zeo_max

This is from just one single ride, they were new before that. It's my first time using clipless, so I scratched the cleat against the pavement a fair bit when practicing before going out on the road, just because obviously I wasn't born knowing how to do this.

So I'm wondering if this is normal wear for a single ride or if my inexperience accelerated the decay of the cleats life.

roadiejorge 

if you were scraping them against the pavement repeatedly then that's to be expected.

Beaker

Maybe - Keo cleats do wear down if you do a lot of walking in them - try not to drag your foot on the ground as you come to a stop, etc. Don't sweat it until the cleat wear indicators start showing (you see white teflon coming through those little holes at the rear of the cleat.)

Still, cleat covers are your friend.

zeo_max

Yeah. The thing here though is that I was landing on the cleat when coming to a stop (and thus slipping) before finding out that I had to land on the back of the shoe which has rubber on it.

nablack

I rode with Keo's last summer and found that the cleats had a really short lifespan, even when I was being careful not to walk on them more than I had to. I switched brands because of this.

Homebrew01

After a single ride they should look new.
Your foot shouldn't touch the ground until you've stopped, so there shouldn't be any scraping either on the cleat or your heel.

I get a couple of years out of cleats.

noise boy

Also you might want to consider the gripper version of the Keo cleats, there is rubber where the wear indicators are on the no gripper version.

GP

I walk on mine w/o covers and still get 3-5000 miles out of them. So 2 sets per year at $20 per set = $3.35 per month.

valygrl

Yeah, I go through about 3-4 cleats a year on my clip-out foot, and 1-2 on the other foot. I don't replace them as pairs, just as the individual cleat wears out. Don't worry about it. They get harder to clip/unclip when they wear out, which is counterintuitive.

M_FactorX19

i get about a year out of a set of cleats. my cleats look newer than that after 3 months of use and i walk on them a lot.

Excelsius

Didn't know there was such a thing. However, is there something similar to Cleatskins for bike shoes? That would be even better, if not as portable.

And I am a beginner too and use Shimano SPD-SL pedals. I walked in mine a bunch of times on asphalt and barely had any wear on cleats. Like some mentioned, don't drag them on the ground. Walk with your feet directly lifting up perpendicular to the ground.

back4more

Use the brakes instead of the Flintstone stopping method.

garysol1 

+1..... you should be practically stopped before putting your foot down. Anyone who is wearing out cleats and are not walking on them needs to practice there unclipping/stopping method.....