Here’s the deal. I’m an engineer. I’m pretty bright. I’m pretty good at problem solving and tinkering.
Sometimes I just want to be able to buy something and use it.
I really don’t get why they can’t play nice and go ahead and offer a Shimano/Look/Etc… version of their cleats. It’s really head in the sand if you ask me.
Especially when a selling point is stack height, then I right away have to add a shim adapter. Or, do like me and custom drill your own shoes to eliminate the adapter stack height.
That’s ridiculous. Why in the world do we still deal with this?
Next. The whole “torque” and “too tight” thing people have issues with. Every set of cleats I’ve gotten of them, the factory seems to have a little bend in the plate above the c-clip. Obviously if you tighten it down to much, that digs like hell into the c-clip. Every set I get, I wind up bending open the c-clip just a hair, and bending that stupid plate a hair.
Then, it feels awesome. I can sprint in it. It acts correctly.
But all of this…especially the three hole design…should be a forethought.
God, please God start producing a 3-hole version.
I really don’t like buying Giro SLX lace ups for time trial just to immediately drill holes in them!!!
Given the diameter of the Speedplay cleat and the positioning of the Look holes, I’m not sure there is a way to do this w/o an adapter (and that’s before factoring in the despite to adjust the cleat fore-aft).
I have always had no interest in their pedal system exactly because of this. Low stack becomes high stack
Not really. It’s still lower stack with the adapter than most pedal systems.
Shhhhhh, don’t tell!!!
This pair is the race pair. I may even remove the heel piece.
This is TT, so no elastic laces. But may look into some neon orange “wide” laces and try them out with a “lock lace” style inside attachment. Not sure how tight I can get them that way or if they’d hold. Worth experimenting to get out of lacing and tucking.
Shoe covers just make the surface area of a Giro SLX larger, defeating the purpose a bit.
Shoe covers just make the surface area of a Giro SLX larger, defeating the purpose a bit.
How do you re-do your SLX’s? Drill, then epoxy a nut in there?
For road I just put on covers, assuming that that good fabrics from NoPinz, at al, more than make up for any surface area difference.
For track, though, covers are either against the rules explicitly or I get “shade” from old school trackies. So I might consider low-stacking a pair of SLX for track.
Shoe covers just make the surface area of a Giro SLX larger, defeating the purpose a bit.
How do you re-do your SLX’s? Drill, then epoxy a nut in there?
For road I just put on covers, assuming that that good fabrics from NoPinz, at al, more than make up for any surface area difference.
For track, though, covers are either against the rules explicitly or I get “shade” from old school trackies. So I might consider low-stacking a pair of SLX for track.
Install the Shimano adapter where you ride with your cleats. Ride to be sure. Remove Speedplay but leave adapter. Pilot drill using the 4 holes as guides. Remove. Up drill size for m4 screw. Install Speedplay with only the blue curve shim in place. Remove nuts from Shimano adapter and put inside shoe. An m4x12 or m4x16 depending on the shoe leaves no threads above the very small nut. I can’t feel it under the insole.
It removes enough stack I could feel it on next ride.
I don’t epoxy, just suffer the few extra minutes work anytime I need to remove and clean and grease the cleats.
When the speedplays zeros were first rolled out, Time brand shoes are all the rage with their four bolt pattern. The Time shoes that came out circa 1998-2002 with the perfectly flat bottom were awesome for mounting speedplay cleats. Speedplay used to have on their website an article which made a big push asking manufacturers to go to four bolt cleat patterns, but if you they never really did. A few manufacturers like Gaerne and Lake did but only for a while. That’s a little bit of the history behind their rationale.
When the speedplays zeros were first rolled out, Time brand shoes are all the rage with their four bolt pattern. The Time shoes that came out circa 1998-2002 with the perfectly flat bottom were awesome for mounting speedplay cleats. Speedplay used to have on their website an article which made a big push asking manufacturers to go to four bolt cleat patterns, but if you they never really did. A few manufacturers like Gaerne and Lake did but only for a while. That’s a little bit of the history behind their rationale.
