Road pedals. Clipping in.

manick0de
manick0de Posts: 202
edited August 2007 in Workshop
I've used doubled sided SPD for a year now but am thinking of switching to a single sided road pedal system. I tried the single sided the A520 SPD pedal once and it was a nightmare clipping in for city riding.
Are the road systems like Look and SPD-SL easier to to clip in than the fiddlier A520's and do road pedals usually hang upside down when not clipped in?

Comments

  • Aidocp
    Aidocp Posts: 868
    Manick0de,

    After using double sided pedals myself for just over a year, when I got a new bike I converted to A520's 80% of the time the're OK clipping in or out, not in the City as you say. So I thinking about investing in new shoes and trying Looks osr SPD-SL and I'd be interested in peoples opinions too.
    Road Bike
    Sirrus
    Commuter
  • rjsmith
    rjsmith Posts: 1,924
    The pedals always hang the right way up because of the way they are weighted. It really does become second nature after a while and it's very very rare to miss a clip-in. Just put the front of the cleat in first - at a junction you can half-unclick and leave the front of the cleat still in to make it easy to re-engage if you can go on quickly.
  • BrettBurk
    BrettBurk Posts: 9
    I am a huge fan of speedplays. Great road pedals - very light, tough and double sided. I also seem to benefit from the huge amount of float.
  • manick0de
    manick0de Posts: 202
    Minimum Speedplays are £90 though, minimum Look or Shimano's are £30. I was looking to get shoes and pedals for under £100.
  • rjsmith
    rjsmith Posts: 1,924
    The cheapest Keos are not bad pedals at all. You can get them for about £30. I use them for training.
  • BrettBurk
    BrettBurk Posts: 9
    Good point on the cost. I don't know about durability of the other pedals, although others could surely comment. My Speedplays have over 8,500 miles on them so far.
  • John Stevenson
    John Stevenson Posts: 962
    I'm also a big fan of Speedplays for commuting.

    I have never been totally comfortable with single-sided pedals in that application, even though I had enough riding on them to be completely familiar with clipping in and out.

    The price is a bit of a blocker though.
    John Stevenson
  • farrell
    farrell Posts: 1,323
    Speedplay X series are easy to clip in/out. But the Zeros have to be broken in which may result in problems clipping in/out. Once this is done, however, they're a breeze.

    Cleats are £35 to replace but the pedals are awesome.
    www.farrellart-london.co.uk

    www.farrellart-london.co.uk/bike/bike.html
  • domtyler
    domtyler Posts: 2,648
    edited March 2011
    I haven't tried every pedal on the market but after buying a set of the new Ultegra's, I proceeded to replace the pedals on my other two bikes with them as well. They are simply awesome.
    ________
    ANGELINA JOLIE
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Porridge not Petrol
  • lateralus
    lateralus Posts: 309
    the Look ones hange vertically because of the weight of the mechanism at the back. YOu farly quickly get the hang of pushing your foot over them from behind to bring them horizontal, and your foot then clicks in with the same motion.
  • portuguese mike
    portuguese mike Posts: 695
    I.ve not had shimano pedals but i would rank the other three in this order in terms of ease of use

    1 Speedplay (by a fair margin)

    2 Look (not too bad once you get used to them)

    3 Time (had a few incidents in traffic that could have turned nasty).

    I commute everday and now use speedplay and though they are pricey i think they're worth it
    pm

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