I thought I would post this little story of mine to help others avoid getting hurt. I have Eggbeater C's on my commuter, mountain bike and recently on one of my road bikes. Not realizing how quickly the cleats would wear out I had not changed them in apparently what is considered a long time. In case you ride on Eggbeaters these cleats are a relatively soft brass so you need to change them out more frequently than SPD or LOOK. I had these same cleats for about 2 years and I commute pretty regular. Today I took my first spill on a road bike, unfortunately is was in a busy intersection. I had been stopped and went to take off and when I pulled up my cleat popped loose and down I went :eek: I had my backpack full of books so I dropped everything like a ton of bricks. The good news is I did NOT scratch my new bike, or get ran over by a car whew :D However, my badly bruised ankles did not fare so well. I busted my finger up, my elbow is missing a chunk, got bruises on my inner thigh and rear end and two recently green ankles. The bike is new to me so I was convinced something was wrong with the chain. I thought the chain jumped a ring. Once I got home and bandaged myself up I thought to check the cleats on my shoes. They were about half the thickness they are supposed to be. So..... if you haven't checked your cleats lately I suggest that you do so. I seriously didn't even think about it even though I was noticing more play in my pedals. I assumed it was just the pedals getting old. Not the case. I'm just glad I was not standing and climbing or it could have been a lot uglier.
Humor me and everyone do a cleat check. :)
