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Tech Pedals

If you want some pedals that are cheap and will last way longer than you would like them to, then buy some shimano. They do 105, Ultegra and DA in carbon these days. I really like my DA, but I'm sure they aren't really any better than the 105 (just a tad lighter).
 
@wexford Yeah the info on the Look site is typically bike-world lame.

The bearings are 6701. I figured it out for you. The reason Look doesn't have any info on water testing, is that apart from the integral locking mechanism which they also claim is a seal, all of the water protection is just part of the actual cartridge bearing, which they don't make.

So, you just need to get four 6701 bearings with rubber seals. There are a few different seal types that bearing makers do. You will be best going with non contact rubber types. These offer protection, but minimal resistance.

You can see again why shimano have made a smart engineering move with their system too. They do not use cartridge bearings, and opt for adjustable loose balls which can be serviced forever with standard tools and don't need hammering to get at.

@timefleas How are the Speedplay bearings arranged and how are they serviced?
 
@wexford, is the 19 mm nut you were refering to the "flower like" flange thingy after the threads?
Sorry if I got too technical!
 
Time iClic pedals, and why they are complete rubbish.

Here is an image of the Time iClic pedals, straight from the catalogue. They work in exactly the same way as Look and Shimano, in that the cleat hooks under the front part of the pedal, and a sprung hinge on the rear accepts the rear part of the cleat. They have a top plate on the pedal body, which the middle of the cleat sits on when engaged.

time-iclic-carbon-black-med.jpg

All good so far, so what is the problem? Well, essentially they have been designed wrong. And by wrong, I mean, disastrously wrong. I suspect that what happened in the Time office, is that they got hold of some 3D software, learned it for a week, then tried to make the coolest looking pedal they possibly could. And they did. They look ace. Angular, minimalist, sharp, fast, and like a cross between an X-Wing fighter, a Speeder-bike and a Gundam weapon. After they were satisfied with the way it looked, they then tried to take what they had on the screen and make it into an actual physical object, but due to the design originating from a form, rather than an applied function, they had to make some INSANE decisions.

So, what are these decisions?

Well, the first one, is the grade of plastic they use. These things are angular as hell, and therefore need a lot of cutting, carving and moulding to get the look they wanted. Now, cutting, moulding and making angular lines in a hard material, hard enough to work as a pedal, is expensive. Time realised this, so instead of modding the design, they just used a soft as jelly plastic. Yeah, I know. Mental. These pedals are soooo soft, and mushy, it is unreal. This doesn't just manifest itself in pedals that flex a bit. They snap straight through the material!

Like this...

TimeBroke1.png

Not only this, the bearing seats are also made of this utterly soft plastic, which deforms, meaning the bearings get play in them pretty much straight out the box. And they are not adjustable. So the bearings spin and rattle almost immediately.

Bad, I know. But there is more...

The top plate, which the middle of the cleat sits on and rubs around on constantly, which on Look and Shimano pedals is a metal plate, on the Time pedals is made of this same soft rubbish plastic! I know, but it gets worse!!

They GLUED IT ON!!!!!

IMG_0927.JPG

The plate just sits on the main plastic body, glued on with a thin smear of low grade glue!!!! The above image is my Time iClic pedal which the top plate just cracked off. There is no way to glue it back on effectively, and this particular plate got lost as it cracked off as I was riding. Oh, and these black iClics were a warranty pair on an original white pair I bought. Which also had the glued on top plate glue crack off. Absolutely awful.

But there is more...

The cleats are also made of this same low grade plastic, meaning that they instantly start snagging up and getting wear on them the minute you unclip and step on the floor. They have a life of about 4 weeks (seriously) compared to the extensive life of the far superior Shimano versions.

So, basically, you need to avoid Time pedals and never buy them. They are completely dreadful.
 
TCC said:
How are the Speedplay bearings arranged and how are they serviced?

The bearings are a small collar at the outer end of the pedal, spindle pretty much like everybody else's--normally I use a Speedplay grease gun to force grease into the unit through a hole for that purpose, as shown in the following link, though if necessary, the pedals are easily disassembled, also shown in the link.

http://nyvelocity.com/content/equipment/2011/speedplay-rebuild-mark-purdy
 
Right, so there is a needle roller unit on the inside of the pedal body, then 2 cartridge bearings on the outer edge. Seems decent. The grease you put into the pedal body will be lubing the needle roller unit.

Cool, and simple, and that is a large contact area of bearings on the axle, so the load will be spread nicely. Good stuff.

Edit; http://nyvelocity.com/content/equipment/2011/speedplay-rebuild-mark-purdy

Hahahaha, that was all good until he got to the end. Why did he take it apart, clean it, put it back together, THEN squirt loads of grease through with the grease gun?!?! Haha. He should have put the grease into the pedal body and rubbed it all over the needle roller unit while it was disassembled, then put it back together without needing to use the grease gun.
 
@wexford Yeah the info on the Look site is typically bike-world lame.

