I remember that moment clearly: My buddy and I were about to cycle 62 miles from New York to Cold Spring. We’d already had two flat tires fixed, and 20 miles in, I was struggling to shift the rear derailleur on my Giant Defy bike up and down between the many sprockets.
To my great embarrassment, I discovered that the battery in one of the electronic shifters had died, turning my previously high-tech bike into a very expensive 2-speed. I needed to charge it so I stopped at a bike shop in a lovely little town called Hastings-on-Hudson and had a beer in a nearby bar.
– Cleats can be repositioned for changing riding conditions – paved vs. unpaved, climbing vs. sprinting – where slightly different angles or pressure points work best.
When I set off again I was hours later than planned and ended up only making it as far as Ossining (a 36 mile ride) before I had to grab another beer and catch the train back into the city. Moral of the story: too much technology (especially on the hands and feet of a goofy person like me) can really put you behind.
So, in the latest cycling tech news (huge props to Jessie-May Morgan of Velo), well-known component manufacturer Shimano has patented automatic, on-the-fly adjustment of cleat position via a wireless electronic system that can move your shoe forward, backward, and side-to-side based on information gathered from sensors.
Shimano's Automatic Cleat Shifting Patent Analysis
Note the adjuster (26) between the sole and the cleat and the manually controlled D-pad (60).
If this sounds like technical jargon, I understand, but in more understandable terms based on the diagram, it basically looks like there is an electronic adjuster between the cycling shoe and the cleat that allows the shoe to dynamically move forward or backward, or slide side to side along a rail.
