Posts Member

I've used both...a lot. I ride Look now. The speedplays are a great platform but a small one right under the medial head of the foot. When I talk to folks who have foot pain riding long distances, they are usually riding lollypops (Speedplay.) The Speedplay also have an active cleat on the shoe as opposed to the pedal ie: Look. You have to be careful when getting off the bike that mud, pebbles,whatever get stuck in there and render the cleat useless until you stop and clean it out.
I have no problem with the clip in and with practice you'll find you don't have to look to do it...just slap and go.
My advice is to try both and see which YOU feel best about.

Posts Member

I also use Looks - the pedals sit in the perfect position to clip into - you don't have to spin the pedal around. I recently switched from a double sided SPD pedal, and I find the Look pedal much easier to clip into.

Posts Member

In regards to clipping in and out...I wouldn't worry about it too much. When training, you don't really need to worry about it as you'll have plenty of time to clip-in/clip-out at any stoplight, stop sign, and etc. I have looks and after about a week I was pretty used to flipping the pedal if need be and clipping in quickly. As for during races, I don't know how you perform your transitions but I never clip my shoes in during the race (unless I accidentally un-clip them). I clip them in before the race and simply (maybe not the right word) roll my bike out of transition and hop on...getting my feet into my shoes and strapping them down. For dismounting, I just get my feet out of the shoes and pedal on top of them for the last .25 miles and then do a flying dismount. No clipping-in needed!

Posts Member

Speedplays are great! Don't let anyone tell you that the platform size is too small...it seems to me that any power you transfer through the shoe to the cleat will also get transferred to the pedal. And Speedplays have the largest shoe-to-cleat platform area. Plus, many pro cyclists (e.g., Sastre, Zabriskie on Team CSC) use Speedplays, so they are race-proven pedals--not just for people who have trouble clipping in and out. They even have better clearance in the corners than Looks because the pedals are so much smaller. I used to ride Look-style (Shimano SPD-SL) pedals myself until I started having knee problems. The Speedplays solved all those. The only real downside to them from a tri perspective occurs if you run across the transition area in your cycling shoes before mounting your bike. You really don't want to run in shoes with Speedplay cleats on them...

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I appreciate everyones input....I bought a bike which came with Shimano dura-ace pedals which look just like the Look pedals....I'll just have to see how well they work for me...

Posts Member

I love Speedplays. However, I'm more of a bike racer than a triathlete, and I'm not sure I'd pick them specifically for triathlon.

The biggest advantage of Speedplays is that it is virtually impossible to pull out of them in a sprint. This is significant in Crit racing not so much for triathlon.

The other Speedplay advantages, low weight, double sided entry, steep cornering angle, are also more significant advantges in bike racing (particularly crits) as oppossed to triathlons.

The Speedplay disadvantges, difficult to walk on, and difficult to engage if they get muddy, on the other hand can both be problems in triathlons.

Posts Member

at AG Nationals, there was an uphill exit from T1 and a LOT of athletes had trouble getting into one-sided pedals...all the flying mounts were really crawling/meandering mounts...and these were all very experienced triathletes.

while the race should probably have had a flat mount area and the racers probably should have practiced or mounted more conventionally, either way, there was an obvious difference in clicking in to two sided pedals

Posts Member

The only thing I have found that I dont like about my speedplays for triathlon is what happened at a race this year. What I found is that I think they unclip TOO easily.

As I rode up to the dismount with my feet out of my shoes and swung a leg over to dismount and run into T2, my shoe that i was still standing on twisted enough to unclip and cause me to nearly fall on my face. So i had to turn around and go back and get my shoe and do the run having just hit pavement with my bare foot going a little faster than i would have liked.

Posts Member

i was standing at the barrier and saw a guy on his shiny red P3 totally bite it right in front of me. He had to pull out of the race...it actually didn't look like a pull-out-of-the-race tumble, but maybe he tweaked something in addition to his ego...I felt worse for his bike
[hope he's not lurking]

Posts Member

I had the exact same problem when I would stand on the pedals to like climb a hill I felt like half the time I was just about to unclip very unnerving. I have the light action I think.

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That really surprises me. Light actions don't clip in as positively, but a bunch of roadies have told me that zeros were the best for sprinting and stuff. I've had a few people try to convince me to switch to speedplays from shimano pedals for sprinting in bike races because of people pulling out of shimanos. Oddly enough, I've never pulled out of mine, and you've pulled out of speedplays......maybe triathletes are just completely different from roadies (surprised? I think not :D)

Posts Member

I used speedplays on my road bike and Looks on my tri bike until this year. During Ironman Florida last year I had a lot of foot pain from my Looks so now I ago exclusively with Speedplays.

During my last race I took my feet our of my shoes as usual for a quicker dismount. During the pedaling on the top of my shoes I lost my right shoe. Since it was a sprint race I didn't stop to pick it up hoping that one of the volunteers at the corner would grap it for me. That was the last I've seen of that shoe. Moral of this story:

It's easier to get out of speedplays (IMHO):rolleyes:
You can use speedplays without cycling shoes.:D