The bearings are 6701. I figured it out for you. The reason Look doesn't have any info on water testing, is that apart from the integral locking mechanism which they also claim is a seal, all of the water protection is just part of the actual cartridge bearing, which they don't make.

So, you just need to get four 6701 bearings with rubber seals. There are a few different seal types that bearing makers do. You will be best going with non contact rubber types. These offer protection, but minimal resistance.

You can see again why shimano have made a smart engineering move with their system too. They do not use cartridge bearings, and opt for adjustable loose balls which can be serviced forever with standard tools and don't need hammering to get at.

@timefleas How are the Speedplay bearings arranged and how are they serviced?

I'm still not sure why I would need 4 ball bearings. I've only two pedals and as you can see from the photo, my set seems to only have the one ball bearing per pedal although it looks like the guy in the video definitely has two per pedal. Probably a different model.

Don't suppose you have any recommendations on where one would buy ball bearings?

Yeah - the Shimano pedals do look better from what I can see. Might get another few k out of these first before I go clicking order buttons.
 
Right, so there is a needle roller unit on the inside of the pedal body, then 2 cartridge bearings on the outer edge. Seems decent. The grease you put into the pedal body will be lubing the needle roller unit.

Cool, and simple, and that is a large contact area of bearings on the axle, so the load will be spread nicely. Good stuff.

Edit; http://nyvelocity.com/content/equipment/2011/speedplay-rebuild-mark-purdy

Hahahaha, that was all good until he got to the end. Why did he take it apart, clean it, put it back together, THEN squirt loads of grease through with the grease gun?!?! Haha. He should have put the grease into the pedal body and rubbed it all over the needle roller unit while it was disassembled, then put it back together without needing to use the grease gun.
Totally agree--used only for purposes of illustration!! (Didn't like his comment about tossing the peddle if the bearings were bad, either.)
 
Time iClic pedals, and why they are complete rubbish.

Here is an image of the Time iClic pedals, straight from the catalogue. They work in exactly the same way as Look and Shimano, in that the cleat hooks under the front part of the pedal, and a sprung hinge on the rear accepts the rear part of the cleat. They have a top plate on the pedal, which the middle of the cleat sits on <snip> so what is the problem? Well, essentially they have been designed wrong. And by wrong, I mean, disastrously wrong. <snip>
Well, the first one, is the grade of plastic they use. <snip>
The cleats are also made of this same low grade plastic, meaning that they instantly start snagging up and getting wear on them the minute you unclip and step on the floor. They have a life of about 4 weeks (seriously) compared to the extensive life of the far superior Shimano versions.

So, basically, you need to avoid Time pedals and never buy them. They are completely dreadful.

Time have fallen a long way from the TBT Criterium pedals I had in the 90's. No worries about plastic as both the pedal & cleat were metal :) I had them as at the time they offered more float than Look and I need that due to my duff knee. The first thing Time did wrong (late 90's) was to change the front part of the cleat from brass to plastic which reduced it's life from 18 months to 6 weeks (max). If someone were to give me a set of those Time pedals I would thank them profusely & then put them in the parts drawer. I'm currently using Look as my frame is one of theirs & Shimano pedals would just look wrong.
 
@timefleas Haha, yeah I winced at that too. That goes against my firm belief that if it went together, then it can surely come apart again.

@stanc Yeah right! Seriously, these pedals were the worst thing I have bought since being into Road bikes. The crapness was close to the level of junk you would expect from a mid-90s BMX component. No idea how they haven't noticed how rubbish they are, and also no idea how retailers still sell them.

Shimano related, and keeping with the theme of servicing, I do have the official Shimano pedal servicing tools (TL-PD40 and TL-PD63) so if anyone has Shimano pedals that need servicing, let me know and I can do it for you.
 
I opened the right (rough pedal) side again tonight and tried to clean in where the needle bearing sits with some wd-40 and a fair few cotton buds. Put the axel in dry just to listen to it in my hand and then re-greased it all up. Still rough. One thing I noticed was when I was trying to clean the ball bearing some more, it has a black seal around the outside so its the sealed type.

Was leaving the room when I thought about my Keo Blades. They feel really smooth. Opened up the right one to have a look. It has the same format but two ball bearings which are not as wide. The axel also appears longer although I didn't measure it as I already had the other pedals in again. The interesting thing to me though was that it was grease free except where the needle bearing contacts. The ball bearings also run really smooth so, I know now that its my ball bearings that are bad (as @TCC has been telling me) but its nice to feel good bearings and bad bearings and experience it yourself. I reckon the noise I'm hearing is amplified a little bit by the casing when its altogether.

The Keo Blade's dust cap is much more delicate than the Max 2 ones so careful with that one to turn them the correct way and not to over tighten later.

Anyway - me thinks its time I found my hammer and figured out how to order myself some bearings. If I smash them up, I've got the broken blades to get me by for a little until something new arrives. This might take a while to get organized but I'll post an update here when I do go A-Team on them.
 
Haha, I told you so.

The needle rollers which are wedged down the end of the pedal body; clean them out by doing this...

