How to Adapt Shoes for Bicycle Cleats

If you happen to load all your gear and leave town without your cycling shoes, it's possible to install bicycle pedal cleats on normal shoes. Picking a shoe with a smooth stiff bottom is best, but if you need to, you can cut away any knobs or grips on the bottom of any shoe. You then insert the small mounting plate underneath the shoe sole, line up the screws and screw on the cleat.

Things You'll Need

  • Set of new cleats
  • Shoes
  • Tape measure
  • Utility knife
  • Cordless drill
  • Drill bit, 3/16-inch
  • Phillips screwdriver
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Instructions

    • 1

      Remove the 1 1/2- by 1-inch mounting plates from the packaging. They are flat pieces of metal with two holes in them.

    • 2

      Measure down from the toe on the shoe bottoms 3 1/2-inches for a woman or 4 inches for a man and make a mark with the felt marker. Center the two screw holes on the mark. Draw around the outside of the cleat with the marker.

    • 3

      Lay the arrow-shaped cleat onto the drawing of the metal mounting plate that you just drew. Draw around the arrow-shaped cleat as if it were mounted on the plate.

    • 4

      Cut around the arrow-shaped cleat drawing with the utility knife. Don't go through the sole, but cut away any knobs, protrusions or tread patterns to allow the arrow-shaped cleat to set firmly down on the shoe sole.

    • 5

      Pull the shoe inner sole out of the shoe. Position the cleat into the cut-out opening on the bottom. Using the drill, drill through the holes in the cleat, completely through the bottom of the shoe into the interior of the shoe. Do both shoes.

    • 6

      Pull the shoe open as wide as it will go. Place the mounting plate inside the shoe. Align it directly over the holes that you drilled. Hold the plate there and hold the shoe upside down. Using your other hand, place the arrow-shaped cleat over the holes in the bottom.

    • 7

      Insert the screws into the cleat, push them through until they enter the mounting plate on the inside of the shoe where you are holding the mounting plate. Pick up the screwdriver and screw the cleat to the mounting plate. Replace the shoe sole. Do both shoes.