Heya Jane - that's odd, i've never heard of people cutting up the tread on their shoes..

I've got Candy's as well (Specialized shoes), and i've had zero problems clipping in..

Clipping out is a bit of a different story, i come from a Shimano background, and clipping out with a 'cross step-through was a bit tricky at first (cleat was catching), but it's not an issue now..

Maybe it's more to do with technique than tread..?

Hi there Dave,

Hey I have specialized shoes too, but it seems the rubber tread is grabbing the cleat if I don't get my foot perfectly lined up, which is hard to do in cross when your in a hurry and muddy. When I first put my cleat on the shoe with one spacer the cleat was still lower then the rubber tread so I trimmed it down and that helped some.

With my old cleats and one sided clip pedals I clipped in faster, go figure

Maybe it is just me.

Dave I never had a problem clipping out unless your cleat comes loose then thats another story, good thing it was in practice... rule of thumb check your cleats for tightness regular.

Hey again!

I'm pretty sure the rubber is supposed to be higher than the cleat - at least it always has been in the 5+ pairs of MTB shoes i've had over the last 12+ years..! If the cleat is sticking out beyond the rubber, you'll have trouble walking (i would *hate* to try running up concrete stairs in a 'cross race with the cleats out like that!!!)

I'm guessing that you need to work more on lining up the shoe when you clip in...i've had no problems, and haven't come across this as a problem before...

I'm assuming you're using a racing-oriented shoe? I suppose if it's more of a 'commuter' styled shoe, this might make sense...but even then, the Pearl Izumi commuter shoes i have work fine in these pedals too...

As for my own clip-out problem, it was more to do with me being accustomed to the angles one can clip out of with Shimano cleats, vs the angles tolerated with Crank Bros..mainly just twisting my ankle in a slightly different way to compensate for the mechanism. Had i started riding with Candy pedals, it'd be a non-issue, since i wouldn't have gotten used to clipping out in a slightly different manner. ;)

Well I'm learning, the directions that came with the candy pedals and cleats even mentions trimming the tread if there is to much contact on the sides of your pedals. I think I just need to practice more. Thanks for all your advice I really appreciate it Dave.

Aye, this is news to me, so seems a bit unlikely that it's a very common practice...but who knows!! =)

Good luck with it all!

It depends on the shoe/pedal combonation, but it is fairly common. I've trimmed many a shoe tread in my day both for myself and for friends/customers. You just got to do what makes it work for you. But, if you want to be REALLY PRO, you can also glue on some tread as well. This is usually done behind the cleat on the shoe, and more for shoe on pedaltraction than running traction.