I am in the market to upgrade my pedals. I am planning on getting some speedplay zeros but am also considering Look’s Keo Blade. I have always used the entry level shimano 540 but figured I’d try something new. What are peoples experience with speedplay and look and which would you recommend to someone or should I just stick with shimano. I maily do tri’s with the occasional crit in case that mattered.
Discuss!
I have used Shimano pedals for years and have never had a problem with them.
Same here - Shimano pedals forever it seems, and no complaints. I briefly tried Look pedals when I started tri’s over a decade ago and quickly went to Shimano, have never looked back.
Look Carbons on all my bikes. Love the large platform, easy in/out.
Brad
I am in the market to upgrade my pedals. I am planning on getting some speedplay zeros but am also considering Look’s Keo Blade. I have always used the entry level shimano 540 but figured I’d try something new. What are peoples experience with speedplay and look and which would you recommend to someone or should I just stick with shimano. I maily do tri’s with the occasional crit in case that mattered.
Discuss!
Started with Shimano, went to Look, and then I saw the light with Time’s RXS; however, the new Time pedals have mixed reviews.
I ride the RXS on all three of my road bikes.
Look Keo’s on all bikes since forever, have never had issues. I like the large platform too.
I rode Speedplay for 10 years and switched to Shimano SPD 2 years ago and never look back. Speedplays require regular maintenance involving injecting grease in them every few hundred miles and after any wet ride. The bearing wear also wasn’t great. The cleats are also expensive and slick on the bottom. They are very easy to engage and easy on the knees if you need a lot of float. I have 10K miles on my SPD pedals and they spin as smooth as out of the box and have never been serviced. I would get a pair of Ultegra 6800s - great value and outstanding pedal.
If the most common ones are good enough to work without any issues, use those. If (when) they break, you can find spares and cleats anywhere. Saves many training days and the occasional race. Shimano.
Look Carbons on all my bikes. Love the large platform, easy in/out.
Brad
Hey Brad- I have the Aero Blades and they recently started “creaking”.
Have you experienced that at all.
Everything SEEMS to be tight.
-YT
I use Shimano SPD-SL. I like it, great platform, great clip-in and great durability. The only thing that might pull me toward’s look is I really really like how they spin. My Shimano’s have hesitation resetting with the weight on the bottom, it’s gradual and not too fast. Look spindles seem to reset like butter. Anyone have this experience? Or do Look pedals tend to gum up over time and be like my Shimanos.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4525176;page=1;mh=-1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4282554;page=1;mh=-1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3454282;page=1;mh=-1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2145620;search_string=which%20pedal;#2145620
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I ride Look Keo on all my road bikes (one set is Vectors, but still a Keo-compatible pedal). I really like them.
When I first started riding road bikes I came from having ridden MTB for years and had only recently switched from aggressive flats (Odyssey Black Widows) to SPD. So I got a road bike, threw some SPDs on it and rode that for a little while. On the recommendation of some local racers I switched to Look and the change to a road shoe and road cleat system was like night and day. I’ve been riding them ever since and I’ve never had any complaints.
Ive been on Time iClicks for the past few years. Very happy with them.
I’m part of a very small group when it comes to pedal users. I have 11 ibkes. Of the ones with clipless pedals, they are ALL Shimano SPD. I have 5 pairs of cycling shoes and they all fit on all my bikes. Too easy.
For daily commuting I use upper end MTB shoes with SPD for cycling, walking to the cafe, and onto the ferry, plus walking from the bike rack to my office.
For road use, I use carbon soled road shoes on my daily commuter (for weekend use), that doubles as my summer training bike. In winter I use old MTB shoes with my old road bike, with SPD pedals.
For tri’s (with rough grassy transition zones, I use my carbon road shoes with SPD’s and love the quick easy entry that double sided SPD’s allow. OK so I’m an old fat fart, but I swim OK so get on the bike around a lot of tall skinny guys. Yes they beat me up the first hill out of transition, but I invariable pass a bunch of them as they wobble around trying to get their feet into their shoes, or shoes into their pedals.
I know SPD aren’t cool, modern, or carbon, but for me, they do exactly what clipless pedals are supposed to do. And the SPD’s are certainly not what’s keeping me off the podium! 
Speedplay for about the last 20 years - road, mountain, tri…Time and Look before that.
Like others, I used Speedplays for the past 5 years but got so fed up with the maintenance and keeping the cleats clean and lubed (clipping in became a nightmare for me) I gave my Speedplays away to a couple of ST’ers and bought Shimano Ultegra PD-6800 (about $140 pair). Same weight as my Speedplays (when you count the cleats) and clipping in just more logical IMHO. Couldn’t be happier.
Another one on Look Keo Carbon Blades and no complaints so far. They have a nice large platform, they’re easy to clip in/out of and, replacement cleats are easy to find.
Speedplay on road and tri bikes for about 4 years prior to that mtb spds. spd on mtb still.
I like the double sided and used to need the float for my knees but they have magically gotten better. I do use the float range adjustment to dial in my left foot angle which is toed in a little but plan to get a proper clear fitment soon to see if I can dial that out.
Was about to try looks since I needed a second set but then found used zeros on eBay for 16 bucks shipped that just needed to be cleaned and greased
Look on all four bikes
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I am in the market to upgrade my pedals. I am planning on getting some speedplay zeros but am also considering Look’s Keo Blade. I have always used the entry level shimano 540 but figured I’d try something new. What are peoples experience with speedplay and look and which would you recommend to someone or should I just stick with shimano. I maily do tri’s with the occasional crit in case that mattered.
Discuss!
I also had Look, and recently switched to all Ultegra. I figure the cleats will be around for a while and won’t change on me. Was able to switch on three bikes for about $400 total – got good deals but still was a significant investment to me.
If you’re going to switch, try to find a good reason. Speedplays are the only pedal that seems fundamentally different than all the others, so they might be worth investigating. While I was debating which to switch to I considered:
Definitely test ride. See if you can borrow some from a friend.