In 2007 I purchased a set of Speedplay Zero cleats after using Shimano SPD-SL's from 2004 to that point. The SPD-SL is a Look style-3 hole pedal system. I was having sore knees and hot spots from my feet being forced against the sides of my shoes. I decided then to buy the Zero's which have up to 15 degrees of "float" yada yada yada .....I will allow you to find out more about them at http://speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.zero to read.
My experience with the Zero's was good. The Zero's are highly engineered which means they are more expensive, require regular maintenance, and the cleats have to be replaced regularly.
The problem is that I am a big guy and I am tough on bike equipment which exacerbates the inherent weaknesses of the Speedplay system. So here were some of my problems.
- The small pivot point of the pedal puts excessive wear on the bottom of the shoe plate and Speedplay does offer a metal plate to reduce the wear but I even managed to put wear on that. The cleats require a slight amount of lubricant at least once or twice a week.
- I had to replace the cleats twice a year which costs $40 a pop and without covers the walking is dangerous and will wear the cleats out very quickly. Even with covers I always managed to wear down the head of a couple of the screws that fix the cleat on the shoe plate causing an issue on replacing the cleats.
- With all my" force" application, the bearings had to be replaced twice and probably should have been replaced more often and greased more often. That's another $40 per set plus labor.
- The last time I used them the bearings in one pedal blew out and I had to ride 19 miles home with one pedal. Nuff said.
I need a system that is reliable and cost effective without requiring me to be so diligent on the maintenance so with a little research and thinking, I decided to give the SPD-SLs another try and went with the 2012 Shimano PD5700(105) pedals. Cost effective did rule out the LOOK Keo Blades which after research I did become a fan of. I found a supplier of the 5700 that I could get the pedals from for a total of $65 with shipping.
These pedals are significantly better than their predecessors that I used before when I bought my first road bike back in 2004. The platform is wider, there is a replaceable wear plate, the cleat replacements are less than$20. At this price I could replace the entire pedal system every year and still save money and have zero reliability issues as the design is very simple. And to boot there is some real "float" with the black cleats.
After a couple rides I have found that I only need to shim to take care of a couple of fit issues. If I ever get my bike fit problems solved or my right leg could grow 1/2 inch, I could go with the zero float cleats.
So I am excited that I was able to fix a nagging problem.
