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]
@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.
@Marcus
Agreed, if you had a couple of ads, similar to how cyclingtips does, I wouldn’t be any less inclined to visit. I’m sure the revenue would help with server costs.
@Marcus well stated indeed.
@Marcus, @King Clydesdale
The standard internet ad model is inconsistent with our strategic plan and our vision, in addition to being low value, low revenue, and degrading the fundamentals about what this site is about. No banner ad using the conventional model will ever appear on this site. Period.
There will be sponsors for the VSP moving into 2013, and you might see another ad model appear in the future which I’m currently designing, but no banners and no flashing shit. With all due respect to Wade at CyclingTips whom I have a lot of respect for and whose site I love, his latest design is way too busy and I would shut Velominati down before going that route with so much content and banner ads. But thankfully, as founder of this site I get to make those decisions either unilaterally or with the help of the Keepers.
@King Clydesdale
…Haven’t written a piece.
ChrisO, Marcus, Buck et al.
This is a worthy subject and I’m glad Frank explained the situation and differences between articles. We don’t want to appear to be shilling anything. And the Keepers know and fear what free stuff represents to us and readers so we are glad to get feedback on this subject.
We are making this up as we go along, obviously. And how the site generates any money in the future (its always run in the red so far) is still up for debate. So again, thanks for feedback, keep it coming. I think two argument against ads are: everyone does it and they dilute the site’s look. Ha! We are not business majors, are we?
We want to figure out a different, better way but are still working on it. Ideas always welcome.
Completely off topic, but my time at my desk just got better by discovering the the Tour of Utah Tour Tracker is video of the race. And whoever is doing it is better at following a bike race than NBC.
I bet some of the riders are using Speedplay.
There, relevance.
@frank
@Gianni
Ads schmads, “strategic plan” “vision” – whatever- this website is akin to reading playboy: I usually skip the articles and go straight to the comments
@Erik
this is how it should be done.
@Erik
That is pretty cool. And who the fuck is Larry Miller anyway. The Donald Trump of Utah? Being better than NBC is shallow praise indeed.
@frank i love the simple ad free look of the site but I’m also aware of how much time, effort and presumably money you all put into it. So unless you start making us pay to come here, it’d be churlish to begrudge you some sort of income from it.
I guess the best way to work out whether you believe in products that appear here or if they just pay well will be to keep coming along to the keepers tours to see what actually makes it onto your bike!
@Marcus
Sneak peak into the plan from the last boardroom meeting:
Phase 1: Take over the world.
Phase 2: ????
Phase 3: Profit.
@Chris
Well, there you have it! It comes down to what @Marcus said about being bona fide, and quite frankly I’m a bit taken aback by the fact that anyone has gone down this path for that reason; take even a sideways glance at anything a Keeper rides with, and you’ll see we use this shit. It’s all very obvious to anyone paying any attention at all. One of the beautiful things about being a consumer is you get to pick all the best bits and use them. We’re not beholden to chose a set of Bora wheels because Campagnolo sponsors the Keepers (they don’t). We pick what we think is the best product and we use it and if we love it eventually we’ll do a Reverence. Or not, as Gianni said, we’re making this shit up as we go along. Kind of. I do have a plan and a vision, but the details shake out as we poke holes in the model.
Honestly, I hadn’t put the time in to build in the disclaimer about Reverence articles because I didn’t imagine anyone would be so cynical as to think we’d sacrifice the reputation we spent years to build (shut up, Marcus) for a few bits of kit. But, again, the point is well taken and I’ll put that at the top of the list. Its worth clarifying.
@frank
Bollocks! I was just skimming down the comments, thinking about the Underpants Gnomes, and BAM! Well played.
@frank
Keepers Tours? 2013? What? I’ve been hearing inklings about Flanders, what about Italia?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/florence-to-host-2013-road-world-championships
How’s about it?
@sgt
I’m not going to start charging a cover fee to gain access to Velominati, but I might implement a questionaire that you have to pass before being allowed to set up an account. It would go something like:
1. Is Team America funny?
2. Is South Park funny?
If you answer “no” to either of those, you don’t get to go on to question 3.
