clipless pedals.....specially speedplay

paulc33
paulc33 Posts: 254
edited January 2010 in Road beginners
Hi

i need a bit of advise please people,

at the moment i have a pair of ultegra pedals but i have difficulty unclipping my right foot....

i have been looking at speedplay pedals and wondered will these be easier to get in and out of?? or are they no different?

also what is ment by the amount of float?

is there any easy guides to cleat possitions too as im not sure mine are fully in the correct position!

any advise greatly appreciated
2015 Specialized S-Works Tarmac - Ultegra Di2 (7.0kg)
Kinesis Aithein - Ultegra mechanical (7.3kg)
Kinesis Maxlight Xc130 - xt/ xtr (11.3kg)


spin to win!

Comments

  • rokkala
    rokkala Posts: 649
    Couldn't tell you about any pedals other than Looks myself, i'm sure somebody can help on that score.

    With regards to the 'float' of a cleat, it means you will get a few degrees of rotation when your foot is clipped in to the pedal. So if your cleat isn't aligned perfectly then your feet can naturally compensate, within the limits of the rotation available.

    Range from 0 degrees(fixed), up to about 9 degrees. Normally said to be a bit better for the knees, especially if they are already a bit dodgy. Though some would say getting perfect cleat position and fixing it at that is better for the knees.

    With float, you will lose a bit of power compared to if your feet were fixed to the pedals, but it's probably not an issue unless your racing etc etc.

    Cleat position, manuals normally say to have it centred under the ball of your foot, but everybody is going to be slightly different to what they find comfortable.

    Try here: http://www.articlesbase.com/motorcycles ... 84065.html
  • softlad
    softlad Posts: 3,513
    there's no reason why any clipless pedal should be difficult clip out of - unless you have the spring tension set wrongly, or the cleats are worn...
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,467
    Something like the speedplay zero won't be any easier to get in and out of, but it will be different. With any pedal you just need to practice and eventually it becomes automatic. However, speedplay do a "light action" pedal which is supposed to be easier to enter and exit, but it may not be significantly easier than other brands (the zeros are actually quite difficult until you get the hang of them).

    One advantage of the zeros is that you can adjust float, so you can choose to have a lot of float, none, or something in between. If the reason that you can't unclip with your right foot is that you can't twist your heal far enough out, you might get on with the zeros, as if you dial the float to zero on that side your foot will unclip without having to move it very far. The force needed will be the same however, so if that's the problem it won't help.

    Ideal cleat positions vary between individuals and according to the sort of riding you do, but the best place to start is to have the cleat directly under the ball of your foot. If you run your fingers along the inside edge of your foot you should feel a bony bump corresponding to where the ball of your foot is. If you mark this on the outer edge of the sole of the shoe you can use it as a guide to position the cleat so that when attached to the pedal, the pedal spindle is aligned with this mark.
  • jangle
    jangle Posts: 114
    Would have to disagree with Speedplays being difficult to get the hang of. I have used Time, SPD, SPD SL and Speedplay and would say that they are 2nd after SPD for ease of use.

    The main advantages of Speedplays are,

    They are double sided, so you don't have to worry about flipping the pedal to clip in, which is much easier if you commute in them.
    They have free float, meaning that the cleat doesn't have a spring that tries to centralise your foot all them time - great if you have dodgy knees.

    If you are only struggling with one side I would suggest that it could be worn cleats, spring tension or just bad technique. I did find I struggled more with my right foot with Time cleats, although I could not see anything different to my left side set up. Practice holding on to a chair in the living room helped a bit but then I went to Speedplay and found it much much easier.
  • vision267
    vision267 Posts: 149
    I have ultegra pedals and time rxs and just recently look keo max.Ultegra's are much harder to get out of then the keo's and the rxs pedals.