Speedplay Pedal Users



jwroubaix

Member
Jun 6, 2007
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I'm currently using Look Keo Sprint pedals. Why I really like them, I hate fumbling to get clipped at stoplights. For that reason i'm looking at Speedplay pedals that have the dual sided clip in. Are these good pedals? Is there anything I need to know about them. Which model do you recommend getting. It looks like there is titanium, stainless, and chrome moly options. I'm just a recreational rider. Thanks for your help.
 
I had keo classic's then went to speedplay zero cro-mo's, I really couldn't stand the small platform so I went back to look's with their keo 2 max and never went back. give it 3 months and you won't be fumbling with your pedals anymore. Like all things it's just practice. (here comes flame war)
 
Originally Posted by jwroubaix .

I'm currently using Look Keo Sprint pedals. Why I really like them, I hate fumbling to get clipped at stoplights. For that reason i'm looking at Speedplay pedals that have the dual sided clip in. Are these good pedals? Is there anything I need to know about them. Which model do you recommend getting. It looks like there is titanium, stainless, and chrome moly options. I'm just a recreational rider. Thanks for your help.
Yes, speedplay makes good pedals. Easy enter and exit, and very secure. I've got 28K miles on the Zero (SS spindles) now, and the bearings feel like new. You'll need to get a mini-grease gun and lube them every 1 or 2K miles. Quite a few friends have them, and don't know anyone who's worn out or broken them. The cleats run about $35-$40, but they last a lot longer than the plastic Look-style cleats since they have hardened aluminum plates on the bottom of the cleats.

You should know a couple of things: First, speedplays have a large degree of non-centering float. You may feel like you're stepping on icecubes for the first few rides; standing in particular felt insecure to me. It took me a week or two to get used to the feeling and to trust that they wouldn't unclip (they won't). The Zero has adjustable stops built into the cleats so you can eliminate some or all of the float.

Second is that the cleats have the spring clip built into them. As a result, they can get fouled with mud or sand easily if you walk off road (eg,to a rest stop on a century event). The solution is to carry the "KoffeeShop" covers, and use them before walking in dirt.

As far as choice of spindle material, that shouldn't affect the function or life of the pedals. I have seen corrosion on the steel (cro-mo) spindles where the black finish is chipped off; the SS of course avoids that problem.
 
+1 on the post above, Speedplay pedals are very nice and very secure and yes they're very easy to get into. I second the warnings on mud and sand fouling the recessed shoe cleats. They're very secure and great hard riding/racing pedals but not a great choice for touring or coffee shop rides where you'll walk around in them. Get the cafe cleat covers and carry them if you plan to do much walking in them.

Unfortunately I can't say I haven't had problems with them as I've frozen two pedals (right hand pedal both times) in the past five seasons and I do lube them with the grease gun. At first I lubed them about as often as I replaced a chain figuring I've never had to lube pedal bearings on any other pedal over the years as a part of regular maintenance. Well when the pedal froze the Speedplay support folks told me I should be lubing them every couple of months which is what I started doing. When my second set seized the local bike shop told me I needed to lube them at least twice a month. Well that's pretty ridiculous as most pedals don't require any special lubrication and the bearings last for years. So I split the difference and lube them roughly monthly unless I get caught out in the rain (I don't ride them on my Seattle winter rain bike just on the racing, TT and track bikes).

Anyway knock on wood it's been over a year since I've frozen the bearings in a Speedplay but I'm still greasing them on a regular basis. The other thing to pay attention to is that the pedals don't wear very fast but the cleats wear in a funny way where suddenly they just won't clip in or are very difficult to clip in but then work fine. Lube the springs with dry lube as recommended and keep an eye on cleat wear. When the springs start getting scraped to a flat shape instead of a round wire profile it's time to think about replacing them.

-Dave
 
Wow, I think you guys have talked me out of the Speedplays.I've had my Look's for 3 years and never lubed them with no problem. One thing I was little confused on, Speedplays site says they have a bigger platform than any other pedal. Is this not true? The platform looks a lot smaller than the looks in pictures. I've never seen one in person though. Thanks for the help.
 
Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming .

+1 on the post above, Speedplay pedals are very nice and very secure and yes they're very easy to get into. I second the warnings on mud and sand fouling the recessed shoe cleats. They're very secure and great hard riding/racing pedals but not a great choice for touring or coffee shop rides where you'll walk around in them. Get the cafe cleat covers and carry them if you plan to do much walking in them.