KT2013 is locked and loaded (announcement coming next week) but there’s no saying we can’t do a second one out there. The trick is finding the right partners for these things, to ensure the trip has the right feel to it. The Pavé boys are kindred spirits and William holds the distinction of being the only person I’ve met who swears more than I do.
Maybe they are interested in guiding the Worlds. They’re doing one this year with Museeuw.
@sgt
I’m the big five oh next year and would really like to do something awesome and cycling related and that folks sounds like the tits.
I might even buy one of you a small beer.
Love the site as it is,bend while I trust you guys implicitly (obviously) I’m big enough to make my own gear decisions. Will I use fizik tape, doubt it, they haven’t got the right colour. Would I mind ads on the site, probably not, but I do prefer it without.
Do I appreciate the time everyone but especially the keepers put in? Most definitely yes.
And according to my son’s story book, Aliens love Underpants, Phase 2 is “stop meteorite hitting Earth, with collected underpants”
Incidentally, I am concerned of this talk of underpants, as I don’t wear any when on this site, I am aleays dressed rule abidingly when commenting
@frank
1 – I am not alone – Frank runs the same business model I do
2 – Ok Flanders it is then
@RedRanger
The BG Gel’s are bombproof and I used them for years but recently started feeling like there was too much padding. Tried on various gloves at the LBS and ended up picking these Izumi Select. Black, of course. The split padding on the palm fits my hand better. Inexpensive too.
I also have a pair of nice Castelli full finger gloves but rarely get to use them in my climate.
@frank
Have you thought about going down the kick starter route? Seems to be all the rage at the moment for investment revenue generation.
@Gianni Yes I’ll be there! Hoping to take some good photos. That’s the place!
If Fraink Straick gets a free pair of shoes for putting up with me he’s underpaid.
@sgt
Italy was the target for 2013 and I was charged with getting it together and I certainly had my eye on the Worlds in Toscana rather than Giro as the location. BUT, f’ing William and Alex, the Pave Lads, have set the bar soooo high as how much fun you can have in a week that we had to delay. So we doubled down on Belgium for now.
One of my cycling heros Eros Poli runs tours in Italy and I love to concoct one with him but I’m just not sure he is as amazing as the Pave lads. A quandary to be sure.
@Giles
Aliens also love gravel.
FWIW, one of the charms about the Velominati is that it is essentially a blog. A really well done blog for sure, but it is not a commercial site of any kind. It has original content (some really good writers here. I’m looking at you @frank). Plenty of humor, deep thoughts, contributions, and a general absence of COTHOs. In my country (USA) cycling is generally mostly a counter culture. ‘murica is all about cars (do you know they actuulay claim driving in circle infront of drunks is a sport here? Really) and since bikes are claimed to interfere with cars, we are thus a fringe, hippie, neo-anachist evil enemy, that are essentially targets of the general population. IOW, just the kind of people I want to be associated.
I only discovered cycing and bike racing a few years ago. I don’t know jack about it, except that riding a bike is fun, reading about it and its history and traditions entertaining, and sharing both of these endevours with others here a lot of fun. That someone here was misrepresenting or intentionally seeking a commercial gain by improper means never occurred to me. I think, honestly, that’s a thought I have at just about every other site I ever visit on the interwebs. The last similar site I frequented is now closed: trustbut.blogspot.com and the TBV crew.
VLVV. All hail the Keepers.
@frank
No, don’t go putting disclaimers about anything on the site. One of the other things I like about the site is that there is an underlying ethos that is free of bullshit, entitlement culture and holds no truck with the sort of cheap, X Factor/Britain/America’s got talent celebrity worship that seeps to be evermore present in society. It’s a place where people can generally speak their minds and discuss untrendy beliefs such as not wearing helmets without being castigated. Don’t go all PC on us. If someone can’t work out which bits of this site should be taken with a pinch of salt and which bits should be taken seriously then fuck ’em, they’re not going to get any of it.
As for KT13 in Flanders, oh goody! I’m convinced that PR needs to be ridden twice, the first time just on understand the nature of the beast and the second to actually get to grips with it and ride it properly.
