Hi

My cleats are years old and Ive eventually had enough of the amount of slop when clipped into my XT pedals that I bought some new ones

The thing is I cant get the old ones out of the sodding shoes…..
They are completely stuck

Not being (totally) stupid I washed the shoe, got all the crud out of the hex hole and soaked the cleat assembly in WD40 overnight before I started

Out of 4 bolts one has come cleanly out and the other 3 have just come off second best to my Allen key and have rounded themselves 🙁

Any ideas?
The shoes are fine so Im not about to bin them

Cheers

Get the drill out. Pilot hole to start then drill the bolt through.
Use drill bits for metal..

Dremel worked for me, make a slot you can then fit a flat screwdriver into. Just mind and hold steady if they’re good shoes!

you’re going to have to drill them out now in all likelihood.

Then once the new ones are in, do what i do and loosen them off after every ride. Takes 1 minute max and prevents this happening

(yes, sounds ridiculously anal and you could loosen them weekly, or whatever, but making it part of the clean up routine means i never forget)

TOJV (not had a cleat bolt sieze for 10 years now)

drill them and as he says undo occassionally
I do it about every 3 months or so and use copper slip on the thread to make it easier after suffering the same fate as you