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Re: Speed play maintenance? [SBRcanuck] [ In reply to ]
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I used Zeros for a couple of years and liked them for all the reasons others have stated. No longer. They wear out relatively quickly resulting in slop between the pedal and cleat. This is manifested by a side-to side rocking motion of the shoe over the pedal.


The problem with the Speedplays is that the pedal body wears down rather quickly due to the abrasive action of the dirt which gets trapped between the pedal and cleat. Also, the plastic plate inside the cleat, which is the primary weight and friction-bearing surface that the pedal rides and turns on, is subject to the same wear as the pedal, only it is at a significantly greater rate as it's composed of a softer material than the pedal body and really shows the wear. It develops rather deep indentations that are the mirror-image of the pedal itself, as the pedal is constantly rotating against this surface. If there is the smallest amount of grit between the pedal and the cleat, the wear action and subsequent slop is accelerated significantly.


One cannot tell by looking that the pedal body is wearing until it's too late. A dial caliper is required to measure the thickness of the pedal. The outside portion of the pedal is the location of the greatest wear (this is the 3 o'clock position, looking down from the saddle, for the right side, 9 o'clock for the left). When new, the pedal body thickness is .675". Seven months after initial installation, the pedal bodies had worn down to .635", a full .040"! This is about the thickness of the wire that a large paper clip is made of. (It's a lot of wear). The cleat plate had indentations that were .070" deep! When I clipped in, there was all kinds of slop, as the total gap was around .110". I have found that the pedal starts to feel sloppy when the outside of the pedal body has lost around .010". Bear in mind that the cleat will have at least the same amount of wear and usually more (say .015" or so). One feels the wear as a tendency for the foot to roll to the outside. It really doesn't take much wear to feel this sloppiness, and it snowballs once it has started. The gap between the pedal and cleat gets bigger and the slop gets worse. Keeping this pedal/cleat system spotless at all times is critical if you want any longevity.


I switched to Shimano Ultegra pedals with the blue cleat and have never looked back. The stability is rock solid, the float is perfect, AND there is simply no cleat better for walking around.


Just my .02c. Your mileage may vary.
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Re: Speed play maintenance? [Fretking] [ In reply to ]
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But according to this
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...g=speedplay#p6204611
you are missing an aero gain from 3-5 W
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Re: Speed play maintenance? [Fretking] [ In reply to ]
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My experience mirrors yours. So its odd to hear others say they have been using for years and have never developed any rocking in the pedals. Even if they do have a large contact area as Dan describes, it doesn't change the fact that over time, I can take my foot out of my shoe, grab shoe with my hand and rock it side to side on the pedal.

I have a pair of Dura Ace pedals that every so often I'll try again, and I just can't seem to get used to the float, and end up back at speedplay.
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Re: Speed play maintenance? [Morelock] [ In reply to ]
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Morelock wrote:
MTM wrote:
I tried to avoid re-lubing them for as long as possible as it seems like the seal gets worse each time you fill them with new grease (and push the old grease out through/around the seal), i.e. each new packing of grease lasts shorter and comes out quicker from the spindle. I'm using their own grease and grease gun.

I've tried taking them apart to install a new seal (and new pedal body), but I can't for the life of me get the torx screw in the end of the spindle loose in order to get the pedal body off the spindle. They must be using some pretty fierce LocTite.


Hey, just saw this. I've disassembled my Aero Zero's a few times when I wanted to change spindles (And I also prefer that to re-grease them vs. the gun that makes a huge mess)

So, that Torx bolt is loctited with the permanent bond type. Speedplay doesn't want you to remove it, and if you force it you WILL strip it before it lets go. (Slightly less likely on the Torx than the allen heads they used to use, but point remains, very certain to strip it)

The solution is to get a torx bit (just the bit) and insert it as normal, then heat the back end of the bit (torch would be best, but a heat gun and some patience will probably work) until it's HOT enough to transfer into the bolt / threads. Obvious disclaimer... don't point the heat directly at the pedal.

There is also a c-clip that's hard to see that holds everything together you'll need to remove if you want to get the bearings out as well. I replaced the o-rings every time I disassemble as after a while they will deform and pop out. Can't remember all the size specs off the top of my head, 5/16 ID I think.

*one other thing if anyone tries disassembling totally that I forgot about...
On my Aero Zero's there was a little ring (not c-clip) on the needle bearing side that has to be removed to get everything apart. You will bend it and it'll probably never go back in. I threw them away... no problem in ~2 years. Disheartening when it happened though.

Thanks for the detailed response. Might have a go at it some day, but sounds like something for the off season - it really sounds like they don't want you to switch the pedal body out yourself. Quite annoying if the torx bolt would stay perfectly put during usage without that permanent bond.
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