Ward Titanium spindles for Speedplay Zeros

[scooter916]

I just wanted to let you all in on a great way to shave some weight off your Speedplay Zeros.

I'm not affiliated with this company in any way just a very satisfied customer and wanted to share a great in expensive way to shave some serious weight of some great pedals

I bought my first set of Ti spindles from Wade at Tispindles.com in Michigan about a year ago for my mountain bike. he make GREAT quality spindles for the very popular Eggbeaters. Very easy install and a weight savings of around 45g a pair!! all for $55 give or take.

I bought a set Zero stainless after seeing a huge price increase for the Ti version (with the 180lb weight limit).
My pedlas are now a few grams lighter than the Ti and a whole lot stronger (235lb weight limit on Wade's spindles)

here was the frustrating part.... My Zeros were a few weeks old, under 200 miles. after receiving the spindles (3 days) I noticed my left pedal was not spinning as smoothly as the right pedal, I purged them with new grease and it stayed the same. I went for a ride the next day hoping the notchy feeling bearings would get better after a brief (40 mile) ride. To my surprise they were still notchy, I was rather pissed and sent Wade an e-mail at about 8pm california time expecting a return email in the morning. less than 30min later I had a return email from Wade. I explained my frustration and wanted a refund and to send my "defective" spindles back. Wade explained to me that the spindles were not the problem and it was the bearings. I have been wrenching in shops for 11 years and running my current service dept. for the past 8yrs. I called BS on this poor excuse for his product. He insisted it was the case and told me to order the two outer cartridge bearings and see if it fixed the issue, with a guarantee to refund my money PLUS the cost of the new bearings if they did not work. I had a set of bearings in my Speedplay small parts box at work. I popped in the new bearings and my pedals were back to normal.

now I have put on 200+ miles on these spindles and they are every bit as stiff as the stock stainless spindles and are a narrower Q-factor.

I will up-load a few pics of my pedals with the stock and the Ti spindles and get some real weight on them.

to purchase the Speedplay spindles you have to contact them via email to order as the Eggbeater are the only spindles in his on-line store (not sure why)

[Butcher]

These have been mentioned in the past and I am certain that Speedplay has something to do with why they do not mention them on their website. Probably why Metrigear no longer mentions Speedplay either.
I bought the 'Nanogram' style spindles and I am too completely happy with them. Along with all the other tuning that was done the pedals are as light as the Nanograms at less than half the price [incl. Nanogram cleats].

[JensW]

have the same spindles from wade, and my experience is the same, that that it spins smooth, but notchy. we were three friends that bought spindles from wade, two has this "problem" and one hasn´t. me and my friend that have this notchy fealing in the bearings, has used them about 200 km, and the one that hasn´t the problem, he had not used them anything before we mounted the spindles from wade. so scooter916, your experience is that even after a so short time of using the pedals, it´s necessary to change the bearings when converting to wades titanium spindles? and why is´t working perfectly for my friend with new bearing, but not for us with bearings that is just used some hours

[Gearhead65]

Yeah...I installed the same spindles here....

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=68720

Mine got 'notchy' for awhile, but went away on its own. Have around 1500 miles on them now.

[scooter916]

I'm stumped, not sure why it worked but it did, his explanation was that they mated to the Speedplay spindle that may not have been as true as his and when the pedal was rebuilt it didn't mesh well with the stock bearings, I still have them and may try putting them back in to see if they are still notchy. but all I know is that they are working great. and I plan on buying more

[Gearhead65]

Yep, overall very pleased with Wards spindles.

[boots2000]

Biggest advantage to Ward spindles is the availability of different spindle lengths- he makes short and long ones.
I am currently having Wade fabricate some +1/4 ti spindles for Look Keo2Max. If that is of interest to anyone- PM me.

[Ryun]

Will the axles he makes for the zeros fit the X series?

Ryun

[LegalizeMyCAAD9]

Thanks for sharing - i heard good things about his spindles too, can't wait to try.


Can anyone recommend a website to order the Speedplay pedal inserts (bowties)?
Any chance to get a Ti one?

So, spindles, pedal inserts, countersunk M4 bolts... what else can i upgrade on the Zeros?

[scooter916]

Will the axles he makes for the zeros fit the X series?

Ryun

when I was selling my X1 Ti pedals I thought about swapping the speedplay Ti axles to my new Zero pedals but was advised by Speedplay that the zero and X series spindles were in fact different. not 100% sure.

[Butcher]

what else can i upgrade on the Zeros?

Ceramic bearings is about the last thing. Do not forget about the cleats. You can buy the Nanogram cleats but it will set you back at least $100.00

[LegalizeMyCAAD9]

Ceramic bearings is about the last thing. Do not forget about the cleats. You can buy the Nanogram cleats but it will set you back at least $100.00

Thanks for the info. Do you know the weight difference from the standard Zero Cleats to the Nano?

[Butcher]

I can't remember what the weight was. I know they have aluminum bolts, the plastic portion of the cleat has carbon fibre in it, and they are lighter. I want to say they are about 30g but I truely forgot. Probike kit has them. I know when I got done with my Chrome/Moly Zero's they were as light as the Nanograms, using Ward spindles, ceramic bearings [one size all ceramic, the other just the balls], aluminum bow ties, ti bolts, and the Nanogram cleats.

[BmanX]

I just emailed ward to ask about the spindles for the X series pedals and was informed that they only fit into the Zero's and not the X's. Has anyone tried this yet. If not, I have a spare pair of spindles that I might send down to Ward to have them fabricated.

Anyone.

[Ryun]

I just got a set from them to try on the Xs. They bolted right up last night and seem to be a perfect match. I will ride them tonight to see if there is anything or issues I am missing but so far so good