Reverence: Speedplay Pedals
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.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/43771401[/vimeo]
@ChrisO
OK, so you push the point. In reply, journalism is not a profession. You and your ilk have always been conduits through which media and newspaper advertising is sold. Your one duty is to the newspaper/media owner. Professionals owe their duty to their client. Methinks that is a far bigger distinction than a bunch of fellas operating a website and making a few calls on bike gear.
And did you not read Frank’s reply? Not one, NOT ONE, reverence article has ever been on something that has been supplied gratis. Take a break champ. Your arse must get sore with your head stuck up it.
@Marcus
There were a number of comments on the thread, most of them fairly sensible and reasoned, even yours. I haven’t looked at the site since last night so I replied to the issues which had been raised. My original post was barely more than a throwaway comment so I thought it would help to explain the reasoning behind it.
As for whether journalism is a profession, I said it was my profession – perhaps you can suggest a better choice of words. And you may have noticed the two organisations I mentioned are not advertising supported. The reason I mentioned it was not to laud journalism or journalists as highly ethical or moral judges, but to make the point that my comments were not personal. I have myself been subject to these questions and I have asked them of others – I don’t take it personally and when I ask them I don’t mean it personally.
Unlike you…
@ChrisO
I think what Marcus is trying to say is “Lighten up, Francis”.
I like Speedplays.
I was persuaded to buy them by the LBS as my Looks were older than Peter Sagan.
Speedplays are not quite as easy to get in to as putting your foot on a rat trap pedal and there’s a particular junction with a stop light in our town that’s difficult with any cleat because it involves an uphill start and the cleat on the road often slips making it very hard to make a smooth getaway.
I broke a cleat on first pair in low speed crash – we suspect it was a manufacturing fault in the adaptor plate.
Occasionally they jam if if you don’t clean them properly.
The cleats are now yellow.
I didn’t know the company had been going for so long or were American.
When I saw this piece I thought, “Great – a discussion about something I own”.
No one gives me free stuff.
I am not a journalist.
I am all grown up and understand that my original plan for world peace formulated at the age of 14 – namely that everyone should just like each other – doesn’t seem to work.
I am delighted to find a blog that doesn’t go on about conspiracy theories, global warming or the criminality or otherwise of banks.
I am looking forward to actually meeting some of the nutters on here before too long.
@Marcus
Actually the more I think about that the more it winds me up. Maybe it isn’t a profession because in a profession you don’t get killed trying to bring news to thickhead idiots, so on behalf of my friends Kerim and Miguel, fuck you.
@ChrisO
You raise some good points and I think it’s probably timely for Frhonk to consider, judging by his earlier response. I think (and it might just be me and I might also be really misguided) that my bullshit radar goes off very early when it comes to product articles, and they haven’t been set off here (apart from Bretto’s article on time pedals cos he wrote it before they recalled the cleats) . I also think the Keeper’s disclosure has been appropriate, around the Fizik stuff and also the geezers who run the Keeper’s tour.
Cycling Tips blog occasionally cops a bit of flack in the comments section for the way their reviews are written, even with disclosure about where the products are from, largely because they tend to push the latest and greatest and can quite similar to advertising copy. I don’t think there’s anything malicious there, and am willing to think that the writer of those articles just isn’t sensitive enough to pick up on this similarity.And cycling tips is still a very good website, even if it is becoming more commercial.
Velominati operates to a higher standard, hence the fact that we’re having this conversation now. But ultimately it does come down to whether you trust that Fronk and the other Keepers’ bullshit detectors are calibrated so that it is within the range of your expectations. I agree that its not reasonable to expect anyone to be completely free from bias or marketing (this article for instance; Speedplay is revered more in the US than elsewhere, no doubt due to greater marketing presence in their home market, and of course they’re going to plug Castelli kit) but you have to trust someone or else you’ll never get anywhere.
Dealing with pressure from advertisers and other interested parties is going to be something the Keepers will have to deal with, and frankly I think the site’s been getting very good traffic for a long time and they’ve done well to resist that pressure. Basically because if they fuck it up they’ll have to look us (their readership) in the eye one day and explain temselves in a way the fourth estate doesn’t.
@ChrisO
I’m reading Fisk’s Great War for Civilisation and you can call it whatever the hell you want it is simply amazing what he has done. It’s largely irrelevant if someone thinks it’s not a profession or not given what he’s achieved.
Ah, you guys write so much stuff
….actually, I strangely find her even more arousing when she is giving it some of this!
@Dr C There’s a full length version of that that I’m not going to post from work. Where have you been? Representing Ireland in the sailing?
@Dr C I quite like this one…
@Chris
Hear hear, for Merckx sake don’t let’s go PC or I’m leaving – this is the one sanctuary I have for speaking out loud, safe in the knowledge that I will be offending a few people
@Chris
I am not sure what exactly you have taken a picture of, but probably best not to post it (photocopier scenario?)
