DIY Spin Cycling Shoe Cleat Screws

I have a pair of cycling / spin shoes with "clipless" SPD cleats, but the cleat screws were mangled due to lousy manufacturing.

My local shop charges $25 to install cleats. I don't mind supporting the local shop, but that's ridiculous. I'll support the local shop with my money when they use expertise and skill, but not for turning less than a handful of 45¢ screws. And replacement generic screws on Amazon or eBay cost like $10! Even that is insane. So I decided that the fastener section of my local hardware store was the solution.

The Screws to Buy For SPD Cleats

The fastener industry is mature and professional. They make fantastic products. Cleat screws are absolutely nothing special. And the local hardware store more than likely carries what I need.

That said, it is important to get the right screw. Using the wrong screw for the given application could cause trouble.

In general, in my experience, SPD cycling cleats use the following fastener:

Stainless steel metric machine screw
Diameter: M5
Length: 10 mm (1 cm) long
Drive: flat, with 4mm hex (allen) head

So I went to the hardware store and found these as a good substitute at 45¢ each:

Stainless steel metric machine screw
Diameter: M5
Length: 10 mm (1 cm) long
Head: flat, with 3mm hex head

Note that the only screw I could find at the local hardware store sports a 3mm allen head, whereas the bike industry uses a 4mm allen head. There is one advantage to the 4mm head: a 4mm head isn't easily damaged by using the improperly-sized 5/32" hex wrench. I don't care about that advantage because I'm not an idiot.

In my ideal world, all of these screws would be better off with with a Torx (star) T-25 head. Torx screw heads wear far better than an easily-damaged hex screw head. But the bike industry is very very slow to change, and my hardware store only had the screws I needed with a 3mm hex head, so that's what I bought.

With screws in hand, I coated their threads with a dot of blue "thread locker" to reduce the chance of the screws backing out from under the stresses of pedaling. Thread lock is a simple but wonderful thing, and it should prevent the need from over-torquing (and thus ruining) screws.

Finally, I installed the screws into my shoes at roughly 15 pounds on my little 3mm hex wrench. Complete!

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, part 1: Disassembly Guide

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I added an HDHomerun (HDHR) over-the-air (OTA) streaming box to my home network, bringing over-the-air broadcast TV to my computers, phones and tablets. The HDHR is a big upgrade from my previous setup: using a simple "window mount" antenna directly connected to my TV. A TV-attached antenna is good for watching some TV for free, but the HDHR offers so much more flexibility. Figure 0: HDHomeRun on my basement wall My original OTA TV setup was haphazard at best. It was finicky, ugly, and hard for other people at home to use. I would actually tape my antenna to a window whenever I wanted to watch OTA TV. Plus, it only worked on my TV and not with my other devices. I wanted a cleaner and more modern OTA setup. After looking at possibilities, I developed two goals: (1) bring my OTA TV into the modern Internet-connected era, and (2) set it up in a reliable and pretty way so that other family members wouldn't have to fool around with the antenna or anything else. With that,...

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The Lance J. Technoweb

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