1. Get a can of compressed air from a guitar shop, or a nerdy computer shop. If you have a wife, girlfriend, or are in an 80s hair metal band, you might have a hairdryer laying around, so you dont need the compressed air can.
2. Spraying a f**kload of WD40 in there, to flush them out.
3. Run tap water hard and fast into the area to clean out all the residue and dirt.
4. Then shake it as hard as you can for ages to get the water out.
5. Use your 'girlfriends' hairdryer, on hot to and fast, or the compressed air to dry them out.

Relube.

Haha, take a load of photos of you belting the hell out of the bearings to get them off. Buy new ones first though, so you can actually put them back together as a fully functioning item. :)

Nice.
 
Time iClic pedals, and why they are complete rubbish.

Here is an image of the Time iClic pedals, straight from the catalogue. They work in exactly the same way as Look and Shimano, in that the cleat hooks under the front part of the pedal, and a sprung hinge on the rear accepts the rear part of the cleat. They have a top plate on the pedal body, which the middle of the cleat sits on when engaged.

View attachment 10290

All good so far, so what is the problem? Well, essentially they have been designed wrong. And by wrong, I mean, disastrously wrong. I suspect that what happened in the Time office, is that they got hold of some 3D software, learned it for a week, then tried to make the coolest looking pedal they possibly could. And they did. They look ace. Angular, minimalist, sharp, fast, and like a cross between an X-Wing fighter, a Speeder-bike and a Gundam weapon. After they were satisfied with the way it looked, they then tried to take what they had on the screen and make it into an actual physical object, but due to the design originating from a form, rather than an applied function, they had to make some INSANE decisions.

So, what are these decisions?

Well, the first one, is the grade of plastic they use. These things are angular as hell, and therefore need a lot of cutting, carving and moulding to get the look they wanted. Now, cutting, moulding and making angular lines in a hard material, hard enough to work as a pedal, is expensive. Time realised this, so instead of modding the design, they just used a soft as jelly plastic. Yeah, I know. Mental. These pedals are soooo soft, and mushy, it is unreal. This doesn't just manifest itself in pedals that flex a bit. They snap straight through the material!

Like this...

View attachment 10288

Not only this, the bearing seats are also made of this utterly soft plastic, which deforms, meaning the bearings get play in them pretty much straight out the box. And they are not adjustable. So the bearings spin and rattle almost immediately.

Bad, I know. But there is more...

The top plate, which the middle of the cleat sits on and rubs around on constantly, which on Look and Shimano pedals is a metal plate, on the Time pedals is made of this same soft rubbish plastic! I know, but it gets worse!!

They GLUED IT ON!!!!!

View attachment 10289

The plate just sits on the main plastic body, glued on with a thin smear of low grade glue!!!! The above image is my Time iClic pedal which the top plate just cracked off. There is no way to glue it back on effectively, and this particular plate got lost as it cracked off as I was riding. Oh, and these black iClics were a warranty pair on an original white pair I bought. Which also had the glued on top plate glue crack off. Absolutely awful.

But there is more...

The cleats are also made of this same low grade plastic, meaning that they instantly start snagging up and getting wear on them the minute you unclip and step on the floor. They have a life of about 4 weeks (seriously) compared to the extensive life of the far superior Shimano versions.

So, basically, you need to avoid Time pedals and never buy them. They are completely dreadful.

Yes! This is what mine looked like after two weeks of use.

image.jpeg
 
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Ha, more evidence!

That is actually a pretty disastrous place to snap too, as this is the only thing holding the main pedal body onto the axle. If that fully goes when you are pedalling hard, the whole pedal body could slide off with your foot attached to it, with the axle still attached to the crank. If this goes really wrong and you are pushing hard, you could then stomp your leg down onto the sharp end of the axle, ripping it all the way down your inner calf muscle, slicing yourself open and giving yourself a massive and potentially fatal injury.

Jesus CHRIST.

On Look and Shimano, this part of the design is placed inside the end of the pedal body, so it is completely away from anything that could potentially damage it, like what has happened in the picture @hat and beard posted.

More evidence of a terrible, and now potentially very dangerous design.

Avoid these pedals.
 
To be fair the pedal didn't spontaneously combust. My front tire slipped on some wet moss while I was riding up a very steep hill and the pedal struck the ground.
Still plastic junk, though.
 
Haha, spontaneous combustion would be pretty amusing if it happened.

A pedal hitting the floor whilst riding slowly up a steep hill (unless you were absolutely caning it, Froome style; sorry to assume!), is something I would put under 'normal use', and should not end in a pedal cracking like yours did.

So yeah, plastic junk, as you say.
 
Been a creak in my crank ever since. I had the crank off about three times now to see if I can get the creak out of it. No luck. Never dawned on me that it could be the pedals. I finally felt them up today.

I had a good ride (outside) last Saturday for the first time since I opened up the pedals. Happy to report there is no annoying clicking noises any more since I re-greased them. I've still got the bearing replacement to work on but for the moment, I'm in the happy camp. Yeah!
 
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