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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@the Engine Urk! I have seen that before too, but it's pretty rare! Bad luck...
Off topic, but...not really!
Who is in the French National Champion kit in the 1986 TdF? Was watching a video of LeMan + Hinault chasing Zimmermann, not sure who that dude is, but then again, it's also in French, so maybe I'm hearing his name but not picking it out of the rest.
Lay it on me! I know one of ya knows.
@minion
Petra. Just sayin'. Although I don't think it's something the Aussies built. Or even could have.
@minion
Exactly. Cave 1 is where the PM/Head Shepherd lives. Extreme security - they make you check your shears at the door.
@Ron It was Yvon Madiot, although I confess I had to resort to Wikipedia to find that one out...
@Buck Rogers
Show me yours and I'll show you mine! Everyone else look away!
@minion Rivalry and rivalry. apologies.
BTW, if folks are getting a bit short with each other round here, the idea of a Velominati Code of Conduct could be discussed. I know Fhroonk has shied away from this in the past since it requires moderation in the traditional interdweeb forum sense, but on a website with 90-something rules...
Rule one should probably be no passing judgement on other poster's occupations since that always gets on people' s nerves.
Rule two should be no repetition of the word 'rivalry' in posts.
@tessar
That's weird though, because I'm in an Arab country and I promise you the locals prefer Nissan Patrols to anything that might have Speedplays - there are a few Arab cyclists in clubs but the vast majority are expats. It's certainly the case across the Gulf and nobody cares about Egypt or Iraq commercially.
I looked on the Speedplay website and they have no distributors in MENA so it could be a general thing. At any rate it's all Look here, or Shimano (so obviously they manage to work across both markets).
@Oli
is he Marc's older brother?
@Buck Rogers
Actually, he's is younger brother. By a few years, if I'm not mistaken.