Unfortunately I can't say I haven't had problems with them as I've frozen two pedals (right hand pedal both times) in the past five seasons and I do lube them with the grease gun. At first I lubed them about as often as I replaced a chain figuring I've never had to lube pedal bearings on any other pedal over the years as a part of regular maintenance. Well when the pedal froze the Speedplay support folks told me I should be lubing them every couple of months which is what I started doing. When my second set seized the local bike shop told me I needed to lube them at least twice a month. Well that's pretty ridiculous as most pedals don't require any special lubrication and the bearings last for years. So I split the difference and lube them roughly monthly unless I get caught out in the rain (I don't ride them on my Seattle winter rain bike just on the racing, TT and track bikes).

Anyway knock on wood it's been over a year since I've frozen the bearings in a Speedplay but I'm still greasing them on a regular basis. The other thing to pay attention to is that the pedals don't wear very fast but the cleats wear in a funny way where suddenly they just won't clip in or are very difficult to clip in but then work fine. Lube the springs with dry lube as recommended and keep an eye on cleat wear. When the springs start getting scraped to a flat shape instead of a round wire profile it's time to think about replacing them.

-Dave
Do you ever get any annoying cleat movement on the speedplays?

I have Dura Ace spd-sl's and I hate the "clacking" I get with the pedals when the cleats are just a couple of months old. This mostly happens with the PowerCranks when starting to pull up and then again pushing over top-dead-center and going through a couple of sets of cleats a year sucks.
 
Originally Posted by swampy1970 .




Do you ever get any annoying cleat movement on the speedplays?...

The Speedplays move plenty in the sense that they've got a lot of float compared to most pedals but I've never noticed any noise or clicking and actually rarely notice the float at all. About the only time I've actually noticed that the pedals are floating are when riding my track bike on the rollers at relatively high cadence. I've ticked my ankle bone on the crank arms a couple of times in that situation but never on the road or TT bikes and never while actually riding on the track so it's probably something to do with my pedal stroke at high rpms and maybe trying a bit too hard to wind just a bit more. Perhaps the PCs create a similar situation but either way I've never heard a noise or felt any unusual clicking just that sometimes my heels move a bit when winding fast. The Speedplay zeros would take care of that.

BTW, I still really like Speedplays, bearing maintenance and all. I really trust them and have never felt close to pulling out of them something I can't say for my older SPD or even older Look pedals and the double sided entry is great for things like fast crit starts.

-Dave
 
I was thinking about speedplay a while back when reading about the ultra low stack height with the 4 hole cleat system...
... and then realised that noone actually sold a shoe with a 4 hole cleat drilling. DOH!

The zero's look interesting. Thanks for the info.
 
swampy, I did notice some play when my Zero cleats were worn. The clip-in was still secure between the pedal and the steel C-spring clip, but the wear in the nylon housing around the clip allowed for a slight bit of fore/aft play. This was after about 10K miles on the cleats. The metal retention plate on the bottom was worn at the back (from walking), so I was ready to replace them anyway.

Dave, I'm curious about your bearing problems. Being in Seattle, wonder if you ride in rain or salt environments often? Also, when lubing the pedals, did you see dirty grease flowing from the back of the spindle? I use Pedro's clear grease, but when the used grease comes out the back, it's black. Also, what model speedplays do you have....maybe the Zero SS have better bearings.

The speedplay bearings are of course tiny, meaning they would be very sensitive to corrosion, dirt or wear. Combined with the walk-on cleats, they wouldn't be a good choice for dirty conditions. A couple of riders here use the speedplay Frogs, (for MTB) which fit in the recessed sole shoes and Shimano sandals.
 
Originally Posted by dhk2 .Dave, I'm curious about your bearing problems. Being in Seattle, wonder if you ride in rain or salt environments often? Also, when lubing the pedals, did you see dirty grease flowing from the back of the spindle? I use Pedro's clear grease, but when the used grease comes out the back, it's black. Also, what model speedplays do you have....maybe the Zero SS have better bearings. ......
I do live in Seattle these days but moved here a little less than two years ago so my first Speedlay pedal seize up happened while I still lived in Wyoming and the second one occurred here last year. I ride CrankBrothers Eggbeaters in cross and on my rain/commuting bike but yeah we got hammered in some rainy races last spring so that probably didn't help. Both pedal seizures happened on the road bike of course as neither the TT nor track bikes get ridden as much and never in bad conditions for the track bike.

I see grease and it is usually dark or black coming out the back end and sometimes pushing the little black plastic end plug out a bit (the plug with the screw you remove to inject grease) when I grease the pedals. I'm running Speedplay X2s so the stainless steel versions on all three bikes.

I had one team mate back in Wyoming similarly seize an X2 pedal and one guy I ride with out here had it happen on a recent ride but it seems pretty rare all in all and most of the riders I know on Speedplays swear they never grease them with the grease gun and have never had issues. Both sets of pedals that ended up causing problems were bought new at the same time (when the first set seized I swapped the TT pedals onto the road bike which then seized a year later) so I've wondered if there was a funky manufacturing run a while back and I just got unlucky.

