Lightweight MTB SPD's

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weastman
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 3:06 pm

by weastman

In the pursuit of lightweightness I have realised my pedals weigh a fair amount more than required (currently Shimano M520 - 376g)
I run the pedals on both my commuter and road bike therefore would like to stick to spd cleats. I have seen the Ritchey Pro Micro V4 (208g) and really like them, however I understand that these are not really spd compatible and I don't fancy the added uncertainty/danger of using Ritchey cleats on my (fixed wheel) commuter spd pedals.

I also fancy a project and seeing some of the handy work on here I feel like I'd like to have a crack at saving some weight from some old Shimano M520's I have lying around, ie. Remove one side of cleat retention so pedals become single sided, careful weight loss with dremel, ti spindles.

So the question is will I get anywhere close to the Ritchey weight with M520s or should I just take the plunge and buy the Ritchey Pro Micro V4 and also switch my commuter to Ritchey pedals too.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

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by Weenie


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Marin
Posts: 4035
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:48 am
Location: Vienna Austria

by Marin

If you remove on side, the pedal will always hang the wrong way I'd guess...

MisterMuncher
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:15 am

by MisterMuncher

From my experience, Ritchey cleats in Shimano pedals works better than the reverse. I'd be tempted to go with Paradigm V5 Pro and WCS on the commuter/best bike respectively. An extra 30-50g over micros, but keeping double-sided pedals. The V5 is a little nicer in use.

weastman
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 3:06 pm

by weastman

On my lunch break I decided to have a play with some old M520 spd pedals I had lying around to try to shed some weight, this is just a rough go and will be tidied up later if I get the results I'm happy with. Also if so I may get Ti spindles and drop weight even further.

Image

So take one M520 (188g)
Strip off one sides clipping mechanism (39g)

Dremel off the clipping mechanism brackets and excess weight (10g)

Image

Resulting in a skinny M520 single sided pedal at 139g, could be sub 120g with Ti spindles.

Image
Image
Image

Am about to ride home on the one pedal and see how it feels and if it's easy enough to clip in and out of. Will report back.

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Last edited by weastman on Wed May 11, 2016 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

weastman
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 3:06 pm

by weastman

MisterMuncher wrote:From my experience, Ritchey cleats in Shimano pedals works better than the reverse. I'd be tempted to go with Paradigm V5 Pro and WCS on the commuter/best bike respectively. An extra 30-50g over micros, but keeping double-sided pedals. The V5 is a little nicer in use.

Thanks for the suggestions, The Paradigm V5 Pro look fantastic value! Wonder if it's possible to replace the spindles with ti version for that ultralight budget pedal. Any idea?

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MisterMuncher
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:15 am

by MisterMuncher

I've looked into it half-heartedly. Haven't seen anything available off-hand, but never got round to enquiring with Ward Ti or the like. I'm sure they exist somewhere, though.

jorisee01
Posts: 386
Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 8:22 pm

by jorisee01

Why not buy these http://bike.shimano.com/content/sac-bik ... -a600.html

And make them lighter?


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by Weenie


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prendrefeu
Posts: 8580
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:32 pm
Location: Glendale / Los Angeles, California
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by prendrefeu

I had no idea Lightweight makes MTB SPDs... why isn't it on their website?

:grin:
Exp001 || Other projects in the works.

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