How to Set Up Cycling Cleats

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Start with the ball of your foot over the pedal axle, your foot pointing the way it naturally points, and the yellow 6-degree cleats that came in the box. Then change one thing at a time over several rides. That is the whole answer, and the most important part of it is the last clause — Shimano’s own guidance is that it “may take several rides to dial the position perfectly”, and it is the instruction most setup advice skips.

Everything numeric below is quoted from Shimano’s published road cleat guide, read on 5 October 2026. We hold no bike-fit data, we have not measured anyone’s knee, and where a figure is not published we say so instead of filling the gap.

What a cleat actually adjusts: three axes, not one

Shimano describes the SPD-SL cleat as having “a three-bolt mounting pattern” with “a channel at each bolt that allows for vertical, lateral, and angular adjustments of the cleat position”, and says that setting those adjustments “will determine how and where a shoe clicks into the pedal and also sets the general riding position of the foot”.

In the language riders actually use, those three are:

Fore-aft — how far forward or back the cleat sits in the sole. This decides where the pedal axle falls under your foot, and it is the adjustment with the largest effect on how the pedal stroke feels.

Lateral — how far the cleat sits towards the inside or outside edge of the sole. This moves your foot in or out relative to the crank, changing the effective width of your stance.

Angular (rotation) — which way the cleat, and therefore your foot, is pointed. This is the one most people get wrong, and the one float exists to forgive.

Float: what it is, and why it belongs to the cleat

Shimano defines float as “a certain amount of angular rotation that a cleat, and thus the rest of a shoe, can freely move before it meets the resistance of the release mechanism on a pedal”, or in plainer terms “how far your toes point toward or away from the bike before meeting resistance”.

The thing worth internalising is that float is a property of the cleat, not the pedal. This is the central finding of our road pedal roundup, and it means you change your float by buying a different coloured plastic wedge, not a different pedal. Shimano publishes three SPD-SL options:

SM-SH11, yellow — 6 degrees. Shimano publishes this as a “six-degree float range (three degrees in each direction)” with the pivot point “in the center of the cleat, allowing the toes to point in a wide range of angles”. It calls this “the most popular option among casual fitness cyclists” and notes the broad range “provides more room for error when setting up cleats”. It recommends it for riders new to cycling, those experiencing knee pain, those lacking flexibility, or anyone who does not know where to start. Our pedal roundup records that this is the cleat Shimano ships with its SPD-SL pedals.

SM-SH12, blue — 2 degrees. Published as “two degrees of float (one degree in each direction)”, with the pivot “at the front of the cleat, which eliminates most lateral movement while allowing a small amount of rotation from the pivot back toward the heel”. Shimano calls it the middle ground.

SM-SH10, red — 0 degrees. Published as having “no float” and being “100% fixed in position”. Shimano’s own caveat matters here: these “require precise cleat positioning, so they are best installed by seasoned riders or with the help of a bike fitting professional”.

One small inconsistency worth flagging, because it confuses people reading the source document itself: Shimano’s page heads that middle section “SM-SH12 Blue SPD-SL Cleats” and then, inside the same paragraph, writes “SM-SH11 Blue cleats”. SM-SH12 is the blue 2-degree cleat and SM-SH11 is the yellow 6-degree one. We are not correcting Shimano; we are telling you what to buy.

The principle that makes the angular adjustment easy

This is the single most useful published sentence in the whole category, so here it is in full. Shimano: “Regardless of your preferred foot angle, the goal is to position the cleats with the neutral foot position in the middle of the float range.”

Neutral foot position, Shimano says, “refers to the most comfortable/efficient position for pedaling”, and it explicitly does not assume that is straight ahead: “For some athletes, this means that both feet point perfectly straight forward. For others, the toes naturally point inward or outward. Injuries on one side of the body can result in different neutral foot positions for the right and left sides.”

So the target is not “point the cleat straight”. The target is centre the float on where your foot wants to be, which means your two cleats may well end up at different angles. Shimano’s stated benefit is that this “allows for even float beyond the neutral foot position, which helps take stress off knees, ankles, hips, and lower back”.

What to look for before you touch a bolt

Four things, and the first two decide whether the rest of this page even applies to you.

