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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@King Clydesdale, @Oli, @ChrisO
The Reverence series is really no different than anything else we do; its just us talking about whatever we're passionate about and if you connect, great, if not, then also great. As with everything we write here, the article just kicks off a subject and the interesting piece, for me anyway, is what comes out of the conversation.
The discussions of pro's and con's of various products, and what products others prefer over the revered item offers more diversity and interesting points than I see anywhere else, though my time commitments to Velominati pretty much keep me off sites like BikRadar and the like as I simply don't have time to fuck around with that.
@KC, I would submit that if you're looking to have a product you already use and like revered, then you're looking at it from the wrong angle; this is a chance to use someone else's experience to gain exposure to a product you might not be able to get at your LBS. That's good, and I'd say that might hit the nail on the head for why we do these.
By and large, I try to stay away from this kind of thing. If something is bad, then so be it and it should be discussed, but it's so easy for people to sit around and poke holes in things others have worked hard to build and, as someone who loves making things, I find that kind of thing exceptionally negative.
I'd much rather put my and this communities' energies into positive things like why we love something over why we hate something.
@ChrisO
I'm not sure I'm following your issue; a conflict of interest with the Reverence series is something I'm quite concerned about. To that end, it's been very important to me that any partnerships we've ever established have come around as a result of us using products, loving them and seeing a common passion/approach between the company and the spirit of Velominati.
By and large, reverence articles cover products that we have used for at least six months prior to praising them. Since our oldest partnership dates back to March, that necessarily excludes any current Reverence article. Product Reviews are designated specifically as such and in those cases we might have been given the product (not always).
Further, our agreements with any partner clearly state that we are obligated to do a product review. Reverence articles are specifically stipulated as being unsolicited; no partner can ever ask for their product to be included in the series. We do, however, reserve the right to write a reverence in favor of a classic review should we wish to. This has not yet happened.
To date, I am unaware of any product that has been done in the Reverence series which the Keeper did not pay for themselves, though Brett's iClics were sold at a discount and I believe his Vittoria tires were as well. But this will get messy in the future as our partnerships grow. Its the nature of things and quite frankly, and I believe that despite the risk of a perceived conflict of interest, our community is better served by targeted partnerships and showcasing those products that speak to La Vie Velominatus than through piles of flashing ads littering the site.
But this brings up a good point - one I've been meaning to get around to addressing for a while - which is to clarify on each of the Reverence articles that these are unsolicited and have been used for a minimum of 6 months. (I once fell in love with a multi-tool only to discover a flaw a few months later and had to repeal the Reverence. We definitely want to avoid such situations.)
@RedRanger
BG Gel are the ones I like. Not Italian stylin' but good function. Not Italian workmanship either but they hold up well.
@frank Ah, my mistake. I was lumping the Gear Reviews and the Reverence pieces together. Even if you were making a buck, or saving a buck, off of it, it would not be wrong as you guys put sooooooo much "free" (as in unpaid) time into the site it would be understandable.
Having never had anything worth sponsoring I have never had to deal with the ethical issues involved. Thanks for the clarification.
@Gianni
I was just checking out the BG Pro's. They dont have the sex appeal of anything Casteli, but look well made.
@Buck Rogers
To be clear about the DeFeet Reverence, we did a while back, while they sent us some samples, the samples were for products that were under consideration for being custom made and included as V-Gear. Which means that rather than them giving us free gear, we are paying them to have the gear made, which we will then hope to sell.
Our love for DeFeet should come as no surprise, as they are referenced in one of the oldest Rules, Rule 28.
A quick dig through recent Reverence Articles merits these points:
My reverence of the undershirts was maybe poorly timed in this regard considering they had signed up to give prizes away during the Tour VSP, but those were products I bought myself and have ridden in for ages. (Full disclosure: DeFeet did give me a fresh set, by the way, which have not yet graced the Strack Body. I don't have an Ice, which was also discussed in the posts.)
Bretto's Aliante was in fact given to him, though his experience with the saddle predates the partnership and he'd bought one in the 2000's himself. I feel good about the sincerity of that article, but to a suspicious mind, I can see where this one is certainly questionable in this regard.
Nothing else strikes me as conflict-worthy, so in the end, I'd say that this perception that this series has historically been on products that we're given or that we're shoving our partners down your throats is wholly unfounded. But perception is reality, unfortunately, so I'll raise the Reverence/Product Review footnote To Do item up the list a ways to make sure that's clarified on every such article.
@RedRanger
Check out Giordana's FormaRed gloves. Nice and light. Simple, Italian styling, too.
@frank
The easiest way to avoid any issues on this point is also the only logical approach - and that is to put zero weight on anything that you write about
And ChrisO - don't get cross - but you are taking this shit way too seriously. Unless there are a gazillion lurkers on this site I am pretty sure that there aren't enough of us to see equipment manufacturers start putting bags of cash in dead drops for Frank et al to collect because of a favorable review. The Keepers especially Frank put way more time into this site than a few bits of free schwag are going to be justify them turning this advertorial. And even if they did - would you really begrudge them some gear? I reckon you have been around here long enough to have absolute confidence in the Keepers bona fides. For you to suggest otherwise (you did) is pretty poor form.
By the way I wouldn't mind seeing ads on this site. I am a big boy and can handle being exposed to evil
A few words got skewed above due to writing this on an iPhone (frank your auto correvt - or is it mine? Is fucked) but the gist is there...
@Marcus
But they'd have to be fantastic and awesome ads...
@Marcus
A-Merckx! Very well said.