Servicing Speedplay pedals

doozerie

Thought it might be useful to share this info with other Speedplay users:

I replaced the complete set of bearings in a pair of Speedplay pedals today. Been planning to do it for a while, one pedal having seized again was the final straw. My reluctance was because I expected the spindle bolt to be a bugger to remove but it actually opened quite easily in both pedals.

Removing the outer bearings was easy and they were actually in decent condition. The cause of one of the pedals seizing was the spindle bearing on the inner side of the pedal, it was utterly knackered. Speedplay say that you can't remove it, which leaves you having to buy a replacement body for a lot of cash, but once I removed the retaining ring (which was easy with one pedal, tricky with the other), the spindle bearing came out easily. Putting the whole lot back together was easy too.

Tools I needed: torx bit (T20 if I remember correctly), a good strong pick, file to sharpen the pick for the tricky retaining ring, hammer, drift or sacrificial screwdriver (for batin' stuff, though no violence was actually needed as the bearings popped out readily), circlips pliers, torque wrench optional. Threadlock for the spindle screw is recommended too.

And of course you'll need new parts which, per pedal, are: rubber o-ring, spindle bearing, 2x sealed bearings (each a different size), circlip.

The rotten state of the spindle bearing encourages me to grease my other Speedplay pedals more regularly. It's inevitable that the bearing will bite the dust at some point, it's got no seals itself, it is entirely depending on the o-ring on the inner side of the pedal to keep crap out of it and that clearly isn't entirely effective. But more regular greasing might help prolong that bearing, maybe.

pprendeville

Nice to know this. I'm considering getting a pair but have heard the bearings are a weakness in them. Few quick Q's.

1. Which model of Speedplays and how long have you had them? How long did it take for them to initially start giving trouble?
2. What type of thread lock did you use and where did you get it?
3. What's the Internal Diameter/Outer Diameter of the o-ring?
4. Have you a part no. or link to the spindle bearing?
5. Ditto for sealed bearings and circlip.

Briando

I'm using Speedplays on both bikes.

I've found with regular greasing (using a syringe) forces the old grease out the back of the paddle and stops anything getting in to the pedal too. Mine are going 2 years now with no trouble.

Though not greasing my first pair at all made them get stiff.

fixie fox

I grease maybe every two months or so. I have them of years - must have done many tens of thousands of Ks. The only thing I find is that the syringe can force the end cover out sometimes
and I have to tap it back.

doozerie

pprendeville wrote: »

Nice to know this. I'm considering getting a pair but have heard the bearings are a weakness in them. Few quick Q's.

1. Which model of Speedplays and how long have you had them? How long did it take for them to initially start giving trouble?
2. What type of thread lock did you use and where did you get it?
3. What's the Internal Diameter/Outer Diameter of the o-ring?
4. Have you a part no. or link to the spindle bearing?
5. Ditto for sealed bearings and circlip.

1. Speedplay Zero Stainless Steel. They've been on the bike since May 2012 and I've clocked up about 8,500km on them in that time. I bought them second hand but I believe there was very little mileage on them before I bought them. They started giving trouble about 1,000km ago, at a guess, so all in you could say that the spindle bearing last roughly 7,500km.

My wife has had the very same problem with a pair of Zero Chromoly pedals. I don't know the mileage accrued on those off-hand though.

2. I used this, I think. It's a bottle that I've had for years, I don't recall where I bought it. I'll double-check later that it's the same as the one in the link. Important thing is to use the blue one, some of the other variants, which are different colours, are stronger and might leave you with a bolt that you can't undo later when you next need to service the pedals.

3. Internal diameter = 5/16", Outer diameter = 7/16", Width = 1/16" (the source I got them from was US so quoted only imperial measurements).

4. HK1010. I got mine here. It goes into the pedal with the outward face being the one with the writing on it.

5. One of the bearings is a 628/6-2z, this one. The other is an mr137zz, which I got here. You need one each per pedal.

Circlip is here, o-ring is here, and spare spindle bolts should you wish to stock up on them are here (these are hex head, the ones that come in the pedals are torx head - torx head are probably a more reliable/solid fit).

couerdelion

A little old now but remember this from a few years back as great PR for Speedplay (and maybe a warning about posting instructions ?)

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80010&start=30#p714731

doozerie

@pprendiville, I just checked and it is indeed Threadlocker 242 that I used on the spindle bolt when re-assembling the pedals. I rode on this pedals today for 3 hours and they show no signs of the bolt having come undone so it's looking reliable enough so far.

