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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@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