SPDs

bice

Is there a great advantage of m540 over m520 pedals for a newbie?

FSR_XC

Nope . . . . ones a gram or 2 lighter.

Jon8a

One's probably a lot cheaper. THink my 520's were about £17 from SJS cycles (.co.uk?).

Merlincycles also has them cheap.


Why not get proper roadie pedals. I use both types and for long road rides road pedals are better.

alfablue

Highonbikes have them for £17 delivered. Personally I think SPD's are better beginner pedals than road pedals, and at that price it is no big deal if you graduate later on. The M540 will be marginally better, but not by much, and £17 is a killer price!

ride_whenever

Yeah, merlin have the 540s for 29.99 which is pretty much the cheapest i've seen, for £13 I'll live with the drawbacks of the 520s

andrewc3142

The M540s look much nicer, which is why I put them on my road bike. For my other bikes I have the M520s. Performance is no different that I've noticed.

Lagavulin

My first clipless pedals were M520s. When I bought the Hardrock I wanted SPD's on that too. Found a pair of M540s cheap so gave those a try. They are a nicer, cleaning looking pedal without the spanner flats etc. but other than a few grams saved...
Chucked the 520s on the MTB and the 540s on the Allez.

Opted to stick the SPDs for the new bike and at the time Wiggle had M970 XTR's at £54.49. Can tell the difference with those and the other two.

If anything happened to the 540s though I'm not sure whether I'd pay the difference again.

bice

My thought was that m540s would save the crank thread because you tighten with an Allen key? I can think of times when I would like to remove and later refit the pedals without damaging the crank threads.

FSR_XC

bice wrote:

My thought was that m540s would save the crank thread because you tighten with an Allen key? I can think of times when I would like to remove and later refit the pedals without damaging the crank threads.

Thought 520's had spanner flats and allen key hole . . . . . the 505's (bottom range spd) on my Mtb has both.

alfablue

bice wrote:

My thought was that m540s would save the crank thread because you tighten with an Allen key? I can think of times when I would like to remove and later refit the pedals without damaging the crank threads.

There is absolutely no reason why the crank thread should be damaged by using a spanner over an allen key, you start the thread by hand and tighten with either. If you are clumsy you can cross-thread them whichever type they are, the allen key will not prevent that, but you won't be clumsy and it will be fine. I have fitted and removed pedals with both types for years with absolutely no problem, in fact this issue has never crossed my mind as a consideration when choosing pedals. If you grease the threads and don't overtighten there will be no problem, but if your pedals should get stuck they are easier to remove with a spanner.

Lagavulin

FSR_XC wrote:

Thought 520's had spanner flats and allen key hole...

Yep, they do. While the manual does state to mount the M520s via the spanner flats I certainly installed mine with an allen key.

ride_whenever

I've found that the ones with spanner flats tend to chew cranks, the actual flat bit seems to bite into the crank. This is obviously exacerbated by the tightening as you pedal them

alfablue

ride_whenever wrote:

I've found that the ones with spanner flats tend to chew cranks, the actual flat bit seems to bite into the crank. This is obviously exacerbated by the tightening as you pedal them

Wow, I have never found this in all my years! I don't apply much torque when tightening pedals though, they just don't need it (never had one come loose either).

felgen

I have 520's on my commuter MTB - they do the job just fine. I havent noticed any crank chewing either, and I installed them with the allen bolts from the inside of the crank without any problems.

I got them for 15 quid from woollyhatshop.

I just wanted a tough bike to commute on: cheap and reliable- I don't care about weight as the harder you try, the fitter you get (I have only had one breakdown thus far and that was on the first day I commuted!). I look at it as 'resistance training' you get a better workout for a given time Afterwards when you get on your good bike you can fly along as it will feel really easy

hodsgod

alfablue wrote:

Highonbikes have them for £17 delivered. Personally I think SPD's are better beginner pedals than road pedals, and at that price it is no big deal if you graduate later on. The M540 will be marginally better, but not by much, and £17 is a killer price!

I bought my 520s from highonbikes. They come with cleats and the adaptors fitted to make them SPD one side and standard pedal the other. All this for £17 pounds delivered, and they arrived 3 days after I ordered them.

What better way to give it a try?

dazzawazza

I haven't fixed them yet, but the bearings in one of my 520 pedals need replacing. The 540s are still going strong.
I think the 540s feel nicer too so would pay the difference and buy them over the 520s.