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I have just bought a nice new pair of Lake gravel shoes and they have carbon soles. There is a sticker on them saying that if using various cleat brands, incl TIME ATAC, to use the pedal manufacturers shoe shields/shims to protect the soles.
These shields seem to be largely out of stock in the UK, hmmm. Any experiences of them, I'm guessing they are pretty essential given the big warning sticker !
EDIT - some googling seems to suggest that the Crankbrothers ones work perfectly with TIME ATAC cleats, and do appear to be readily available..
I also had the warning sticker on Lake winter boots (not carbon). Shoes were too expensive to risk so I'm using the Crank Bros plates with Time cleats. There are various slots on the plates - presumably to align with things on the CB cleats that don't match the Time cleats. However they do seem to still work and not had trouble with them moving or coming loose.
I've never had issues with other shoes and the Time cleats in 25 years so wonder how much of a problem it really is. Kind of feels like it is a Lake issue and they should be telling you at point of sale and providing a solution that comes with the shoes (especially given the price).
I've had three pair of shoes/boots over the ~19 years I've had Time ATAC, but fortunately, they have all had non-carbon soles and so I've not come across this before.
I can see the potential problem, with those tough brass-like cleats being clamped across a few millimetres of carbon.
Subscribing to thread to try and keep aware of updates.
thanks, I have ordered the Crankbrothers shoe shield plates and will report back !
It's the wear from the bars that is the issue. I've seen shoes without them resulting in long grooves in the sole and the cleat rattling around in the pedal. Especially if you are a habitual foot wobbler, or use a lot of the float that's available.I can see the potential problem, with those tough brass-like cleats being clamped across a few millimetres of carbon.
I use the crankbros plates without issue. And there was someone selling Ti ones a few years ago, though mine are all long since gone!
Kind of feels like it is a Lake issue and they should be telling you at point of sale and providing a solution that comes with the shoes (especially given the price).I've seen similar warnings on SIDI and Northwave shoes in the past. But haven't bought any for a while, so not sure what they do now!
I've worn divots in carbon soled shoes with time pedals.
I tried plates, they bent
Shoe shields are a mixed blessing. They can bend and occasionally the bar on the pedal tries to engage under the front of the shoe shield but mostly they are fine.
Lake put the warning on all soles - not just carbon. I've never seen it on NW or Sidi non carbon (but not bought any in a long time so that might have changed).
The plates generally work ok but I've occasionally had them snag on the edges and cautious about bending. I wouldn't like to race CX with them where you just want to bash cleats back in pedals without thinking.
CB/Time pedal bars can wear into any carbon soles fairly quickly. Nothing unique to Lake. But surely the bars will stop wearing into the sole once the shoe lugs are sat on the pedal wings for support? I found they wore in a little bit, but didn't go any further. Enough to cause aesthetic damage but not structural.
I have used Time Atac pedals for over 20 yrs, though till now never with carbon soles. They do normally wear a bit of a groove into the rubbery plastic sole base, though only once, on a pair of pretty worn mtb shoes, did the wear get to a stage where i could feel any looseness in the interface while riding.
Have old Lake mx331 shoes they are on turbo duty now. Don't worry about out the carbon, have worn out the rubber sole and the carbon round the Time Atac cleats is still OK.
This is the weak link in Time & Crank Bros pedal systems (the other being that CB will fail on you).
This is exactly what Shimano do so well, why settle for less?
Never had an issue you time attac pedals and any shoe in 25 yes of using them on all bikes
I just retired Time pedals from mtb and gravel as clipping out was becoming very inconsistent and I had couple of falls because being unable to clip out. I have 4 pairs of shoes in use, some of them with CB shields and some without- all of them have had issues but carbon soled Specializeds with shoe shields being the worst.
I changed to Look X-Track pedals and cleats, they have managed to get extra 2 degrees from Shimano compatible cleats and yet feel more stable than old 540s and 520s. Time will tell how they last (pun intended) but am not expecting old school Shimano durability.
Definitely add shoe shields when shoes are new - shields are so thin that they conform to already worn sole and it’s grooves.
I will be sticking with Time as they work very well with my dodgy knees, and all bikes and shoes are on Time gravel, MTB or road pedals and cleats.
Have shields coming tomorrow so will get them on before shoes are used.
thanks for all the pointers and ideas.
- Time have easy cleats as well , prefer them for gravel / MTB / touring rides as in much easier to release and not had any issues like unclipping mid ride.
^^^ The Easy cleats are same as ATAC, just an 'easier' release angle choice of 10 degrees rather than 13 degrees. Mechanically and structurally they are the same. I have moved all my 2 bolt cleat shoes over to them in the past year or so, and have never come unclipped by mistake.
I changed to Look X-Track pedals and cleats, they have managed to get extra 2 degrees from Shimano compatible cleats and yet feel more stable than old 540s and 520s. Time will tell how they last (pun intended) but am not expecting old school Shimano durability.
Very easy to service, for what it's worth, although I've not tried swapping bearings or anything. Single 6mm socket I think once you've used some needle nosed pliers to unscrew the dust cap. Mine were creaking a bit but I'm hoping a bit of grease has solved that.
Very easy to service
Nice to know, I hope they don’t need that too often.
I was using Easy cleats but still had issues - my guess is that Time bars catch shoe grooves and shoe shield grooves when trying to unclip weighted foot.
I was using Easy cleats but still had issues - my guess is that Time bars catch shoe grooves and shoe shield grooves when trying to unclip weighted foot.
CB shields arrived yesterday so will pop them on later today and hopefully no issues with the bars catching them. Will be pretty disappointed if they do, as it will mean that Time ATAC and similar pedals are not really suitable for carbon soled shoes, which I find hard to grasp, given the thousands that surely must use that combination.
Fingers crossed
Just reporting back on this. The cleats and shields work ok, however the brass Time cleats have small ridges on the shoe facing side, to help grip the sole.
On rubbery soles these dig in a bit with use, making them solid and snug. With the shields, they can’t dig in so this increases the lug/bar/shield space (height) a fraction, giving the pedal/shoe a slight rattle. Just a bit of an annoyance really..
I also have a nice pair of carbon Rapha gravel shoes that I need to set up, undecided about shields or not on these ones..
I don't think the issue you are having is due to the protector Iain. I just got some lakes and with a standard Shimano cleat the protrusions on the back of the pedal don't really dig into the shoe. This leaves the shoe tread a couple of mm clear of the pedal body meaning the shoe is unstable.
I queried this with lake who described it as "ideal" as the tread would be damaged by the pedals if they touched. My conclusion was that lake dont understand how an spd style shoe is meant to interact with a pedal.
Does anyone know of lower profile than normal spd (or any similar system) cleats? Comfy shoes by borderline unusable at the moment!
Thanks, that makes sense, though not sure what the solution is, as I want to stick with Time.
Brass Time cleat and the ridges cause a problem?
Dremel time.
It’s only a £20 cleat (actually how much are they these days), how wrong can you go?
Actually, that’s a decent idea, may give it a go
Spoke to local bike shop, they are ordering me in a few pairs of the proper Time ones, the ridges on the cleats will align with the slots on the Time shields and all should sit snug as it should.. unfortunately it’s a 12 week lead time for delivery 🙄.
I didn’t know there were Time ones (recent swapped to Look pedals as my Times were absolutely knackered).
I used the CB ones for years after wearing grooves in a pair of Shimano shoes.
Yeah, they are very similar to the CrankBros ones, but the slots in the shields align properly. The CB ones don’t, and the cleat sits a bit high. I have ‘’adjusted’ the slots with Dremel on the CB ones, they work, but won’t last as there isn’t enough metal left.