One: count the bolt holes in your sole. Three holes in a triangle is the road standard — SPD-SL, LOOK KEO and similar. Two holes side by side is the off-road standard, SPD. Some shoes have both. If you are not sure which system you are in, SPD versus SPD-SL is the page that sorts it, and road versus gravel shoes covers the sole side.

Two: check which cleats are in the box, by colour. On SPD-SL the colour is the float figure, and the figures are above. Shimano’s SPD cleats work differently: our pedal research records a fixed 4 degrees of float and a 13-degree clip-out angle in both the SM-SH51 and SM-SH56, which differ in release directionrather than in degrees — single-release versus multi-release. There is no float choice to make on SPD.

Three: find the torque figure for your pedals, from your pedals. Shimano publishes a cleat fixing bolt torque in each pedal’s own service instruction sheet — the paper in the box. We are not going to print a number here, because si.shimano.com refuses automated retrieval and we will not reprint a figure we have not read. Park Tool’s own published caveat on its torque reference applies and is worth quoting: “Numbers provided for reference only… Contact the manufacturer for the most up to date specifications.” Your pedal’s own sheet is the manufacturer. Use that.

Four: mark the starting position before you move anything. If the shoes are not new, draw round the cleat with a fine marker before you loosen it. That gives you a free undo, and it is the difference between a controlled experiment and starting from scratch.

The procedure, in order

Step one: fore-aft, using the ball of your foot. Put your shoes on, find the widest part of your foot with your thumb, and feel for the bony bump behind your big toe. The conventional starting point is that bump over or just behind the pedal axle. Set both cleats the same, in the middle of their fore-aft channel if you have no reason to prefer otherwise — which leaves you adjustment in both directions later.

Step two: lateral, using your knees. Set the cleats so your feet are not rubbing the cranks and not sitting unnaturally wide. Most people end up near the middle of the lateral range. If your heel hits the crank arm, move the cleat towards the outside edge of the sole — which moves your foot inboard is the counter-intuitive bit, so change it, ride it, and check.

Step three: angular, using your neutral foot position. This is where Shimano’s principle does the work. Sit on the bike, unclipped, and let your feet settle where they want to be. That is your neutral. Set each cleat so the float range is centred there — not so the cleat points straight.

Step four: tighten to the figure on your pedal’s sheet. Three bolts per cleat on SPD-SL, two on SPD. Tighten them progressively rather than one at a time, so the cleat does not skew as it clamps.

Step five: set the release tension, if your pedals have it. Shimano publishes that SPD-SL pedals “have an adjustment screw that dials in the release tension depending on rider confidence and preference”, and is specific about who should go which way: riders new to clipping in, “or those who may not have as much rotational mobility through the hip, knee, or ankle, can opt for a low-tension setting for easy disengagement”, while racers “will crank down the tension to ensure maximum engagement”. If you are new, wind it loose. You can always add tension; you cannot un-fall-over.

Step six: ride it, then change one thing. Shimano’s own advice is to “take your time and make small cleat adjustments as needed” because it “may take several rides to dial the position perfectly”. Change one axis per ride. If you change all three at once and it feels worse, you have learned nothing.

When to stop and see a bike fitter

This is the part where a page like this should know its limits. Cleat position is the interface between your skeleton and a machine, and the published advice above is Shimano’s general guidance rather than anyone’s assessment of you.

Shimano itself points this way twice — recommending a bike fitter for the zero-float red cleats specifically, and more generally saying “visit a local shop or bike fitter for help dialing everything in”. We would add one specific trigger: new knee, hip or Achilles pain that arrived with the cleats is not a tinkering problem. Put the 6-degree yellow cleats in, set the float centred on neutral, and if it persists, get looked at by someone who can watch you pedal.

Two other float systems, for completeness, both recorded on our pedal roundup. LOOK publishes its KEO GRIP cleat in 0, 4.5 and 9 degrees but does not publish which angle is in the box, so check the packet. Wahoo publishes Speedplay float as adjustable from 0 to 15 degrees with an independently micro-adjustable 0 to 7.5 degree release, which is the widest published adjustment range of any system we have specs for.

Position is this page; the movement is another. How to use clipless pedals covers the heel-out release itself, the published 13-degree SPD clip-out, and the four situations every clipless fall happens in.