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Cheers for the photos. The front edge looks like it's worn down to about a third of its original thickness. (I've seen worse on my own shoes, mind!) I think the worn tip is the source of your problems. Stick on a new pair of cleats and see what happens. Good luck.

Thanks Richard, Yeah, this is a bit embarrassing now. Photos attached and, safe to say, I haven't looked at these for some time! There is still plenty of edge on the front but not much at the back. I'm ordering some new cleats just now and I'm going to revert to the grey that I started off with to reduce the float. The bike is needing a clean anyway so will pay attention to the pedals and lube while I am there. Cheers, Dave

The plastic Exustar cleats really do wear down quickly, Dave. It's normal to have to replace them. I go through 2-3 pairs a year, which is a pain, but you have to keep on top of it to keep yourself safe. No point saving a fiver then pulling your foot out at 30mph. I'd start by replacing the worn cleats. (Any chance of a photo of them, just to see how much wear and tear there is?)

Keo cleats tend to wear a bit faster than Shimano SPD-SL. It's more based on how much walking is done in them (or even just stopping and placing a foot on the ground) rather than miles riding). The Keo grip cleats last a bit longer than the standard. In the meantime you could try adjusting the release tension see if that improves things. For the noise you could also try removing each bolt on the cleat and adding a bit of grease to the threads. Shimano SPD (the metal mtb style ones) are the longest lasting but for road SPD SL are my favourite - nice big platform. However i have Keo / Garmin Vector pedals on a couple of bikes too, i don't really notice a huge difference between the two. Exustar are usually alright - they make the garmin branded cleats and i've not noticed them last less than the Look ones.

Firstly your cleats , these will wear out depending on how much walking you do on them, generally they can last a long time if you limit the amount of walking , however some maintenance on your cleats help prolong their life, and help better retention , on the front edge of the cleat it’s good practice to take any feather edges off with a file . The pedal body you are using although not as good as Look it’s used by a number of pedal based power meters so not all that bad. Noises well these can be from your pedal bearings , either worn or dry, cleat bolts , pedal threads and maybe too much float, what colour cleat do you use When I came back to cycling the thoughts were have a lot of float so you don’t get sore knees, so I used red cleats max float, however I found too much float hurts my knees so now ride medium float grey cleats or zero float black cleats , however I clean and lube my pedals every three months . Would I change to shimano no not if I am happy with what I am using