I actually want the Keepers to gather more sponsors and get more free kit and then review it, use it, reverence it, etc. My cycling budget won’t allow me to try everything out there. It’s like when you are among riding friends, its fun to hear about they’re experiences with their kit, I don’t mind if they gush, it’s all for fun. I just like to hear what the Keepers think about stuff, I trust them and their judgements, and frankly I feel like these cats won’t accept a second rate crap sponsor so if a company sponsors this community then it’s kit is usually the real deal. Besides, it has benefitted all of us: see VSP prizes. Point is: thanks Keepers for all the hardwork, get as much free kit as possible (you earn it), and VLVV
@Steampunk
Agreed!
@roger
I almost started preaching to the choir about encouraging invasive advertising. I won’t.
@frank Good reminder to “step up” and not “push off” with the cleats. Please step up. Please step up.
Time Sport website features Damiano Cunego on RXS Carbon pedals.
I happen to enjoy the Reverence articles. I don’t see them as biased in a commercial sense, but they are not unbiased. However, that is not necessarily negative. There is nothing worng with extolling the virtues of a piece of equipment that you have used and are especially fond of.
I plan on going out tomorrow and getting a pair of Speedplay pedals to try out. Between the article and the video you have convinced me that I may have been overlooking these pedals.
@frank
Wow – I disabled adblock plus to have a look at CT after you wrote this. Nearly had a fit there’s so much happening.
Do you people seriously run a browser without an ad blocker installed? Whenever I use my wife’s iPad and look at, say, a news site, I’m reminded what the internet really looks like with no filter.
I ought to write a Reverence article for AdBlock. Put as many ads on here as you like, frank. I’m not going to see them anyway.
The reason I went with iClics instead of Speedplays is because I couldn’t find the SPs in a good color.
@frank
Hmmmm… I think timing it differently would be more dodgy. Timing your post to look like there’s no conflict of interest infers that there’s a conflict of interest.
I like the Reverence articles as it is my “second opinion” versus my LBS who are very set in their ways when it comes to certain components. As for the objectivity of reviewing sponsored items…My wife blogs and she gets items to review all the time; only the best gets written about – crap reviews equals crap credibility and the Keeper’s are yet to do us wrong! Keep up the great job lads and keep the Reverence articles coming!
@DerHoggz
+1 badge to you. Have have come far in a short time, my son.
@frank
I did this for a few rides. More of an unconscious motion. The last time I pushed off with my unclipped foot was a morning with a bit of dew still on the roads. Light turns green, and I proceed to push off, only to have my foot slip and consequently slamming my twig and berries on the top tube. In an effort to stay with the system, I did some googlin and found these. Might be hype, might be worth the $18. Basically leave on coffee covers. Covers
@Jay
Velominati, matey, is all about passion. And once you add passion to the equation, unbiased goes out the door. We love this shit. That’s the beauty of it. We embrace it. We’re just like you: excited about bike and all the stuff that comes along with it. We love the history of some parts, hate the newness of others, love the newness of others yet. Maybe we’re wrong, hopefully we’re right, but we’re probably somewhere in the middel and at least all you lot are here to help us keep our shit straight when it comes to all three of those things.
Reverence is reserved for the little things that get us through this sport. The things that carry me through the completely shit ride I had today and still make me want to climb on the bike again tomorrow.
Like I said at the beginning of this particular element of the discussion, we Keepers just write about what we love. We have some specific categories we put stuff in, but in the end all the articles here are just stuff we love. We have integrity, we’ve invested not only money but a huge amount of time, love, and passion into this place and we’re not going to give that up to make a buck. (It would have to be a LOT of bucks get into the black, but who cares.) The article (as Marcus kindly pointed out – fuck you) is basically bullshit and the value comes from all of you. Except Marcus. And Maybe Minion. (Ah, I’m kidding, I love you nobheads.)
Thanks.
@frank
Well. I change my Avatar to a sweary Englishman and you expect me to take that kind of crap from Wanker C**ts like you?
