Road pedals: Speedplay or Look?
Discussion
Have run Look Keo Max 2 for 2 years now, no issues with mine. The axles were quite stiff on first use but free'd up nicely after a few rides. Am on my third set of cleats. They edges wear if you walk in them without cleat covers so I tend to avoid it whenever possible
Not tried Speedplays but they have a low stack height so you may need to lower your saddle a little
Not tried Speedplays but they have a low stack height so you may need to lower your saddle a little
Speedplay for me.
Good Points
Knee friendly
Low profile
Double sided entry
Rebuildable
Very adjustable
Bad Points
Need covers to walk in
Must be kept clean and oiled IMO
Must be kept greased (spindles)
Expensive
TBH the 'bad points' are just common sense and dont bother me. Compared to the other systems they just seem to feel more natural and most importantly are very kind to your joints. Do be aware though that they are an engineered solution rather than a glorified sprung latch and need looking after. 6 months ~3000 miles into my first set and they are still working brilliantly.
Good Points
Knee friendly
Low profile
Double sided entry
Rebuildable
Very adjustable
Bad Points
Need covers to walk in
Must be kept clean and oiled IMO
Must be kept greased (spindles)
Expensive
TBH the 'bad points' are just common sense and dont bother me. Compared to the other systems they just seem to feel more natural and most importantly are very kind to your joints. Do be aware though that they are an engineered solution rather than a glorified sprung latch and need looking after. 6 months ~3000 miles into my first set and they are still working brilliantly.
I originally bought Speedplays but could not get used to them as I found clipping in very difficult with them. Sold them and bought Look Keo 2 Carbons and would not change to anything else now. The Looks have been faultless. Replacement Look cleats are also far cheaper than replacement Speedplay cleats.
Obviously this is my own experience and others will say differently, but after spending £130 on stainless steel Speedplays and then selling them for £80 three weeks later I had an expensive experience and wish I'd never bought the Speedplays.
Good luck with your decision and try not to make it an expensive mistake like I did.
Obviously this is my own experience and others will say differently, but after spending £130 on stainless steel Speedplays and then selling them for £80 three weeks later I had an expensive experience and wish I'd never bought the Speedplays.
Good luck with your decision and try not to make it an expensive mistake like I did.
yonex said:
Speedplay for me.
Good Points;
Knee friendly
Low profile
Double sided entry
Rebuildable
Very adjustable (huge amounts of float adjustment)
Great ground clearance when cornering
Leightweight
Bad Points;
Need covers to walk in (£8.00 from most bike shops)
Cleats must be kept clean and oiled IMO
Pedals must be kept greased (spindles) - easy to do via a screw on the end of the spindle
Expensive
TBH the 'bad points' are just common sense and dont bother me. Compared to the other systems they just seem to feel more natural and most importantly are very kind to your joints. Do be aware though that they are an engineered solution rather than a glorified sprung latch and need looking after. 6 months ~3000 miles into my first set and they are still working brilliantly.
+1 Good Points;
Knee friendly
Low profile
Double sided entry
Rebuildable
Very adjustable (huge amounts of float adjustment)
Great ground clearance when cornering
Leightweight
Bad Points;
Need covers to walk in (£8.00 from most bike shops)
Cleats must be kept clean and oiled IMO
Pedals must be kept greased (spindles) - easy to do via a screw on the end of the spindle
Expensive
TBH the 'bad points' are just common sense and dont bother me. Compared to the other systems they just seem to feel more natural and most importantly are very kind to your joints. Do be aware though that they are an engineered solution rather than a glorified sprung latch and need looking after. 6 months ~3000 miles into my first set and they are still working brilliantly.
I have been riding with Zero's since October last year and am very happy with them so far. As yonex says they are an engineered solution and as such take a little bit of fettling to get right, the cleat resistance is adjusted by 4 x screws that hold it to the shoe, mine took a couple rides to get the resistance right for me. Also, because the float is very 'adjustable' it will take a couple of rides before you find the right setting for you, I use zero float on mine but one cleat is adjusted 'out' slightly further than the other (used to suffer with ankle pain on my old Shimano's - no pain or discomfort with the zero's).
Once they are setup they are a great solution!
Andy OH said:
I originally bought Speedplays but could not get used to them as I found clipping in very difficult with them. Sold them and bought Look Keo 2 Carbons and would not change to anything else now. The Looks have been faultless. Replacement Look cleats are also far cheaper than replacement Speedplay cleats.
Obviously this is my own experience and others will say differently, but after spending £130 on stainless steel Speedplays and then selling them for £80 three weeks later I had an expensive experience and wish I'd never bought the Speedplays.
Good luck with your decision and try not to make it an expensive mistake like I did.
