The ultimate road pedal?
I’ve been using the speedplay X-series pedals for a full decade now, essentially since I started road biking. After reading about speedplay in the infamous bikepro catalogue, I browsed their website & I was already sold on them after reading about their special advantageous features (dual sided entry plus free float). They instantly received many rave reviews and I was 100% convinced to get a set.
My first road bike, a Shogun Ultegra, came equipped with some nasty pedals which were essentially a cheap copy of the look system. Although I can’t remember the name, they were a veritable deathtraps. Clipping into these particular pedals was never truly an autonomic experience. They were top heavy, weighted so that they remained in the awkward upside-down position! When starting off from a set of traffic lights, you had to fumble about and flip the pedal over with the tip of your shoe. Wobbling around in dense traffic, looking down at my shoes instead of the road, I soon realised that was an accident waiting to happen…
I began with the X2 pedals, which I had to special-order from Clarence St. cyclery, as no one in Australia stocked them in 1997 / 1998. I then moved up to the X1 titanium version, and have since bought the cheaper X5 version which work equally as well. Possibly their best feature for a road pedal is the double engaging mechanism. They feel intuitive to use. «Just stomp down and go» was the expression people were throwing about.
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