I'm considering the Look Keo Blade chromoly pedals for my road bike. I've been doing some price comparisons online and I notice that this store in Canada has them for way cheaper (approx. $100 cheaper) than many of the US based online stores (eg. Colorado Cyclist, Excel Sports, etc.)

As a Canadian this came as a surprise to me. Usually bike parts are more expensive here. I'm wondering why there is a huge price difference. Am I doing the comparison correctly? I seem to be, but a second set of eyes can't hurt. Does the US apply duty on French made bike parts that Canada doesn't? Are there early versions of the Keo Blade that are defective and going for cheap?

As far as I know there are only three versions of the Blade: the Ti axle model, the chromoly axle model, and the aero model. What am I missing?

La Bicicletta used to be a respectable Toronto store and I believe they still are so I suspect you're OK dealing with them. I've bought occasionally from them in the past when they had particularly good deals and I bought things in person at their old Toronto location.

As a fellow Canadian, I'd suggest you ignore those US sites. I've found the best deals come from Ribble in the UK. Wiggle and Probikekit are also usually better than the US guys and I've had good luck with them too. If you buy something like more than 50 pounds worth of stuff they now mail free (except big things like wheels). They use mail and it almost always arrives here in Calgary within about a week of my ordering it. No duty on most things, just the Canada Post $8 charge and GST. Generally, there's no duty on frames or parts coming into Canada, although complete bikes attract something like 12 or 13% duty. In this case, the Bicicletta prices are pretty close to Ribble so they're not bad.

I've used Look pedals since Hinault's and Lemond's days in the Tour (1986 I think). I've used Keos since about 2004, exclusively since about 2006. I even use the old Keo tis without any problems. However, I've never used the Blades and won't. A friend had one break on a trip last year and now carries a spare set. I seem to remember reading posts here about the blades breaking for others as well. You may carry spare pedals on your trip, but what do you do in the midst of a Gran Fondo you paid a lot of money to ride when the blade breaks? I've decided to just suck it up and suffer a few more grams of weight. I could always try to lose some of my many (180-185) pounds.

$139 at Ribble

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-track-bike/pedals-pedals-road-look-keo-blade-carbon-crmo-pedals/lookpeda102

so the $185 + HST not such a good deal

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dangerous curves ahead

Ribble has the 2012 Chrom Keo Blades for 133 GBP which would be 210 Canadian $.
Ebay 149 US $ shipped free which would be 152 Canadian $.

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Thanks for the replies. I have no idea why they are cheaper here in Canada and in the UK than in the US. Is the US govt. imposing tariffs to protect America's lucrative pedal manufacturing industry

I was also wondering about how durable the carbon blade in those pedals would be. I'm 6'2" and around 195ish and dropping, I'm not an aggressive rider, but I've read some posts on this site and others where some people have snapped the carbon blade after a few hundred kms of riding. But then I notice that Tom Boonen uses them and he's a fairly big guy and rides them in Paris-Roubaix. Granted, a big guy with sponsors who can replace anything that breaks on his bike free of charge.

Are they cheaper than 149 $ US in Canada?

The carbon blades will snap eventually as carbon when done in that manner is not a material that likes to flex.

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

When you look at Ribble prices, look at your local currency since there's UK tax that isn't charged on exports. $139.13 Canadian per their site and I've found the actual amounts to be within about 1% of theirs (since they estimate the conversion rate and my bank's credit card rate is slightly worse).

I have no idea why US prices are high. It's just that the UK is really cheap for bike parts and la Bicicletta has a particularly good price on these, as it occasionally does. I've found US sites usually have prices slightly better than Canadian but much worse than the Brits. It may have nothing to do with duty and more with source of supply or margins for the Brits. Also, they often don't have stock for days or weeks at a time.

Looking at the Ribble link provided it says 133.35 GBP.
Am I looking at the wrong link?

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

What Rubbish, carbon is fine flexing and is designed to align the fibres to allow flex. Otherwise all those carbon framed bikes would break apart in days as they are ALL designed to flex in places, or we would have no fillings left. Cervelo themselves state that well made carbon frames will last longer than aluminium or steel frames. Now aluminium, there is a material that doesnt like to flex and WILL fatigue

As for the Look Blades, mine have been fine for the last year and work much better than metal springs. I'm not worried about them breaking

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Cervelo S3 2011. Blinged 6.718 Kg

I have to say that the molding of the carbon body on the pedal seems to create 'seams' that are predisposed to cracks originating from the spindle. I installed Ward industries titanium spindles on my previous pair and soon after had a crack on the body, but I noticed that the new pair that I bought also had that 'fault line' there too, even when it's brand new. Not sure if you can see it there, a few mm down from the wordings

Re Ribble. There's a bunch of flags in the upper right corner of their web pages. Click on a flag and you'll get a price in that currency. If there's a tax difference (no VAT), the price shown takes that into account. So, although the Canadian dollar is worth a lot less than the pound, the Canadian prices in dollars are often pretty close to the UK price in pounds.

I was talking about how the Keo blades fail due to the usage of carbon in that area is not made to flex like that. The flex on carbon frames is not nearly the same as on the Keo blades. And no I do not believe that the carbon flat blade spring is better than metal when used in this manner.

I hope yours don't break but there are plenty of cracked blade examples on the web.

silvercivic27
Post subject: Re: Keo Blades
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:06 am
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Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2011 12:54 am
Posts: 19
I've broken mine 3 times in two years. Sent back to look under warranty all 3 times. I personally think it's a poor design for this reason and have gone back to Keo Max Carbon on all my bikes. I have the blades as backups but doubt I'll ever use them, since the Keo Max 2s are pretty much bulletproof.

trilocus
Post subject: Re: Keo Blades
PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 2:55 pm
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Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:16 pm
Posts: 36
you can buy it as spare part

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... OOKPEDZ330

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Jim is correct. The UK Tax is 20% and the practice in the UK is to include sales tax in the posted price. It is deleted when you click a currency outside the EU.

Due to the declining US$$ against Can$$, the current US price is $141.

For the financially inclined, over the past 4 years the GBP has declined from the $2.00 range to the $1.60 range today - a decline of 20% and similar to what has happened with the Euro.

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dangerous curves ahead

Hmmm, I'm beginning to lean more towards the Dura-Ace PD-7900 or Look Keo Max 2 Carbons now. I'm becoming skeptical of the durability of the Blades.