My first peddles were Look's. I bought them from Evans and TBH I dont think that any shop should be allowed to sell them without setting them up or knowing how to explain things to newbies. They were ok but I didn't like the float or the fact that they would only clip in on one side which is a pain when commuting. The Speedplays would be a royal pain without setting up and out of the box they are very stiff to clip in and out of, however its easily adjusted and I personally think they are great whether racing or commuting.Obviously this is my own experience and others will say differently, but after spending £130 on stainless steel Speedplays and then selling them for £80 three weeks later I had an expensive experience and wish I'd never bought the Speedplays.
Good luck with your decision and try not to make it an expensive mistake like I did.
My advice is whichever solution you go for is to seek a supplier who will offer a fitting service. You will get the best setup and longest life out of your peddles and your knees! Bad cleat setup can put you back months of training.
No tie in to this chap but he did mine and was very good. I am sure many places will offer this service so look for a recommendation near to you.
http://www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk/
Price wise its about £50-70 on top of the cleats.
HTH
yonex said:
My first peddles were Look's. I bought them from Evans and TBH I dont think that any shop should be allowed to sell them without setting them up or knowing how to explain things to newbies. They were ok but I didn't like the float or the fact that they would only clip in on one side which is a pain when commuting. The Speedplays would be a royal pain without setting up and out of the box they are very stiff to clip in and out of, however its easily adjusted and I personally think they are great whether racing or commuting.
My advice is whichever solution you go for is to seek a supplier who will offer a fitting service. You will get the best setup and longest life out of your peddles and your knees! Bad cleat setup can put you back months of training.
No tie in to this chap but he did mine and was very good. I am sure many places will offer this service so look for a recommendation near to you.
http://www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk/
Price wise its about £50-70 on top of the cleats.
HTH
You can have the Look pedals set up using Look's own system and is less expensive than the guy above. Have a browse on the Look website and it shows you their cleat set up system.My advice is whichever solution you go for is to seek a supplier who will offer a fitting service. You will get the best setup and longest life out of your peddles and your knees! Bad cleat setup can put you back months of training.
No tie in to this chap but he did mine and was very good. I am sure many places will offer this service so look for a recommendation near to you.
http://www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk/
Price wise its about £50-70 on top of the cleats.
HTH
As I said in my orginal post, I did not get on with Speedplays and got shot of them, the Looks have been fantastic, but it is all personal preference. One of the strongest riders in my club uses egg beaters a couple use Speedplays but most use Look or Shimano.
on the back of this topic just regreased my speedplays, i didnt use the speedplay grease or grease gun, instead i used a standard bike grease and a 5ml syringe which cost me nothing.
It actually took longer to get the grease into the syringe than it did to regrease the pedals, just squeeze the syringe onto the grub screw hole and wait until the grease coming out at the spindle is the same colour as that you are squeezing in, dead simple.
anyway, I looked around alot and decided on speedplay as they have a supposed large area or contact which reduces hot foot, larger float and double sided which is the winner for me for convenience, i have tried looks, i dont think the 1 sided thing is as much of an issue as its made out to be as they are weighted such thats they always hang in the same position, at the end of the day the top 3 of the TdF used speedplays this year and i imagine a few years ago they used Looks, they all work fairly well and we are talking about the last 5% of the things that sway your decision and probably have minimal effect on your actual enjoyment/use of the product, from a purely simplistic point of view speedplays and clipping in are a lot more like the spd's you are currently using so this may mean less time to adjust to the new clip in style....otherwise see whats on offer for a cheap price (bearing in mind speedplay cleats cost more but last longer/look cleats are cheaper but wear out etc) and you wont go far wrong.
It actually took longer to get the grease into the syringe than it did to regrease the pedals, just squeeze the syringe onto the grub screw hole and wait until the grease coming out at the spindle is the same colour as that you are squeezing in, dead simple.
anyway, I looked around alot and decided on speedplay as they have a supposed large area or contact which reduces hot foot, larger float and double sided which is the winner for me for convenience, i have tried looks, i dont think the 1 sided thing is as much of an issue as its made out to be as they are weighted such thats they always hang in the same position, at the end of the day the top 3 of the TdF used speedplays this year and i imagine a few years ago they used Looks, they all work fairly well and we are talking about the last 5% of the things that sway your decision and probably have minimal effect on your actual enjoyment/use of the product, from a purely simplistic point of view speedplays and clipping in are a lot more like the spd's you are currently using so this may mean less time to adjust to the new clip in style....otherwise see whats on offer for a cheap price (bearing in mind speedplay cleats cost more but last longer/look cleats are cheaper but wear out etc) and you wont go far wrong.
Rocksteadyeddie said:
+1 I have used Shimano pedals for years and they work great without being too trick. The cleats are also sensible money - unlike Speedplay.
Apart from the spindles everything is pretty cheap to rebuild with speedplay. An engineered solution does cost more but it offers benefits 'if' you can get over the initial cost. Picked up my second set barely used set for half the cost of new from fleabay. Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff