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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@minion
We already have a code of conduct already. For the most part, The Keepers and I have enough work around here and find no enjoyment or reward in enforcing it. That said, when things get out of hand...
But that is a good suggestion and I'll amend it to include knowingly insulting someone's occupation and also that if you are engaged in an argument with someone the following constitute poor form and will, as time goes on, be tolerated less and less by the Keepers:
First, contain your pissing to one tree; don't cross-post your grievances. Second, once the last word on your argument has dropped off the current page of posts, leave it alone. If its not on the current page of posts, you're the only one still thinking about it, so bringing it up again is just about you and your ego, neither of which is appreciated.
But all of this really goes under Rule 43, no more should need to be said.
@frank
Ahh, learn something here everyday!
@frank
Although I challenge you and Oli (or anyone) to name all four Simon brothers who road pro and their age order WITHOUT looking it up (by the way, I cannot do this myself).
@Buck Rogers
All I've got is Pascal, Jerome, and Fancois.There is one more, and his name escapes me.
@frank
I had forgotten Francois. Isn't the other one Simon? I have not looked them up yet. As for ages, I have no idea of the order.
@ChrisO In this case, I'm speaking from knowledge - both of the two "high-end" importers (the guys dealing with Parlee, Time and the guys that got a Cervelo S5 shipped on the announcement week) tried to negotiate with Speedplay and set up a distribution channel and were refused. I know cycling doesn't seem to popular in Arab states, percentage-wise (my mother told me how few they were at the Abu Dhabi Triathlon) - but there's a fuckload more Arabs with fuckloads of money to spend than there are Israelis. There's 5-6 million Israelis here, of which around 40k cycle - how many would get Speedplays? A thousand? Of which three-four would get a pair of Nanograms as a vanity item. That's the sort of money a sheikh might spend on his commuter's pedals, or rather, the commuter-esque bike that'll never actually touch the pavement.
It's political pressure not just from the Arab countries by themselves, but other organizations too. No idea exactly who, but there are powerful lobbies that pressure anyone from pedal-manufacturers to rock-bands (and quite a few big names cancelled their shows). In many ways, I agree with them, too - my country deserves a boycott just like South Africa did in it's day - but even if I understand the reasoning, it bugs me when I can't get the pedals I want. I don't see myself staying here after the bachelor's degree.
@Buck Rogers
Ahhh, actually really wish we had an edit function as I was cleaning and thinking about this I realized that I proposed that Simon was the first name of the missing Simon brothers. What the Fuck? Man, I guess all this house cleaning chemicals must be getting to my brain.
@Buck Rogers Regis?
@Oli
That's a BINGO!!! I had to look it up but should have just trusted you, Oli. Well done guys!
Dear Frank,
I was reminded today why speedplays are not used much in Belgium..while on the local groupride, had to pull off for a much needed pee in the cornfield. Yep, I forgot the speedplays hate the dirt and yes I could not clip in for the next 20km of little power climbs..Not until the beer/coffee stop where I took my shoe and washed it in the cafe's WC sink....OTHERWISE love my speedplays...