SpeedPlay Your Cleats Suck
We’re breaking up Speedplay. A long time ago — when I was a much more inexperienced rider, I was attracted to the gimmicks of dual-sided entry, infinitely adjustable float, and low weight. Now I realize that these things don’t really even matter all that much.
Dual-sided entry is just for those who are afraid of not being able to get in the cleat fast enough, of those who think they’ll fumble for the pedals of another system. Like with any system, it just takes a little bit of time to get used to. Speedplays might be easier to try the first time, but in the grand scheme of things, time learning to be comfortable with any clipless system is a small drop in the bucket. Get over this.
Infinitely adjustable float sounds awesome, but really isn’t necessary unless you’ve got knee issues or happen to walk like a duck. To be honest, my heel in/heel out has been the same since I’ve installed these pedals and seems to be the same as most other float offerings.
Some love to be a weight weenie and compare one product to another based on a minuscule weight difference (not that I’m not guilty of this myself). These pedals really aren’t that much lighter than the next set when you factor in how heavy the cleat is.
Now this would all be fine and well, and I could easily live with all of these marketing gimmicks if it weren’t for the seriously terrible cleats that were developed in conjunction with the Speedplay Zero pedals. Cleat wear on these is abysmal, I have to replace these within 4000-5000 miles every time. For someone who rides as much as I do, that is more than twice a year. That’s $80-$120 / year in cleats alone, not including SpeedPlay lubrication or grease. The mileage isn’t completely ridiculous according to SpeedPlay either, they recommend replacing cleats every 5000 miles as well.
Here’s a list of things I don’t like about the cleats:
- Walking on them feels like walking on ice, even if I don’t do it very often. The contact points are made of metal.
- Lubrication is required literally every other ride.
- Tear down and full cleaning and removing dirt is required every month minimum.
- If you put down your foot down in any mud by accident, forget about clipping out until you wash them. They’ll require a full teardown/cleaning to unclip properly again. Very unsafe.
- Plastic inner construction has heavy wear.
- Poor metal-to-metal wear even when lubed.
And here is a list of cleat failures I’ve had (these were maintained to SpeedPlay’s specifications):
SpeedPlay Zero Cleat Failures
- First Cleat Set, ~3800 miles. The guide lips on the plastic portion of the cleat that keep the circular clip in place tore off, this caused some issues with being able to clip in.
- Second Cleat Set, ~4200 miles. Same as the first set, however only happened to one of the guide lips — this didn’t cause any issues clipping in. However, the circular clip even with proper lubrication started digging its way into the inside of the metal cleat cover on both cleats. This caused grittiness, issues with clipping in and out, and a lot of noise when pedaling.
- Third Cleat Set, ~800 miles. Somehow clipping out forced the heel out float screw to completely strip the inner plastic threads on the cleat leaving me with an insane amount of float to be able to clip out from. This caused me to fall over.