Anyway I still haven't found a pedal I like more while actually out riding so I do the regular grease gun maintenance and hope my seized pedal problems are behind me. If it happens again I'll have to think it through one more time but all in all I like Speedplays and will stick with them unless I keep having maintenance issues with them.

-Dave
 
Dave, thanks for answering my questions. Sounds like you might have gotten some poor quality bearings in your X2s, but of course speedplay shouldn't be selling any defective pedals....they charge enough to have effective quality control. I've also had the issue of the black end plugs leaking some grease when using the grease gun, but after putting the screw back in and wiping them off they don't ooze any more grease.
 
I loved my Time RSX's so getting the sp's was like breath of pure oxygen? The thing miss is the sideways movement BUT its generally not needed as I've been smart with the side-side positioning of the cleat. Its like they're the pedal that Time wanted to design as I got hardly any movement out of the Time's. I'd rather have these than Looks or Shimano anyday. The free movement is out of this world - its up there with developments like STi etc. IMO. Speedplay's are good cleated pedals, I've used them in a total wash out and get the feeling I should regrease them, though I don't think they'll seize! I spray them with GT85 and the cleats also, this helps movements'. I personally think they are the best pedal on the market and that hurts me as I supremely love Time rsx pedals.
 
Originally Posted by jwroubaix .

I'm currently using Look Keo Sprint pedals. Why I really like them, I hate fumbling to get clipped at stoplights. For that reason i'm looking at Speedplay pedals that have the dual sided clip in. Are these good pedals? Is there anything I need to know about them. Which model do you recommend getting. It looks like there is titanium, stainless, and chrome moly options. I'm just a recreational rider. Thanks for your help.
I ride with speedplay stainless and do not have any complaints, only pedal that I have ever used so I cant compare , but sounds like I should at least look into the grease gun thing .
 
I purchased a used pair of blue SS Speedplays, but I don't know if they are Zero's or X's. How can I tell? The demo vids show how to lube the bearings by forcing grease through the rubber screw hole until dirty grease is forced out the other side of the pedal. I haven't acquired the necessary grease gun yet, but there is a retaining clip and washer under the screw and I don't see how grease could be forced through/around it. What am I missing?
 
The grease guns are the type used on chain saw bar ends, and are not costly. They can be gotten at Harbor Fright or most any auto parts store as the needle adapter is also used for u-joints too. I have had mine for years without a failure, (I am knocking on wood) but I live in the Arizona desert and not much rain ridding. However we do have this fine silt grit that gets into everything. I love the Speedplay Zeros, they are a stomp and go system. They do take a little break-in but the learning curve is not that bad.
 
You can tell which speedplay models you have by looking at the retention springs in the cleats. On Zeros, the cleats are flat C-clips, while on the X models they are round-wire springs.

On Zeros, there is nothing under the phillips-head screw at the end of the spindle. Just unscrew it, press the grease nipple of a mini-gun against the now open port, and pump in 2-3 shots of grease gently, until you see used (black) grease start to ooze out from the spindle (on the inboard side of pedal). Routine greasing every 2000 miles is specified by the factory, but with the grease port it's an easy 5 minute job. I got my mini-grease gun from the LBS, about $20 with the tube of Pedros grease incl.
 
Dave

I just wanted to let you know that I found your post very useful. I've had my Speed Play pedals for years and had never lubed them until just the other day. When I went to do so I found that both pedals were froze for the grease didn't come out on the other side. Now I know what needs to be done /img/vbsmilies/smilies/frown.gif.

Gabe
 
Originally Posted by jwroubaix .

Wow, I think you guys have talked me out of the Speedplays.I've had my Look's for 3 years and never lubed them with no problem. One thing I was little confused on, Speedplays site says they have a bigger platform than any other pedal. Is this not true? The platform looks a lot smaller than the looks in pictures. I've never seen one in person though. Thanks for the help.
The platform of modern road pedals is actually the cleat, so in terms of square centimeters the Speedplay platform is about as large as anyone else's. Because the actual pedal is quite small, I don't recommend Speedplays for riders without stiff shoes. I'm using Zeroes with Bont A3s, and frankly the pedal feels connected to the bottom of my entire foot.

My only complaint about Speedplays is the length of the cleat adapter. My feet are fairly large and, while my position is not midfoot, the ball is clearly over a centimeter forward of the pedal spindle. On some shoes (Pearl Izumi and some Shimano) the cleat holes are relatively forward and I can't position the cleat far back enough. Speedplay does offer an extra long adapter that costs $30 or so.