Look Keo Blade 2 2014

[micropox]

I think (but not sure) the creaking and play issue happens on certain shoes. I have the 2013 Sworks SL shoes and it creaks a lot on both Keo Blade and Keo blade2 pedals. Have to put lots of White Lightning Dry lube on the contact area to resolve the issue. But i also happen to have the older sworks shoes with newly installed cleats, it does not have those issues on both pedals.

Would be interesting to know what shoes creaks and what shoes don't.

[Rick]

I have 2012 S-works shoes and no creaking.
But I did have some squeeking/creaking when the pedals were new (Blade 2 both Ti and CroMo)
I put some silicone lube on the inside surface of the rubber cleat button, and also lubed all moving parts of the pedal (with light oil) . I also made sure to wipe a little silicone lube on all pedal-cleat contact points at the heel and toe, not just the metal contact surface.
I don't know exactly what the key action was, but all noise has disappeared and never returned. I strongly suspect it is associated with the rubber buttons. I don't think they serve any real purpose other than to cover up the hole. Some people ride without them. Shimano cleats have no buttons, and seem to work fine.
I am going to try just leaving them off the next time I change cleats.

Also, make sure your cleats are securely screwed to the shoe.

[SolidSnake03]

http://road.cc/content/news/123260-tour ... ks-roubaix

Read the comment about side to side rocking and switching to Dura Ace. Seems to fit with my original impressions of the Blade's v1. Interesting if nothing else and a bit of food for thought

[bdb]

I cracked the 16nm blade last night - which is weird, it just fell out.

Thankfully that was after all the climbing of the evening was done.
Now to see about getting it fixed or replaced, could be interesting.

[spdntrxi]

creak free... Blade2 12nm Ti w/ 2013 Sworks shoes.

[mca56]

Creak-free: Giro Prolight Shoes, Bi-material black cleats. The grey grip cleats on 2013 S-Works creaked horribly. Also, the black cleats give some spring centered float...just enough wiggle room. The bi-material cleats lack the grip pads making it much easier to clip in, though they are more slippery for walking in. I am happy with my 12NM Ti Blades.

[spdntrxi]

#^ weird i use grey grip cleats

[cajer]

I find that grip cleats are a bit more creaky and harder to clip in also.

[spdntrxi]

I find that grip cleats are a bit more creaky and harder to clip in also.

harder to clip ...yes

[greentimgreen]

My Keo Blade 2 Ti 12nm / Rapha GT shoes creaked for the first 500 miles then stopped (just in time for La Marmotte, thank god!). Seem fine now.

[Rick]

After about 3000 miles my Blade 2 with red bimaterial cleats were starting to get clicky/creaky/groany so I figured it was a reasonable time to change cleats.
I went back to gray grip cleats and the noise has been horrible. It is driving me nuts and I can't figure out why the grip cleat would be noisier than the bimaterial. The grip material doesn't touch the pedal when engaged, as far as I can tell.
I am starting to suspect it is associate with wear of the bearings against the pedal body internally. I can feel play if I grab the outer edge of the pedal and wiggle up and down. It also makes a slight click.
Not fully diagnosed yet. Just reporting. If I don't figure it out soon, I'm going back to DA (which I have saved. )

[Stats]

http://road.cc/content/news/123260-tour-de-france-tech-2014-cav%E2%80%99s-specialized-s-works-roubaix

Read the comment about side to side rocking and switching to Dura Ace. Seems to fit with my original impressions of the Blade's v1. Interesting if nothing else and a bit of food for thought

I have found the same side to side movement on my Blade v1's... i thought it may be normal as Time pedals quote having 2.5mm of lateral movement as well as 5 degrees of float so I thought it may be designed that way but that Look never advertised it like Time have?

...as a side note, the grey grip cleats I had wore faster than the normal cleats (which are becoming harder to find) and they did squeak a little. Not so with the normal ones.

...second side note, I have noticed that a couple of pro bikes with the Look pedals have bar tape or some other material over the metal plate to (presumably) stop creaking/play?

[Rick]

I have tried riding with rubber cleat buttons removed. No significant effect
Tore pedal completely apart and regreased: Had a temporary silencing effect.

Then I noticed that there is play in the outer bearing. If I grab the pedal at the outermost edge and wiggle up and down or back and forth I can feel the pedal body moving and clicking slightly. So I tore the pedal apart again. There are 3 bearings:
1. the inner cartridge bearing, which had a snug fit into the pedal body;
2. a needle bearing toward the outboard side. This bearing very snug in the pedal body and I did not remove it. It has a relatively loose fit over the pedal spindle.
3. An outboard cartridge bearing. This bearing fits snugly on the spindle, but has quite a bit of play in its bore in the pedal body. I could actually see it moving when I wiggled the pedal. So I wrapped the outer diameter of that bearing with some PVC tape until the diameter was a very snug fit into the pedal body. I could just press it back into place by hand, using the end of a pen as a push tool.

Greased everything back up and reassembled.

Initial tests indicate the pedals have been silenced. We'll see it it lasts. I think this proves to me that the noise was coming from the pedal itself, because I made no changes to the cleats; although a skeptic might note that it would be impossible to work on the pedals like I did without probably getting some grease on the pedal contact surface, even though I also cleaned it off thoroughly after I was finished.

Silent pedals are such a joy!

UPDATE: Well, the silence lasted only a couple rides. I think there are multiple sources of noise. Since the bearings are loose in the housing, as descried above, regreasing helps for a short period until the grease gets all pushed out of the way and the pedal starts clicking again as the bearing is pushed against the inside of the body each revolution. Another source of creaking is at the toe of the cleat. The friction between the cleat and carbon fiber of the pedal causes a creak that can be silenced for a while with grease. But it comes back too. The cleat itself (or the rubber button insert) seems to squeak against the stainless pedal wear plate. This can also be silenced temporary with any light lube.

BUT I"M DONE CHASING MY TAIL ON THIS. I've re-installed my Dura ace pedals and am going to sell my Looks on ebay. I can't believe that Look could make such a noisy system while Shimano has none of these issues; or at least I never ran into any noises with my DA, Ultega and 105 pedals. I have all three.

[JayAy]

In the search for a quiet cleat/pedal combination with the Blade 2, I have switched from Look grey cleats with grippers to Look grey without the grippers and all noise form the pedals has stopped. Only have about 200Km on them at the moment, but this seems promising.

[Rascal]

I tried silencing the creaking; applied White Lightning chain lube to pedals and cleats. This was successful and somewhat reasonable. Then the clicking showed up after a few noise free rides. Switched to Exustar cleats and all is good & quiet with about 10 rides on the new cleats.