Also, my wife's Zero Chromoly pedals had 10,000km or so on them, over 18 months of use, when I swapped them off her bike last week as one of the pedals was seized (again). They became problematic a few months back, so they may have had as little as 7,000km on them when they first seized.

doozerie

Briando wrote: »

I'm using Speedplays on both bikes.

I've found with regular greasing (using a syringe) forces the old grease out the back of the paddle and stops anything getting in to the pedal too. Mine are going 2 years now with no trouble.

Though not greasing my first pair at all made them get stiff.

I regularly greased the pedals on both my bikes and my wife's bike too. It wasn't enough to stop the spindle bearing from biting the dust in mine and almost certainly in my wife's too (I haven't opened up her pedals yet but the symptoms were identical). I read various recommendations, one being to grease the pedals every 1,000km or so, the other being to grease them whenever the pedal body spun freely when you spun it by hand - I used the latter as a guide to when to grease them.

If your pedals were stiff at some point then the spindle bearing may already be knackered. Greasing the pedals will make them rotate again, it did with mine, but as I've discovered after accessing that spindle bearing the individual needle bearings were seized solid within it - basically it no longer functioned as a bearing as such, I reckon that the newly added grease just allowed the whole seized bearing mechanism to rotate as a whole, making the bearing more like a solid metal sleeve/collar rotating around the bearing spindle. Not good for the spindle, and potentially eating up extra energy by the rider to make the pedal rotate too (if you care about that - I do, as I have a knee problem which can be exacerbated by an accumulation of little things like that).

Here is a picture of the type of bearing used as the spindle bearing, it relies entirely on that rubber o-ring for protection from the elements at it has no seals itself - that's optimistic at best as even pumping new grease in essentially pushes the ring away from the bearing so the join between o-ring/seal and bearing is certainly not a tight fit by any means:



Arguably the design of the Speedplay pedals is poor and leaves them prone to problems with the spindle bearing in particular. Arguably that's just an inevitable consequence of pedals with such a thin body, something's got to give when you engineer something like a pedal body to be very small/thin, in this case it's the reliability of that bearing that is sacrificed in my view.

doozerie

couerdelion wrote: »

A little old now but remember this from a few years back as great PR for Speedplay (and maybe a warning about posting instructions ?)

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80010&start=30#p714731

Yes, it's for that reason that I've not posted the instructions, I've limited myself to just posting my experiences of working on the pedals. Good to point it out though, in case anyone else isn't aware of the history and is considering posting the instructions directly.

pprendeville

thanks guys, lets hope there's no lawsuits in the post.

doozerie

Incidentally, Speedplay themselves provide instructions on maintenance of their pedals here: Link

The instructions for their Zero models are here (these instructions also come in the documentation you get with the pedals, and I think the same instructions come with the cleats too): Link - there is a diagram showing the individual parts of the pedal, part numbers (though for some parts they do not provide enough details to allow you to source the parts yourself), and how they fit together. Those instructions state, in bold, that the needle bearing “is permanently bonded in the Zero pedal body and cannot be removed without damaging components”. These are the manufacturers instructions, I’m in no way suggesting that you ignore their warnings. I chose to ignore them and found that the needle bearing in my pedals was not permanently bonded in the pedal body. I will ignore their warning again when the pedals next need servicing, but that’s just me.

For what it’s worth, if I had found the needle bearing permanently bonded to the body of my pedals then I would replace my Speedplay pedals with a different brand entirely. Replacement bodies are available from Wiggle for 90euro. My experiences suggest that the spindle bearing does not last so I may need to buy new pedal bodies every 7,000km or so if I heed the Speedplay warnings, that is not an expense I’m willing to incur. I like Speedplay Zero pedals in use, some of their features are hard to find amongst alternative pedals, but they would not justify that kind of recurring cost, in my view.

Oh, and I found these greasing instructions on the Speedplay site too. They state:

IMPORTANT: GREASE PEDAL BEARINGS EVERY 2000 MILES, 3 MONTHS OR IMMEDIATELY AFTER RIDING IN WET, RAINY OR UNUSUALLY DUSTY CONDITIONS.

Clearly Speedplay themselves have no great faith in that o-ring keeping the spindle bearing protected if they suggest you need to re-grease after every wet or dusty ride. I share their concern. So even if you currently re-grease your Speedplays regularly, you may have to consider doing it more often if you haven’t seen that warning before (this is the first time I’ve seen the warning).

On that topic, I plan to look for alternatives to the tubes of grease that Speedplay recommend, those tubes are pricey and won’t last long if applied as frequently as recommended. I’ve read that generic marine grease is cheap and a good choice - anything that resists water well should work I imagine, especially if you are going to be replacing it very often anyway, and Speedplay themselves just refer generically to “waterproof bearing grease”.