Thanks for that.
These days though, I’ve never met somebody in person that runs Speedplays without using an adapter plate. I’m just one person, but my 1:1 is that is at least 20 people.
I get that shoes exist for them, but not ones I see folks wearing locally.
So to me, the product totally misses fitment for the actual people buying it.
I get that tooling and changes cost…but it has to cost something to have to include an adapter plate and two separate sets of screws.
I’m not sure the solution, but I think time is right for one when the majority of people using a product have to use it with an adapter.
I think that if you made a speedplay cleat that had one screw hole in front and two in the rear you would end up with very limited adjustability. The size the lollipop and spring mechanism would overlap the screw holes such that it wouldn’t make much sense. But maybe you can design something, as you mentioned you are an engineer. Post your design sketch here!
When the speedplays zeros were first rolled out, Time brand shoes are all the rage with their four bolt pattern. The Time shoes that came out circa 1998-2002 with the perfectly flat bottom were awesome for mounting speedplay cleats. Speedplay used to have on their website an article which made a big push asking manufacturers to go to four bolt cleat patterns, but if you they never really did. A few manufacturers like Gaerne and Lake did but only for a while. That’s a little bit of the history behind their rationale.
Thanks for that.
These days though, I’ve never met somebody in person that runs Speedplays without using an adapter plate. I’m just one person, but my 1:1 is that is at least 20 people.
I get that shoes exist for them, but not ones I see folks wearing locally.
So to me, the product totally misses fitment for the actual people buying it.
I get that tooling and changes cost…but it has to cost something to have to include an adapter plate and two separate sets of screws.
I’m not sure the solution, but I think time is right for one when the majority of people using a product have to use it with an adapter.
I’ve been using speedplay for 15+ years Could be 20
Only pedals I have used is pedals with clips from Nashbar and then to Speedplay
Have to have close to 100,000 miles on the pair I have now. . Have used them on 3 pairs of shoes
Don’t even know if I have an adapter plate or not
Get a pair of Rocket 7’s with the 4 holes for Speedplay. Best combo out there. I bought 2 pairs 14 years ago. 1 pair for racing without socks, so half a size smaller. One pair for training. My racing shoes are basically brand new. I am looking to replace the training pair in the next year or two. I have over 100,000 km on them and they are still in pretty good shape. Power transfer is still as good as the day I bought them, but they have some wear and tear. At 170 grams/shoe they can’t be beat. Stiff carbon sole. Good quality leather. Comfortable on the feet. Lowest stack height. Everything you could want in a great shoe. Same thing with my Speedplay X1 pedals. I have had them for over 20 years and 150,000 km. No signs of wear. Like I said, best combo out there.
This shouldn’t stop you. This is a very ST, first world problem kinda post (OP knows this so I’m not exactly calling him out). Speedplays are great and I’m very glad I switched a couple years back.
Sidi does make four bolt speedplay compatible shoes. I bought a pair of Sidi Two wire Speedplay shoes earlier this year. The Vittoria Velar also is available in a 4-bolt version. I am sure there are more, but they are not easy to find.
Anyone using speedplay pedals and NOT using the extended plate is doing themselves a huge dis-service, especially on a tri bike.
I also use the extender plate to get my cleats closer to the mid foot of my roadie as well and my calves thank me for it on every ride
I don’t think the design of the speedplay cleat lends itself to a 3 bolt pattern so that isn’t going to happen anytime soon
Anyone using speedplay pedals and NOT using the extended plate is doing themselves a huge dis-service, especially on a tri bike.
I also use the extender plate to get my cleats closer to the mid foot of my roadie as well and my calves thank me for it on every ride
I don’t think the design of the speedplay cleat lends itself to a 3 bolt pattern so that isn’t going to happen anytime soon
After 100,000+ miles of using the regular plate with speedplay I installed the extender plate and moved the clear back a little bit
Began having knee issues for the first time in my life
Removed the extender plate Have put on another 20,000 + miles withOUT the extender plate no knee problems
