Tuned Pedals called PlaySpeed if you reversed the name...

[TheKaiser]

Code: Select all

                            A         B         C
medial shoulder thickness   17.00 mm  16.39     16.96
lateral shoulder            16.95     16.79     16.91
bowtie thickness            2.77      2.77      2.77

Pedal A: Zero. brand new.
Pedal B: Zero. Oldest pedal. Severe rolling. PTFE shim used for 1/2 to 2/3s of its life.
Pedal C: Zero. Several years old. Severe rolling. Used exclusively with PTFE shim.

That is some great data Squint! would you care to offer a bit more "discussion" or "analysis of the data to share your interpretation?

From what I can tell, when you say "Severe rolling" you are saying that this particular pedal allows the cleat/shoe to rock significantly side to side, correct?

That is surprising and interesting to me that this occurs in the case of Pedal C, which has only lost .04mm off of the medial and lateral sides. I would not have guessed that such a small amount of wear would make that big a difference.

Was your assessment of the severity of rolling/rocking made with brand new or used cleats? I am assuming you used the same cleats at the same point in time to assess all 3 pedals, but please correct me if I am wrong.

How would you describe the rolling/rocking of pedal A, for example is it nonexistent, or noticeable but acceptable?

I am asking the above questions, because I am curious how cleat wear fits into this.

Slightly off topic, it would be cool if we could more easily measure the actual number of degrees of rocking. It wouldn't be too complex to do, but would require a bit of fabrication.

[Squint]

I call it roll because it allows the foot to roll (vs. pitch and yaw).

The new pedals had no rolling and were only used with the new cleats. The old pedals (B & C) were used with the old cleats on my shoes. In another thread, I talked about how the rolling is mostly caused by cleat wear. However, if you use the pedal long enough, the body can wear and buying new cleats won't completely fix the rolling.

I think the roll could be measured using a digital angle cube. Place it on the sole of the shoe (below the shoe). Tilt the shoe inwards as far as possible then outwards and note the difference.

The new pedals and cleats have about 80 hours of usage so far and might be rolling a little more than when they were brand new. It might just be breaking in though and is still way better than the old pedals & cleats. I plan on disassembling the cleat to look for wear soon.

[eljimberino]

From my personal experience:

Been using speedplay for about five years.

First pedal body set lasted about four years with approximately four sets of cleats. Started getting sore knees and tracked down rocking/rolling as issue. The Left/Right indicator on the pedal bodies were non existent.

Bought a new set of pedals last year. Two different pairs of shoes used always with keep on covers. Started getting a sore left knee after a 450km ride. Indeed left shoe rocks much more than right. Had the cleat adjusted to allow more float than was necessary which may have caused premature wear. (Have since adjusted float to less).

Bought a newer set of titanium pedal bodies/spindles, but rocking was nearly identical. Therefore issue is in cleat wear. Cleats look brand new because of covers.

Conclusion: wear must be on the face where the c clip and bowties meet, causing rocking.

Now if you could just buy the c clips on their own?

[eljimberino]

Hi Rick,
Did you make any progress on the lateral rocking issue and the new pave pedals?
Thank you

I never tried them; I am still on the Dura Ace.

If you want my reasoning:
I like speedplay, and I never really had any serious "rocking" issues that I could feel while riding, but I did note that there was wear that allowed rocking. It seems like a combination of cleat and pedal body wear. So the two most attractive features were the float and the low weight. At one time SPDPLY had an enormous weight advantage, but over the years everyone else seems to have caught up, so even DA is not that much heavier. And although I like foat, I apparently don't need it because my legs have been fine on DA, even with the blue cleats. DA are relatively dirt cheap, rock solid, , the bearings are THE BEST, and the cleats wear FOREVER. I only change them because they end up looking ugly.
With three active bikes, I can get DA, ultegra, and 105, and they all function identically and flawlessly for dirt cheap. If I tried to outfit three bikes with Pave', I would have to cancel my vacations.
So, like all things, there are a series of tradeoffs. I am not a SPDPY "hater", and if you really need float, they are still a great choice. Time also has some good float from what I've heard, but I have never used them.

Thank you. I agree. Unless the Pave model comes down significantly in price by the time my current set of SPDPY wear out I'll seriously consider the switch.

[TheKaiser]

I call it roll because it allows the foot to roll (vs. pitch and yaw).

The new pedals had no rolling and were only used with the new cleats. The old pedals (B & C) were used with the old cleats on my shoes. In another thread, I talked about how the rolling is mostly caused by cleat wear. However, if you use the pedal long enough, the body can wear and buying new cleats won't completely fix the rolling.

I think the roll could be measured using a digital angle cube. Place it on the sole of the shoe (below the shoe). Tilt the shoe inwards as far as possible then outwards and note the difference.

The new pedals and cleats have about 80 hours of usage so far and might be rolling a little more than when they were brand new. It might just be breaking in though and is still way better than the old pedals & cleats. I plan on disassembling the cleat to look for wear soon.

Those are all great points and clarifications, thank you! When you reference cleat wear, is it primarily wear to the inside face of the aluminum top plate, caused by movement against the spring clip that you are thinking of?

I currently use the thin stainless inserts that you can get from Speedplay to put under the cleat. I was told this would reduce cleat wear, but now I wonder if those are killing my pedal bodies, as I now have stainless rubbing directly on them. If the cleat wear is more about the spring clip on the aluminum, then it is also unnecessary, and either way, the same purpose could be served by the PTFE insert you mentioned before.

Would it be possible to put another PTFE insert between the aluminum top plate and the spring clip, to reduce wear on those surfaces?