When you first begin to cycle as a child, you hop onto a regular platform pedal wearing athletic shoes and don't give the matter another thought. If you become more enamored of cycling as you get older and start putting in the miles, though, you want to maximize your stroke efficiency. Designers have created a system to transfer energy from your foot to the pedal without wasted motion. This is where a specialized bicycle shoe and cleat arrangement comes in.
Cleats
Road-bike shoes feature a cleat that protrudes from the sole, while mountain-bike cleats feature a recessed cleat, REI notes. Both feature stiffer soles to maximize your energy as you pedal, as well as stiffer uppers, particularly for road bikes. When you ride, the cleats need to be locked into a specialized matching pedal to keep your foot gripped in place. The locking process is called "clipping in" and "clipping out," and you may want to wear just one cleated shoe at first until you master safely clipping out when you come to a stop. To clip in, place the ball of your foot on the pedal until you hear the cleat mechanism click. Swing your heel out to disengage from the pedal.
Toe Clips
You may have added toe clips, also called toe cages, to your platform pedal to improve your ability to generate power when pulling as well as pushing the pedal during its crank revolution. As part of the switch to clipless pedals -- the term for pedals that connect to cleats -- you do not need the toe clips. The entire platform pedal, toe clips and all, needs to be removed and replaced with a clipless pedal.
Types
If you already have clipless bike shoes, turn them over and look at the number and shape of the holes in the sole. Two oblong slots indicate you have the SPD type, and three round holes in a triangle shape indicate the Look type, explains marathoner Heather Neal of SideoftheSneakers.com. If the shoe sole has both slots and holes, you can wear them with either SPD or Look pedals; otherwise, the sole openings need to fit the pedal cleats.
Process
Your old bike pedals come off by applying a wrench to the bolts that attach them to the cranks. The left pedal is reverse threaded and needs to be loosened by turning clockwise; the right pedal is a typical thread loosened by turning counterclockwise. The new clipless pedals simply bolt back on the cleats. The pedals come with a matching cleat, which needs to be bolted to the sole of your shoes using an Allen key. Then the shoe with its cleat on the sole clips in to the new pedal.
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