I'm very particular with mine but it's based on trial and error to get the position that worked for me. Most people are pretty picky with it though IME as getting it off can cause knee/other problems, particularly on the road where you move around less.

does anyone pay much attention to this

Yup, hate changing cleats as it takes some faffing to get them back in the right position, even worse is swappng over to new shoes and new cleats, I then have a whole world of faff.

I used to ram mine right to the front of the shoe but after an ankle injury I found I was getting sharp pains going over bumps.

I decided to ram the cleats as far back as they would go, and while it feels a bit odd, riding like a postman, I haven't noticed any change in power, endurance or skill levels.

Unfortunately 😀

Thanks. That was kind of where I was going with the question,
e.g would having them positioned more forward have a very small advantage performance wise?

I'm guessing it's just a matter of having them at the comfiest position and having one less thing to worry about while your turning the wheel.

I've only had problems when mine slipped. I guess I had old style cleats to work from.

I think the angle is important...as for fore/aft, they used to say right under the ball, some now say further back, to get less tired calves.

For me - back in the day under the ball of the foot - much further back these days.
Much the same as cynic-al says above = more power and efficiency.

I tend to ride for 6 months, then change shoes (seasonally) and find the others are 'wrong', then I get used to that after a couple of weeks, and repeat.

First ride in the 'summer' shoes yesterday, and the LH one was fine, but RH felt too far back. I may get round to adjusting it. Otherwise when I put the winter shoes back on (next week by the looks of it) the RH one will feel too far forward. A couple of times I've been genuinely shocked that I've got used to a certain position, I think my winter ones had crept forward gradually, they felt horrendous when I changed in the autumn. But had obviously been absolutely fine until Spring, was just compared to my other shoes.

So... sort of.

[url= http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/04/power-to-the-pedal-cleat-position/ ]This guy knows his stuff, [/url]explains the various different positions and ideas.

From Steve Hogg's [url= http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/04/power-to-the-pedal-cleat-position/ ]article[/url] above

Method 2 is ideal for TT, Triathlon, Audax, [b]serious social riding[/b], recreational riding or any event where there tends not be sudden changes of pace.

I love the idea of "serious social riding"

Always a faff for me as my left foot is smaller than my right causing the left cleat to be postioned much further back - almost a half-size, infact.

It's very noticeable if I get it wrong...

Edit : Cynic-Al is right about angle, too. Quite uncomfortable if you get it wrong.

When I was agonising over moving from front to back I thought about digging with a garden spade. I'm more likely to place my instep over the blade than my toes. But in fairness, I'm pretty unlikely to find myself in that position, unless I'm on Community Service.

i have a major issue with fitting my cleats given that my left knee is slightly out of alignment with my left foot, by this i mean it move over to the left side rather than being centre over the foot like my right knee is.

This is a right pain in the balls with cleat fitting, as my right foot is easy to set-up, pretty much takes a couple of mins, but my left foot is horrible as i need my foot more inwards towards the pedal to compensate for the knee being slightly out of alingment with my foot.

This means that i get a LOT of "crank scraping" with my left foot and also my toes on the left foot point outwards quite a lot compared to right foot, really a pain in the arse for fitting cleats so i tend to give up most of the time with my left foot and just bare with it, ie not 100% comtable but suck it up and get on with it.

but cant see any solution to this other than a professional setup which going to cost a bomb, maybe those Eurgon cleat things might help, though do they take into account knee 2 foot alingment????

http://www.lookcycle.com/en/us/look-cycle/technologies/techno-keo-fit.html

http://bikefitkit.com/bicycle_riders/clipless_bike_pedals.php

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2007/01/cleat-position.html

Have major hassle with new shoes and new cleats (SPD). Right knee and hip hurts after just 1h ride 3rd day in a row. Knee feels unstable for the whole day as a result. This despite carefully trying to align new cleats on new shoes in the same position as with old shoe (using spanner method as indicator).

Tonight clicked old and new shoe into pedal at the same time on opposite sides of pedal to see what's the difference on the bike just to find out... tadah!... that the old cleat is so worn that it allows much bigger movement angle than new one.

Adjusted cleat a little. Will see if that's better.
Don't want to file the new cleats, don't want to use the old cleats.

If it all fails:
- which pedals/cleats allow for more rotational movement on the pedal than the SPDs?
- while delivering similar levels of controlled click-in/click-out, mud shedding, stable platform?

LOOK, Time, Speedplay, Egg Beaters...?

Many thanks and frustrated regards!
(I knew that getting new shoes and cleats would result in this kind of never-ending-adjustment hassle)

http://www.nsmb.com/gear/pedals_06_01.php

http://www.rivbike.com/kb_results.asp?ID=45

blablablacksheep - if you've tried Time Freeride pedals (lots of float and a big stable platform) and can't get on with them, have you thought of SPD on right and flat pedal on left.

Isn't there some top downhiller using that combo?