I’ve been so engrossed in the Olympics, that I have only had time to order my son a BMX bike, which I am really enjoying riding
Also suffering chronic dehydration from crying so much at these wonderful people achieving their best (for some reason this doesn’t happen when an Aussie, Chineses or Amurikan wins, but maybe because they expect to win), and Chronic Success Fatigue due to GB’s efforts – life is good when the Olympics are on
Just won’t be the same without these two bosching each other anymore….
over and out
@Dr C
The photo that you posted of young VP. There’s a version that includes her legs and bits in between. Possibly even her ankles and feet, can’t remember.
I’ve also been suffering from Repetitive Olympic Success Dehydration. It’s a bit of a bastard, I think my usual isotonic/anti dehydration strategy only exacerbates the original problem causing a regressive loop that potentially ends with me sat in a puddle muttering “thash asholusly brillian, i’sh sho proush to be brish, lush yoush”. Somewhat problematic at work, I can tell you.
I find that readying articles such as this helps to put things in perspective and remind me that there are people out there who are far less fortunate than us who don’t know where their next gold medal is going to come from.
hahaha you guys are too funny…..I love my speedlplays, I love my Ridley Noah and I love all my bikes (Orbea, fondriest and my Masi piste)….No one pays me to love them or to have chosen them. I love Campy and I love Shimano. I kind of even like Sram. hahahaha and I appreciate bike porn, and appreciate strong athletic men and women who race and train on their bikes. Who would have thought this little round girl in a dress on her first oink/white schwinn would become a Flandrien? nooit in een miljoen jaar maar kijk naar uit! dus shut the F*^k up and ride your f&%ing bikes. If you ever make it to Belgium, look me up and I’ll show you roads/kassien or wind you can cry about with any bike/cleat and undergarment :)
All about the Velo love,
XXX
@ChrisO
I was quite surprised when this wasn’t your first response. Seemed a bit pointlessly harsh, @Marcus.
@farzani
‘like’.
As another new person to this whole cycling thing and therefore knows little about it, I will say that it is always good to hear about what other cyclists like/use/can’t live without. As another poster said I don’t have the money (or time or inclination) to try everything out the so borrowing from others’ wisdom saves me from reinventing the wheel.
Also as someone who reads a lot of blogs, I love the visual aesthetic of this site, so pleasing to the eye. And agree with @frank that the articles are just the fire starter around here, a lot of the action (plus info, perspectives, experience) happens in the comments.
@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.
@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.
@roger
It’s okay. He left out Canadian, too.
@eightzero
Me too. I’ve got a pair of Sidi Ergo 3 SPs on the way, and strictly because I wanted them. My other shoes just feel too narrow. The Sidi truck was in Denver a couple months ago and I got a fitting–found out one foot is a 42.5 and the other is a 43. I’m looking forward to breaking them in when they arrive.
My LBS (actually both of them) steered me to SPs. I checked around with a few cyclists and that’s what I went with. I’ve not regretted it once.
Whoa! This place is having regular mood swings now a days. Lets not forget this is for fun.
@Steampunk
Steamy. We agree completely. My exact point is that to have personal insults thrown in when someone offers a varying opinion is just purely counterproductive. It is not humourous, it is not contributing, it is just plain negative and brings everything down. It’s one thing to razz someone, it’s another to say absolute bullshit personally about someone in a mean and vindictive manner. VERY few members seem to do it but Marcus seems to have the corner on this market. And when someone calls him out, which happens very rarely, a few people run to his defense b/c “he’s Marcus” or “he’s Aussie” or whatever. Calling bullshit on that one. This is not the first time this has happened or the second or the third. I am not going to bother searching old posts but I personally thought that maybe he really doesn’t get it and it should be pointed out. The common thread to these negative thread turnings seems to be marcus throwing shit into them.
Oh yeah, fuck the Canadian Assholes as well while I am at it! (Need that “Team America” youtube about assholes and pussies)
Btw Frank I have never seen Team America and since I don’t watch TV the last time I watched southpark was when I was 16. 15 years ago. Does that warrant a demotion or a ban?
@Duende
Thanks. I must be slipping.
The non-tenured associate professor who calls to mind be-sequined pre-pubescent girls sticks the landing.
@Steampunk
Everyone does.
@xyxax
Now that’s just unkind. I have tenure.
@Steampunk
Yeah, but it’s a Canadian University, right?
@Buck Rogers
I used to be able to stick pins in my big toe without feeling it; I would do it as a party trick to freak people out. I froze them so many times and had them so tightly strapped into my boots, the lost all feeling.
Its funny when people mention their feet being warm or cold, that x shoe doesn’t have enough ventilation, etc. I don’t ever notice my feet, really, unless a shoe doesn’t fit right. Numbness, cold, etc just got programmed out of my brain many years ago. Funny how that stuff works.
@Oli
These are the next Reverence:
More here:
http://curbdestroyer.blogspot.com/2010/07/cinelli-clipless-pedals.html