Speedplay Vs Look Keo

The winter months and the various falls I have had from my bicycle over the years has obviously had a negative effect on my three year old Look Carbon Ti pedals.

On Saturday Big G and I were heading to Box Hill for afternoon tea, as you do on a Saturday afternoon. As we passed through Leatherhead my Look Carbon Ti pedals decided this was the time to give up the ghost and promptly the carbon of the left pedal disintegrated (at least it happened then rather than two weeks previously on the Tourmalet).

Subsequent examination shows the pedals were probably damaged hitting the ground and that damage got worse with use (they had been clicking for a few weeks and I assumed it was the bearings).

As fortune would have it "Cycle Works" in Leatherhead High Street re-opened Saturday after their ram raiding incident and subsequent fire and was only a short walk from where my pedals gave up the ghost. We made our way there. It is an impressive shop of two shop units newly refurbished and with the very latest shiny gear in stock. Well worth a visit if you are passing.

I had been thinking about Speedplay pedals for some time and there they were on display next to the Look pedals in the shop. I had used them in Australia a couple of years ago. They have the advantage of having less height that the Look pedals, you can buy "Coffee Shop Covers" for them (Look have discontinued the covers after someone took out litigation against them after slipping whilst wearing the covers), and they have a metal plate that means it is difficult to wear them out. The mechanism is in the cleat rather than in the pedal which is unusual. They have not been that popular in the UK having limited distribution outlets but that is changing.

Cycle Works had none of the cheaper Look pedals, only the more expensive ones, but they did have Speedplay Zeros in stock. The owner had good things to say about them and said he used them himself (what else would he say when I showed an interest in the Speedplays, what a salesman, silver tongued and I fell for it). I decided now was the time to change so I bought the Speedplays which he promptly fitted to the bike and my shoes explaining as he did it what he was doing and how the adjustments work, even making sure the centre of force was in the same place as on my Look pedals.

No charge for the fitting even thought it took him fifteen minutes whilst his wife and 3 month old baby waited to go to coffee. Very nice man.

We then proceeded, me £110 poorer, up Box Hill for coffee and cake (G had the bread pudding whilst I had the Victoria Sponge).

Difficult to explain the expenditure to The Wife when I got home but even she could appreciate the situation (but not the cost or the timing) when I showed her the broken pedal.

Chapeau