I’m old as dirt. My first two race bikes employed toe clips and toe straps and that set-up was bad. For many reasons it was bad and any retro-hipster who thinks otherwise is wrong. When Lemond and Hinault started racing on the white Look clipless pedals, everyone but Sean Kelly quickly switched. Talk about a quantum improvement, it was long overdue change. Look made improvements to their models, like the notion of float, and other manufactures jumped in. The new paradigm was a cleat on the pedal, like the original quill pedal system but with a spring loaded snap-in, twist-out pedal. Everyone was happy.
Everyone is happy until you have to replace a worn out plastic cleat. Did I walk a lot in my cycling shoes? Did all liquor stores have rough cement floors with giant moving sanding belts in front of the cash registers? I don’t remember that but I do remember replacing cleats too often and the duplication of cleat position was tedious. I could live with that, practice makes perfect but it was the creaking that drove me to madness. No amount of wax could stop the occasional creaking the cleat and pedals would make while climbing. Rule #65 was being violated before it was a Rule.
Wiser friends had already switched to Speedplay pedals. I was a little wary; they looked weird. One day into using them I understood: total frictionless float, two-sided entry, mindless pedal release. There is no cleat alignment issue as the pedal has no fixed position in the cleat. I was overcome with regret. Why had I waited so long? Why did I stick with creaking Look French pedals? Life is too short for such rubbish and I wasted too much of my cycling life with them. I’ve been using the X-series stainless steel pedals and the original pair was happily going on eighteen-plus years until I replaced the pedal needle bearings and bodies…I don’t want to talk about it. If you employ the good aftermarket cleat covers, and use a little white lightning teflon on the cleat spring bales, the cleats can last a few years. The pedal bodies have grease injector ports. Inject, wipe clean and that is the maintenance routine, easy and fun.
I’ve never used another model of Speedplay so I can’t speak to the advantage of limited float. When riding my right foot does a weird swing out toward the bottom of each stroke. To my mind that is a good thing, the float allows my leg to do that, without that maybe some extra knee wear would occur.
Frank and I have discussed the great pedal switch and his major obstacle to switching pedals is having to switch the whole n+1 stable over and that is not cheap. For Frank and VHM that stable may be five bikes. That’s a lot of pedals. Inertia. Commitment. It’s a big problem. Or one takes Marko’s approach: different shoes for each bike.
I have brand loyalties but if another cycling product is superior in form and function I hope I will see that and move on. Campagnolo gruppos and Chris King headsets are two brands on my bikes that I don’t see moving away from but I would ditch either of those before I would stop using Speedplay pedals. I’m that convinced.
This film is from Peloton’s website. It’s an interesting look at some American cycling manufacturing including Speedplay.
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@ChrisO this reminds me of my favorite tri mantra, "Swim, Bike, Run, We're good at none". Repeat.
@pakrat I get sick evertime I see that picture.
@RedRanger
One, I also am a big fan of Specialized shoes and gloves and saddles. Specialized actually thinks about design.
Did I make fun of you? I don't think so. It's the opposite. I was the one who didn't lube his screws and moaned about creaking Look pedals. Congrats on the new shoes. No one does that. I'm very impressed by Northwave-Vittoria.
@ChrisO
Ohhh, heading into dangerous ground here but I completely agree with you. But, in all fairness to the site, they never claim to be objective about anything!
But, yeah, seems really tainted to me when there is a reverance piece about some new gear that just happens to be a site sponsor. Seems like a sell out. But then again, they do not get paid any money by us to run this site and if they get free products or reduced prices, good on them! Torn on this one. Fortunately it really does not matter what I think about it!
But I do love the retro-reverance pieces. I have learned a great deal from those ones.
Okay Keepers, feel free to through me into the penalty box.
@tessar
"we found out that the company refuses to deal with my country,"
Dates jammed in cleats, where do you live? It sounds interesting.
Float-no float, Yeah, I agree that pros don't seem to need it. But you see pros screwing around with their cleats enough that they may wish they had some. My knees are old and worn so I'm glad not to put any additional strain on them.
@Buck Rogers
I actually don't mind if the site gets sponsored by a given brand and then has a reverence piece for the stuff. Its just the stuff that gets revered at times isn't something I like, need, or care for.
I will be trying Fizik bar tape once the OEM Giant stuff, which isn't terrible, wears out.
@Oli
I haven't wrote a piece that has made it onto the site since my Irene piece. I have terrible writing skills, I am a scientist after all, but maybe I can put something together.
@Gianni Do they make good gloves as well? I am in dire need of new gloves myself. Just never get around to buying any. What model are you using?
@Steampunk
As I said before, I really don't do much myself. A little teflon every few weeks if they seem to need it but I agree, they are not trouble. And I inject the bearings maybe every other year or when they seem buggered. Yeah, no trouble.
@graham d.m.
Nice work laddie. Love a good abstract.
I'm always confused about the "have to flip over the pedal" argument, at least for Shimano SPD-SLs. The back of the pedal always points down because of the weight - no "flipping" involved.
@King Clydesdale No, I was relating to ChrisO comments, not yours. Not sure why your name was in my quoted post. I guess that ChrisO had responded to your post.