Shimano XT PD-T8000 – Difficulty clipping in and out?

I’ve been a reasonably long term user of SPDs (2016-ish) and progressed from M530s to the newer ME700s on my gravel bike. No dramas and haven’t fallen off for a long time. ME700s have probably done around 300 miles in total since fitting.

I picked up a lovely Orbea Oiz which is mainly XT Deore spec (inc the cranks). So fitted the XT PD-T8000 pedals (the ones which are platform one side, and SPD the other).

I’m really struggling to clip and unclip.

I can’t work out if it’s new pedals needing to be broken in, or if the SPD ‘area’ on these T8000s is closer to the crank arm than the ME700s? About to get the tape measure out to test the latter.

Using the same Adidas Velosamba shoes on both, the cleats were new 300 miles ago but are the SH-51 single release rather than the multi release 56s that came with the T8000 pedals. For what it’s worth, I’m a size 12 in cycling shoes so never an easy fit and have to usually move the cleats closer to my instep than desirable anyway.

I’ve seen some pedal thread extenders, wondering if it’s worth giving those a shot or if there are any horror stories? Also seen adding some washers suggested but unsure if there’s a minimum insertion depth (I reckon an extra 1mm may help my issue)?

I think (maybe someone has done the FEA) the pedal thread isn’t supporting the load directly, it’s pulling the pedal axle onto the crank and it’s the lip of the axle that supports the load. Putting a couple of mm of spacers on the axle shouldn’t affect that.

No idea whether this helps or not, but I had similar problems with some 5:10 shoes (can’t remember which ones as it was about 5 years ago).

When I looked at the length of the sole cutout for the cleat it was a LOT shorter than some other Shimano shoes I had. Anyway, even trying the shoes with other bikes with a variety of different Shimano pedals, I concluded the shoe design was at fault cos the cutout was too short.

(And I think they were size 45 or 46 and I don’t know whether the sole cutoff is linked to shoe size)

I can’t see how clipping in would be affected by the crank arm as it doesn’t require any foot rotation. Assume you’ve backed off the clip tension? I’d look at the pedal body and sole being incompatible first.

Looks like my edit disappeared in the browsing problems I was having yesterday.

I got the tape measure out and the centre point of the SPD interface on the pedal, is about 1mm closer to the crank arm on the T8000s, than the ME700s.

I’m wearing size 12 Adidas Velosamba so I’ve very little clearance to the crank arms when clipped in anyway, but it seems it’s even closer with the T8000 Pedals.

Tension is fully backed out, I’ve always made that same adjustment when fitting all three models of Shimano SPD pedals I’ve owned. Same shoes don’t cause me an issue on the ME700 pedals.

Will try and source a 1mm washer, thanks folks.

I’ve two pairs, the older without pins and the newer with.

No bother with either. Great pedals for pub/commuter bikes.

Does the pedal only work with a particular type of cleat – and you are using the wrong type (single release versus multi -release)?

Don’t think so mate, they did come with a set of SH56s (multi) which I’ve left unused but the pedal manual states you can use either SH51 or SH56.

As I say with a tape measure there’s an approx 1mm difference to the centre point, looking at my other pedals, I reckon when I get around to figuring out a washer that’ll sort it

Coming back to this in case anyone else is affected by similar in the future.

I bought some 9/16″ 1.2mm aluminium spacers off ebay, approx £3 for a pack of 10. The seller initially sent out copper so had to ask for replacements (I think copper and aluminium cause galvanic corrosion in the presence of water)?

I did a test with one fitted to the drive side, two fitted to the non-drive side.

First discovery was that it was difficult to remove the pedals even after a couple of months, and had to get a 3 foot breaker bar out. I’d originally done them up using a torque wrench, believe Shimano give the range as 35nm to 55nm and I’d have gone for the middle.

Test fit – they started to deform after 35nm, to the point where there would be negligible benefit in the spacing they’d offer.

Took them back out and had to use side cutters to remove the washers as they wouldn’t pass over the thread anymore.

A few experiments later and torquing up to 36nm, the problem I had clipping out is resolved. That does confirm that the 1mm or so that the SPD interface is closer to the crank arm on the T8000s, causes a problem with larger feet/shoes, that isn’t present on the ME700s.

I couldn’t get an accurate reading with the torque wrench on the drive side, despite cleaning off all grease and starting again I wasn’t getting an obvious click, even with the smaller wrench on a lower setting.

So all patched up but it doesn’t take much force with a wrench to loosen the bolts. Not sure whether that’s because they’re freshly disturbed or because the pedals are now mating against a washer rather than the crank. The rotational direction of pedals should prevent any ‘naturally occurring’ issues and I imagine a lot of home bike mechanics don’t have torque wrenches.

I’m tempted to buy some titanium ones I’ve seen listed on Amazon but I’d think they’d still deform under similar pressure?