
Life is like programming. You write some code, and then every possible thing that can go wrong,
including some new things that you didn't previously know about, goes wrong. That's the way it is
with programming. Eventually you iron out all the bugs and it works. But wouldn't it have been SO
nice to have been able to plug this baseplate into the cleat and have it actually work?
--
Callas