Another write-in for SPD-SL. By far the best I have ever used.
Time had a shoe weakness with their 4-bolt. Look was weak in the cleats. Speedplay's have too little contact area and are laterally weak. Stratics cleats are hard to walk but the infinitely adjustable float was awesome.
Originally posted by RC2 Lokstah, I was thinking Zero's. What is the difference between Zero's and the X series -- what is it about the X series that you like better?
The key improvement touted with the Zero is that it takes the X's super-free rotational float and adds an adjustability feature. It's a good strategy for roping in Tyler Hamilton fans married to more traditional systems, but for anyone interested in Speedplay's signature float, it's kind of superfluous. Who'd buy Speedplays to run them at 2deg float?
In addition, the Zeros perform fabulously overall, but the slightly more complicated mechanism is (in my opinion) marginally less smooth-operating than the X's clip. If broad float appeals to you, try the X first. Which ever level (X3, X2, etc) fits your budget. The clip and cleat are the same as you go up and down.
Speedplay X3 - hard to beat for $100 and they are an incredible improvement over my SPDs, but I've never tried Looks or any other large platform style pedals.