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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@itburns
maybe, but he sure has an amazing amount of "I am a flaming asshole" in his so understated reponse.
How about everyone lighten up and be grateful we're not having to read Reverence articles about these horrible pedals.
@Gianni
Thanks for taking me down memory lane with your opening sentence,
"My first two race bikes employed toe clips and toe straps and that set-up was bad".
I've still got he toe nails to prove it! Even though X-country skiing killed my toes in my teens.
Nasty stuff ingrown toe nails and riding!
Anyhow, dragged my first clip-less pedals from the depths of my left over boxed bike bits:
Keywins (made in New Zealand) from ~1986/87. WOW! 121 grams each! Talk about Speedplay cleats clogging up, the cleats to these were dirt magnets. Always clogging up on the center locating post. They seemed to be made from glass filled nylon and wore out quite rapidly. After purchasing another pair, then managed to get just the pedals, I found a way of reattaching the locking block by screwing on some plastic knocked off from tech school.
But hey, back in the day, these were the Speedplay's of today!
And from Bicycle Guide July 1987
Far out! Just did a Google on Keywin and they are still making pedals! I would've never thought that!
http://www.keywin.com/crmclipless.php
@sthilzy Yeah, what is it about XC skiing and toes. I have two totally messed up toes from my years of racing in high school and college.
Settle down, folks (though I'm grateful for the extended and passionate diversion from work this morning). A more tactful @Marcus might have suggested that even good journalism (something of which we see precious little these days) is loaded with bias"”and to resist that (as author or reader) is ridiculously naïve at best and downright malevolent at worst. In journalism, there is no higher ground, just degrees of diligence, incompetence, and mendacity"”and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. This coming from a "professional" historian who long ago gave up any pretensions about uncovering any real truth about the past (cue: Frank pointing out"”again"”how silly history is, since we already know what already happened). For the record, too, I'm not asking for a more tactful Marcus, because"”glory"”that would make this place much less interesting, but I don't think I'm far off the mark in translating his trademark Aussie incoherence.
@ChrisO For a professional journalist whose nostrils are prone to flaring at the slightest sign of impropriety, you have an uncanny knack for reading what you want into what people post here. It's a chronic feature of your participation"”reading past the intended point of the article or the comments and then firing some overly critical vitriol back. Read (carefully) and practice a little empathy. Then go for a ride and reflect on la vie Velominatus (and what that means) and what the site is about and what it is trying to do. Really reflect.
More than anything, what I love about this site is the overridingly positive message about the magic of riding and le vélo. It's a place I come to escape the negativity and douche-baggery that is common throughout the cycling community in general. There's a (relative) absence of alpha-dog behaviour here (beyond @minion's reported sheep fetish, but that's just sick). Just the other day, I was starting in on a steeper climb near home. I gently passed a couple of riders at the bottom, giving them a nod as I went. The one in front quite audibly said as I passed: "don't worry: we'll see him again before the top." What the fuck? (for the record, they didn't). That's been stuck in my craw for a couple of days. But I don't get that vibe or mentality here. Instead, I can bask in a more idealized form of cycling culture here, without all that bullshit. I can enjoy cycling, sport, training, the bike and its maintenance, and looking fabulous while doing it. All with a tongue firmly planted in cheek and with a healthy dose of reverent irreverence (which is an incredibly difficult balance if you think about it, and which Frank & co. pull off with considerable and admirable aplomb).
@Steampunk
+1
The professor sticks the landing.
@Chris @Dr C
The olympics have been brilliant. All of it.
@Steampunk
You know, I do not get it.
You say, "For the record, too, I'm not asking for a more tactful Marcus, because"”glory"”that would make this place much less interesting, but I don't think I'm far off the mark in translating his trademark Aussie incoherence.". This makes no sense to me. Marcus, you make all these juvenile, rude, personal remarks toward people time and again and the site writes it off b/c why? You're Australian? Really? I have known a lot of Aussies and none of them were this way. What difference does it make if a guy is an Australian Asshole, British Asshole, American Asshole or Namibian Asshole, the common thread and bottom line is that the guy is an asshole. It is perfectly fine to disagree with someone but to throw little, immature personal attacks in at the end each time really is not okay in any forum that avows to respect differences of opinion and encourags free thought.
Probably just me but that is not what I come here for and it discourages original thought and open discussion.
And Steamy, you know that this is not geared toward you. You just seemed to hit something that I have noticed for years around here and I finally am saying something.
Time to go for a ride!
Oh yeah, forgot to say that it is time to put some popcorn on the stove.