Adjusting SPD pedals

[Dogmama]

I just put SPD's on my mountain bike. Lawdy, getting unclipped takes a man & a horse! How do I loosen up these puppies? I saw two allen bolt holes & tried turning those, but it didn't seem to help. Maybe I didn't turn enough - since I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't want the whole pedal falling off

Thanks!

[flash]

On each side of each SPD pedal, there are tiny bolts that you can tighten/loosen with an Allen key. The newer pedals have a "+", "-", and an arrow to help you remember which way will tighten and which way will loosen. Loosen those bolts even more if you are having trouble unclipping, then tighten them as you get used to the pedals. I don't think you can hurt the pedals by loosening too far ... I am recovering from a sprained ankle & have the "bad side" loosened as far as possible. That's bad b/c my foot will pop out when I'm climbing, but good b/c I am riding instead of sitting on the couch waiting until I am strong enough to unclip.

If you loosened the bolts and don't see a difference, is it possible you only adjusted one side of each pedal?

Happy riding!

[OakLeaf]

Shimano's website has detailed instructions for all their pedals. Go to the "Products" pull-down menu (left side of the menu bar right underneath the title), select "Pedals," and then select your particular pedals from there. There are two .pdf's for each product; the "EV" file is the parts fiche and the "SI" file is the service instructions.