The Speedplay branded grease gun can only take tubes of grease from what I can recall as I don’t think the cap on the end of the body is a seal. Generic grease guns allow you to fill the gun body with grease directly so will work with any grease that you buy in tubs. I have a generic grease gun at home, I must check if it has a tip which will fit the Speedplay grease port. Of course, a syringe will work too instead of a grease gun.

If I source some alternative grease I’ll update this thread with the info.

pprendeville

Did you eat some of that salmon Fionn MacCool caught. You're a wealth of info and knowledge. Really appreciate these detailed posts. Also thanks to Courdellion for the link to the OTHER forum.

mbprouser

I found a kit on eBay (PM if you want details). Can you recommend a CirClip plier? I found a set in Maplins but the business ends are much too big. Thanks.

Chris

doozerie

mbprouser wrote: »

I found a kit on eBay (PM if you want details). Can you recommend a CirClip plier? I found a set in Maplins but the business ends are much too big. Thanks.

Chris

The set I used is a cheap generic set that I bought a few years back when buying some other tools online. I can't recall the brand off-hand, or the site where I bought them, but this set from Halfords appears to be the same based on the photo. Most of the reviews on that Halfords page refer to the pliers not being very strong and I think that is true of mine too, but they were certainly adequate to get the new circlip in place.

Mine didn't work at removing the old circlip though, they couldn't grip it well enough to prevent the pliers tips from sliding out of the circlip holes when trying to pull the circlip out. So I removed the old circlip with a (strong) pick instead, which bent the circlip in the process (not a problem though as I didn't intend to re-use it). I think it would be possible to install a new circlip with two decent picks too, if you were stuck, might be a bit awkward though.

Better quality circlip pliers would probably be less frustrating to use - the likes of these Knipex ones might be a good choice though while I have read some good things about that brand I haven't actually used it myself.

doozerie

Alternatives to using the Speedplay grease gun (€60, which is utterly taking the piss) and their recommended grease (if you can find it, readily available in the US I think but hard to find here):

* Grease gun: I've found the Dualco grease gun to be very good, and very good value at €14. It comes with an appropriately-sized tip for the Speedplay grease port. Smaller than the overpriced Speedplay gun, which is actually a real advantage when the Speedplay end cap insists on trying to pop out when greasing the pedal - I find the shape and size of the Dualco allows me to apply more direct force against the end cap more easily, which helps stop the cap from coming out.

You fill the grease gun tube directly, which is messy but is needed infrequently and gives you the flexibility of buying and using whatever grease you like.

* Grease: I've been using Ramanol Universal Grease for several months now. By chance I ended up being offered a tub of it for free, to trial it. The manufacturers have been making greases for the marine market for years but they are interested in the cycling market as they believe the same merits apply for various bike applications. I was looking for a marine grease, came across the Ramanol brand (because it was available from a Dublin retailer - they don't actually list the Universal grease for sale but should be able to get it), and ended up talking to someone from the company with a comprehensive knowledge of greases, he offered me a 500g tub on trial. All he asked was an honest appraisal of my experiences with it.

Well, my experiences with it so far have been very good and I'd recommend it. I think it is better than the (lighter) grease that Speedplay recommend, it certainly lasts longer and I reckon that is due to its better resistance to water. It is no more difficult to apply either. I think it should cost about €25 to €30 to buy the 500g tub, by comparison the 3oz/85g tube of recommended Speedplay grease costs in the region of €15. I see no advantage whatsoever in paying a lot more for the Speedplay recommended grease that, in my opinion, adds no performance improvement (we are talking pedals here, the rotational speed of which is, basically, painfully slow in bearing terms), doesn't last nearly as long, and (related) doesn't provide as much protection to the bearings. As it happens, before I was given the free tub of Universal I had already purchased a 500g tub of Ramanol Advanced Grease but I've not even tried that since the Universal works so well, maybe I'll try it out of curiosity at some stage.

I've also used Ramanol Universal in the hub of a front wheel that I used throughout the winter, and the wheel still spins extremely smoothly and well, I don't believe any of my cycling-specific greases, some of them fairly expensive, could have done a better job. I used it in the front hub of my daughter's bike too, late last year. Her bike gets used at least 5 days a week, she has clocked up about 400km this year alone, so the hub has seen a reasonable amount of use in various weathers and it still spins "forever". I've been won over by the benefits of good quality marine grease for many bike uses, cycling-specific greases suddenly seem ridiculously expensive by comparison.


I still have my Speedplay grease gun, and some spare tubes of grease for it, but every time I need to grease my pedals I reach for the Dualco gun with Ramanol grease instead. I find that latter combination much cheaper and far better in every respect.