Confusion over clipless pedals.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I have BBB pedals and use Shimano SPD-SL shoes with Look Keo red cleats. I was given them by a friend as he had upgraded to 105 pedals. Anyway I fitted the pedals and was getting on good with them except for having difficulty at times in clipping out of the left pedal, the right one seemed to work fine all the time. The pedals were quite well worn and scraped from falls my mate had and I was thinking of buying new pedals and that's where the confusion started...I have three different brands of components, Shimano Look and BBB do what do I go for. Another mate has Wellgo pedals and I can clip in and out of his very easily however cannot find them for sale anywhere.

I sort of want to stick to the Look Keo cleats (as they're brand new) so what pedals do I go for. I've read reviews on Look Keo Easy but am a bit put off by the reports that they don't swing around to the correct side when you unclip. Advice or recommendations?

Lumen

Cleats come with pedals, so if you buy Keos you'll have spare cleats.

I haven't used Looks for years, but the Keo Easy seem to come with 4.5 degree grey cleats (as opposed to the 9 degree red cleats you have now). This is what makes them easier to clip out of - you have less rotation to do before you hit the "end stop". I assume you can use your red cleats with the Easy if you want.

I wouldn't worry about the pedals swinging round (or not). You get used to flipping them with your foot.

Shimano pedals tend to be cheaper than Looks but I believe they have less float (6 degree max rather than 9).

Cee-Jay-Cee

Lumen wrote: »

I haven't used Looks for years, but the Keo Easy seem to come with 4.5 degree grey cleats (as opposed to the 9 degree red cleats you have now). This is what makes them easier to clip out of - you have less rotation to do before you hit the "end stop". I assume you can use your red cleats with the Easy if you want.

Ah ok that makes sense, maybe I'd be better off just buying grey keos and trying them with my current set up before forking out for pedals I may not need?

Russman

Op, apologies for the threadjack !

Looking for an informed opinion....

I'm using SPDs at the moment and was in a shop earlier ready to buy new shoes. However the shop assistant was saying I should go for proper road pedals and shoes as they have more float than SPDs and are easier on the knees in the long run. He reckoned that for spins longer than 25-30km I shouldn't be using the MTB pedals because the shoes are effectively locked into the one position.

The downside to changing to road pedals is that I can't use the double sided (flat on one side, SPD on the other) pedals I have which are useful for commuting and short spins. However I do like the idea of a little bit of movement being available if thats the case with road pedals.

Can anyone confirm that road pedals are better / easier to use because of this float or does it really matter ?

Lumen

Russman wrote: »

Can anyone confirm that road pedals are better / easier to use because of this float or does it really matter ?

Depends how sensitive your knees are. I switched to Speedplay Zeros for racing and commuting a couple of years ago when I was having knee problems, but this year have used €20 SPDs for long cycles (e.g. ROK) without issue.

Some people do hundreds of km a day touring with SPDs, so it's clearly bollox to suggest that anything over 30km requires road cleats.

mossym

Russman wrote: »

Can anyone confirm that road pedals are better / easier to use because of this float or does it really matter ?

only recently got my road bike so pretty new to spd sl, having used spd for a couple of years on my mtb, but i don't find either one being significantly better than the other, the increased float does take a bit of getting used to i find, i thought there was something wrong at first, but whether it has any advantage i haven't been able to tell

triggermortis

I use egg-beaters on my MTB and shimano spd-sl on my road bikes and I'd say the egg-beaters have more float. Or I just notice it more as I'm moving round on the bike more

Russman

egg-beaters ??

Lumen

Russman wrote: »

egg-beaters ??

Made by Crank Bros. They have awesome mud-clearance and (slightly disappointing) four-sided entry.

triggermortis

Lumen wrote: »

Made by Crank Bros. They have awesome mud-clearance and (slightly disappointing) four-sided entry.

I was never disappointed with them until I started road riding. I used to be able to clipin 100% of the time, now it doesn't feel the same. Maybe because I don't ride the MTB much these days and I'm more used to the faff of spd-sl's.
In fact, I'm nowhere as comfortable on my MTB and I used to never be happier on it

macnab

I went through the SPD v SPD-SL debate with a couple of newbie's recently, after 2 hours we decided that the SPD pedals would suit their stop-start sociable type of cycling (22km/h average) The salesman in the shop gave them the same "SPD-SL pedals are easier on the knees" bollo#. Since then they have both had low speed offs due to not being able to disengage quick enough. The salseman needs to realise that not all cyclists needs are the same as his.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

They have awesome mud-clearance and (slightly disappointing) four-sided entry.

Now that's a shocker!

Lusk Doyle

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Lumen wrote: »

They have awesome mud-clearance and (slightly disappointing) four-sided entry.

Now that's a shocker!

That's what she said last night!

Cee-Jay-Cee

Just to update this i went and bought new 105 pedals and cleats from CR today, theyre reduced to €46 euros so couldnt resist. I also bought a new helmet (BBB Hawk) and a 750ml water bottle as the one that came with the bike is only 500ml.

midlands1

CJC999 wrote: »

I have BBB pedals and use Shimano SPD-SL shoes with Look Keo red cleats. I was given them by a friend as he had upgraded to 105 pedals. Anyway I fitted the pedals and was getting on good with them except for having difficulty at times in clipping out of the left pedal, the right one seemed to work fine all the time. The pedals were quite well worn and scraped from falls my mate had and I was thinking of buying new pedals and that's where the confusion started...I have three different brands of components, Shimano Look and BBB do what do I go for. Another mate has Wellgo pedals and I can clip in and out of his very easily however cannot find them for sale anywhere.

I sort of want to stick to the Look Keo cleats (as they're brand new) so what pedals do I go for. I've read reviews on Look Keo Easy but am a bit put off by the reports that they don't swing around to the correct side when you unclip. Advice or recommendations?

I've had look keo pedals for the past 2 yrs . No problems so far . Would highly recommend them .