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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@Buck Rogers
+1
@Oli
What's wrong with a sweet pair of Campag pedals? They are being used by Vanderaerden in T-A and by looking at that pic, he seems to be in some serious rule compliance.
@sthilzy - Interesting find. As a Kiwi (in the US), I'm intrigued. This video has piqued my interest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=7OsMGvupW_U
@xyxax
Careful, you don't want to encourage his delusions of grandeur!
@Duende
Too late!
@Steampunk
Reflecting on what the site is about was exactly how this part of the discussion started. A point which I made without vitriol or personal intent but which has now been totally lost.
And somehow that has turned into a critique of my occupation and now my behaviour... although I'm the one who is supposed to over-react and be vitriolic ?
If the Keepers' don't like it then send me an email and I'll leave. But I think that's their call.
Going back to the point, I've been part of two online 'communities' similar to this in many ways (one in football, one in cycling - ACF/YACF anyone ?), which have both imploded quite spectacularly exactly at the point where the founder(s) decided they should expand the boundaries of the original concept but failed to take the core community along with them.
Do I trust the Keepers' to maintain the values ? Yes, I hold them in the highest regard and have stated here many times how full of admiration and appreciation I am. But I might have said the same of the other sites. (Of course there is an obvious conclusion that I'm the common factor... )
Are the Keepers infallible ? I think even they would admit they aren't, and they have always welcomed constructive well-intentioned criticism. The site has changed even in the last few years and will continue to do so. As both Frank and Gianni said above, it was a point worth discussing. What tends to happen is that people get outraged on their behalf.
If I'm the one to whisper 'memento mori' in Frank's ear then so be it - he can push me off the chariot if he likes.
@Buck Rogers
You know, I thought we were friends Buck. But to omit Asian Asshole from the list, well that just offends me to the core.
@roger
Don't worry, Roger, you'll always be an asshole to me! (insert banned emoticon here)
@roger
Great. Now what happens when someone Googles "Asian Asshole+Nipple Lube"? Bang! Right to here!
That's just great.
@Buck Rogers
I hear you, mate. And I don't disagree (and remain in great admiration of your own self-control after I jokingly called you out a few months ago). The point I was making, though, was that I'm tiring of the negativity directed at the entire site and its premise. I'd hate to think that we'd need to police this community to the extent that we were all walking on eggshells and the irreverence I referred to earlier was relegated to the background (Rapha kind of has that gentlemanly etiquette thing cornered, and that doesn't appeal). I'll be a Rule-worthy gentleman on the bike; off the bike, I like to come here to learn, laugh, and engage. The bottom line is that a playful community is one that can razz its members without giving offence, backing off when things go too far, and moving on. It's the disparaging site-wide attacks and critiques that drag everything to a shuddering crawl.