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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@Chris
Well, there you have it! It comes down to what @Marcus said about being bona fide, and quite frankly I'm a bit taken aback by the fact that anyone has gone down this path for that reason; take even a sideways glance at anything a Keeper rides with, and you'll see we use this shit. It's all very obvious to anyone paying any attention at all. One of the beautiful things about being a consumer is you get to pick all the best bits and use them. We're not beholden to chose a set of Bora wheels because Campagnolo sponsors the Keepers (they don't). We pick what we think is the best product and we use it and if we love it eventually we'll do a Reverence. Or not, as Gianni said, we're making this shit up as we go along. Kind of. I do have a plan and a vision, but the details shake out as we poke holes in the model.
Honestly, I hadn't put the time in to build in the disclaimer about Reverence articles because I didn't imagine anyone would be so cynical as to think we'd sacrifice the reputation we spent years to build (shut up, Marcus) for a few bits of kit. But, again, the point is well taken and I'll put that at the top of the list. Its worth clarifying.
@frank
Bollocks! I was just skimming down the comments, thinking about the Underpants Gnomes, and BAM! Well played.
@frank
Keepers Tours? 2013? What? I've been hearing inklings about Flanders, what about Italia?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/florence-to-host-2013-road-world-championships
How's about it?
@sgt
I'm not going to start charging a cover fee to gain access to Velominati, but I might implement a questionaire that you have to pass before being allowed to set up an account. It would go something like:
1. Is Team America funny?
2. Is South Park funny?
If you answer "no" to either of those, you don't get to go on to question 3.
KT2013 is locked and loaded (announcement coming next week) but there's no saying we can't do a second one out there. The trick is finding the right partners for these things, to ensure the trip has the right feel to it. The Pavé boys are kindred spirits and William holds the distinction of being the only person I've met who swears more than I do.
Maybe they are interested in guiding the Worlds. They're doing one this year with Museeuw.
@sgt
I'm the big five oh next year and would really like to do something awesome and cycling related and that folks sounds like the tits.
I might even buy one of you a small beer.
Love the site as it is,bend while I trust you guys implicitly (obviously) I'm big enough to make my own gear decisions. Will I use fizik tape, doubt it, they haven't got the right colour. Would I mind ads on the site, probably not, but I do prefer it without.
Do I appreciate the time everyone but especially the keepers put in? Most definitely yes.
And according to my son's story book, Aliens love Underpants, Phase 2 is "stop meteorite hitting Earth, with collected underpants"
Incidentally, I am concerned of this talk of underpants, as I don't wear any when on this site, I am aleays dressed rule abidingly when commenting
@frank
1 - I am not alone - Frank runs the same business model I do
2 - Ok Flanders it is then
@RedRanger
The BG Gel's are bombproof and I used them for years but recently started feeling like there was too much padding. Tried on various gloves at the LBS and ended up picking these Izumi Select. Black, of course. The split padding on the palm fits my hand better. Inexpensive too.
I also have a pair of nice Castelli full finger gloves but rarely get to use them in my climate.
@frank
Have you thought about going down the kick starter route? Seems to be all the rage at the moment for investment revenue generation.
@Gianni Yes I'll be there! Hoping to take some good photos. That's the place!
If Fraink Straick gets a free pair of shoes for putting up with me he's underpaid.