I just tried out a pair of M2 pedals that have some really crazy float to them. I have been using Look for 15 years and red cleats with float for as long as they have existed. The first few minutes on the M2 pedals felt like walking on ice. It bothered my knee for the first hour at lunch. Once adjusted it didn’t bother my knee anymore and I rode another hour of after work but never really like the feel AT ALL.
I thought red Look cleats had float, but compared to these pedals they are practically fixed. I’m trying to decide if I want to stick with them for a while, or trade them for some of the new Keo pedals. Any experience with pedals with lots of float would be helpful.
What I have seen is that it is right now, or never. Speedplay users can tell you that, I for instance hate speedplay feel and ride Time, others think speed play are the best “feeling” ride out there.
I tried Speedplay pedals when they were first introduced - and hated them. Just felt like I was trying to walk on ice. Went back to my Looks (which I had been using since 1983) and there I stayed. My wife loved the Speedplays, however - and so, a few years later, I tried Speedplay again. Stayed with them - and after a month, wondered whatever was my problem with them in the first place. Still in love - and still using the original set.
I think a big part of this is how much movement your legs naturally want to track into your pedal stroke.
I feel completely odd with no float - it actually hurts.
I’ve never ridden with unlimited float, but I get somewhere around 10 degrees out of my Crank Bros pedals. That’s perfect - I notice movement sometimes but it doesn’t bother me, it saves my knees from being locked in an uncomfortable angle.
If you’re comfortable with zero float, go for that. I don’t know much about the M2s, but I know that I appreciated the float on my current pedals (as opposed to the very little, with friction float on my old ones) immediately. Then again, I have a very, very bad knee for a 22 year old.
When I first switched to Speedplay X-series (lotsa float) from Look I thought it felt really weird and totally wrong and my feet would move all over the place. After a week or so I started to get used to it and the excess movement pretty much went away. Now I love the fact that while riding I can sometimes take a funny wide stroke and get a little stretch or crotchy shift;) while riding. I love speedplays for road riding.
And then when I put Shimano pedals on my TT bike last year that felt weird as I’d keep fidgeting trying to move my foot around just because i new I couldn’t. Same thing, within a few weeks I was fine on them. I like the Shimano’s for TTs just because they feel a little more solid and are a bit safer to do running dismounts and mounts on with the tension cranked all the way tight.
I’ve got speedplays on the roadie and time on the tri and both feel fine to me. At first the float was a little weird on teh speedplays, but it never caused any problems. After about 6 months on the speedplays I got the tri bike with times and there were no problems (and have been none). It was just “different” with no float; not a good thing, not a bad thing. It just was.
I, too, have been on Speedplays for years & LOVE them. The first 5-6 rides did feel like I was a 3-year old walking on ice for the first time, but after a number of rides I got used to them. I like having the flexibility of a lot of float to move my feet & ankles around, especially on long rides. Give em some time & your muscles will adapt.
Actually, I won’t. I had an epiphany at some point this morning and realized that I don’t NEED float and since I don’t like it, why am I bothering. I’m not enough of a weight freak to stick with them just for the 99 gram pedal weight. I asked M2 if they had any fixed cleats and they said “no”, the cleat is designed to allow float. Fortunately for me, the business who sold them to me agreed to trade me out the Orbs for a set of Keo Carbons. It’s back to Look for me.
Float is free movement of the toe and/or heel of your cycling shoes once you are clipped in. A quick cycling cleat history lesson starting circa 1985. Up to that point cleats were a slotted straight line that slipped into the cage of old quill-style pedals with toe clips/straps. In '85 Look and Bernard Hinault brought out the clipless pedal and a few years later Time came up with their own design that had “float”. Previous to Time you had to carefully position your cleat because once you were in, you were in. There was no side to side movement of the toe or heel.
Look countered Time’s idea with a cleat that allowed limited movement of the heel and their design for float hasn’t changed much. Since then Speedplay came out with the X pedals with previously unheard of amounts of float and now their are a ton of pedals out there that allow lateral movement of the toe and heel during the pedals stroke. Some like it; some don’t. I guess I’m now solidly in the don’t category. Or maybe I was just too impatient.
I assume you use toe clips/straps… That is how I started 23 years ago. You will be amazed at the difference a good pair of cleats/pedals will do for you. No more toe numbness because the strap was too tight or the bottom of the pedal cage was cutting into the bottom of your foot. In my opinion, clipless pedals are the single biggest improvement in cycling since I start in '82.
You know how as a kid you probably had a tricycle? Think like that. Only I’ve got two wheels instead of three. I bought the bike (K2 camano) thinking I would just use it to stay in shape when I couldn’t run. Then I did my first tri, and here I am looking at high end bikes…