You fucking love us because we make you look normal. What you don’t realise is how hard that is when you’re a nine foot tall monomaniac who eats things normal people can’t pronounce (stroepwaffeln? Get the fuck off) and thinks a fun night in is sitting on your living room floor lacing Belgian rims to English hubs. Just buy a fucking trek already so we can get back to what we’re good at; insulting the attractiveness of the copulation partners of the country in which we don’t reside, cleaning our bikes and posting pics of the Assos girl (please Merckx Victoria Pendleton needs a job… just sayin).
Try and imagine what your life would be like without me or Marcus. I’m still laughing about that crack at bretto over taking kids tot eh pub to get into fights with C**ts who swear in front of them.
@minion
Oh lord I had forgotten about that. Genius work there. What is it going to take to get you idiots to Belgium next spring?
Oooh, a tasty can of worms I’ve opened there…
First let me say that was absolutely not meant to impugn anyone’s integrity, cast a sideways glance, raise an eyebrow or suggest they are not bona fide opinions – I don’t believe I did imply that, but if it has been taken that way then I apologise.
Second, I have absolutely no problem with the Keepers getting all the free shit they possibly can, nor do I have any issue with whatever they deem necessary to justify the time, expense and effort they put in to the site.
Having said that, maybe I am taking it too seriously but I have views about these ethical issues because that’s my profession. I have grappled with these things as a journalist and executive for organisations like the ABC and in particular at Associated Press, which as an independent news agency has incredible sensitivity to such subjects. At a simple level it meant not accepting freebies of any kind, even ones you weren’t writing about, and paying for seats on private planes with politicians or celebrities or not being allowed to cover the story, even if every other person on the plane accepted the free seat and the PR company you were dealing with had no idea what or how to charge you.
And we’re talking about film or music reviews here, not presidential investigations.
But I’ve also worked in less ethical places, and I’ve done reviews of things based on free dinners, shows and things and it is very difficult, even for a professional journalist to not be influenced by such things. And more to the point it is impossible to prove you are not influenced by such things. I might review a restaurant to which I had been invited by the owner, and perhaps I had been there before and really liked the food, but the very fact I wrote the review is a form of bias by doing that restaurant, rather than the one across the road which had not invited me.
Frank mentioned the Fizik and De Feet articles. I didn’t mention them but they were exactly the pieces I had in mind, for the reasons he noted. I’m sure there was no obligation to write a review for any sponsor and I have no doubt the opinions were genuinely held. All I am saying is that as a professional journalist it makes my nostrils twitch when I see editorial copy about advertising sponsors, anywhere – here or in The New York Times, it doesn’t matter.
I would rather see a straightforward review saying “The nice people at XYZ Inc sent us this stuff because we like them and they like us. I’ve actually been using their kit for years but here’s a review of this particular piece which I’ve had on my bike for three months/ three years/ since 1974.”
As I think Frank also said just above this, the Velominati site is about passion and the Reverence articles are for those special bits of stuff the writers love – it’s not meant to be an unbiased review. That’s fair enough. But to my mind it even more suggests that there should be a division between Reviews and Reverence, or to put it another way that the passion is kept identifiably separate from the commercial, or anything that appears to be commercial. And I state again, I have absolutely no problem with having commercial stuff here, I just don’t like seeing the lines blurred.
There’s a cliche in business that for every customer who complains there are 9 more who don’t, and that’s where you have a problem. Yes, those of us who have been on the site and know the people either in person or virtually can have complete faith in them, but are the Keepers doing this just for the 100 or so regular posters, or is there a bigger picture ? My assumption is that there is, otherwise why start to have commercial relationships ? And in that case, for every one of us who reads an article and thinks “Yes I have complete faith in Frank/Marko/Gianni etc” there may be 20, 50, 100 more who read it without knowing them and think it was a load of sponsored advertorial the same as on any other website.
The site has gained significant attention. Sponsors and relationships have started appearing, and IIRC correctly from Frank the site does indeed have an incredibly large amount of web traffic, an order of magnitude more than the numbers who post here. I would be delighted for the Keepers if they can turn that into something which rewards the time they have put in and the vision they have shared.
But if there is indeed a business plan or a desire/need to put the site on a more financially sound footing (which I do not begrudge or bemoan in any way) then that sort of thing is going to become ever more important and it is a good thing to lay down some principles earlier rather than later. That’s certainly the spirit in which my observations are intended.