Look Keo Blade Pedal/Cleat Question

[ksroadie]

Yesterday, I set out for an inaugural ride on a pair of new Look Keo Blades 16nm, and quickly discovered all was not well. Instead of the solid connection of my previously mounted Dura Ace PD-7810's, the Blades with grey grip cleats felt a bit unstable, like I was wearing loose ill-fitted shoes. Returning home I left the shoes (snug D2 customs) mounted on the pedals, and noticed there was about a millimeter of play between the pedal and cleat, causing the cleat/shoe to tilt and rock side to side. My first experience with any Look Keo's and wonder is this cleat/pedal slop is normal? Seems to compromise the wide platform, power to pedal thing a bit. One solution might be to remove the protruding cover of the "adjustment memory pad" in the center of the cleat, but the Look instruction manual specifically advises against this. Would the black no float or non-grip cleats make any difference?

Bummer as otherwise the Blades seem like very nice pedals. Positive clip in (better than the 7810's) and easy out, smooth bearings, and noticeably lightweight.

[pritchet74]

Dunno about your situation, but I am using the black cleats with my blades and they are perfectly stable. I am not using the cleats with the rubber grips on them either.

[c50jim]

I haven't ridden the bladed Keos yet but have never had any problems with play and grey cleats on any of the older models. I'd echo pritchet's negative comments about the rubber grips. They make it a lot harder to find the right spot every time I stop at a light. Try the black cleats. In my family's experience, cleat float is an overrated feature anyway.

[Fibre-Lyte]

I've not had chance to ride the blades yet either, but I use the grey cleats with the rubber grips on one of my bikes and have not noticed any rocking motion. Having nearly slipped of my bike on a few occasions at traffic lights pre the rubber grips I'm a fan of them, although they do wear out to fast. I still prefer spd-sl cleats. Regarding the float, I use 'float' cleats on all my pedals simply because I find them more comfortable. I suppose if I was more accurate with my setting up then I wouldn't need them, but I'm not, so I do

[kytyree]

I just put some 12Nm Blades on last week and really feel pretty snug in them. I'm using the older version of the Keo grey cleat and one pair of shoes has cleats with moderate use on them as I have used Keo's in the past.

I've used the grip cleats on other Keo's but have yet to try a pair with the Blades. I had been using a set of iClic's since they came out this year and the Blade feels more solid to me.

[ksroadie]

Thanks for the feedback. Spoke with two reps from LOOK USA who thought it could be a problem with my D2 shoes causing the cleats to deform, although the D2 soles have the same 200mm curvature as the Keo cleats, and I never had issues with my previous Dura Ace 7810 pedals & cleats with same 200mm curvature. Tried black grip, grey non-grip, and different grey grip cleats with no improvement. Then tried them with my winter Sidi's, and got the same f'ing' rocking and sloppy ass fit.

Doesn't make sense that I'm the only one experiencing this problem, but unless anyone has some ideas, don't know what else to do except get rid of the gd things, and go back to my DA 7810's.

[kytyree]

I've been wearing my sidis lately but I have some D2's, I'll see how those feel when I get a chance.

[ksroadie]

Thanks kytyree. Interested to know if the D2's are ok.

[Mike K.]

I have the new Keo Blades with the red stripe on the blade. With the supplied cleat I estimate the float is about 10 mm's which is not a bother to me as it is not noticeable. Maybe your pedaling style differs from mine.

[ksroadie]

Got no issue with the float Mike. Its the side to side rocking that's a problem. On both my setups, there's a gap between cleat and pedal.

[Mike K.]

Oh, now I see what you're saying!

[fairjack]

ksroadie, I am having the exact same experience with Keo 2 Carbon Max. On SIDI Genius 5 soles ( if the cleats don't fit this one, who does Look think their market is??) with brand new Keo 2 Carbon Max pedals and the grey grip cleat. I am coming off over 15 years of Delta pedals from Look (on 3 different bikes) and never had an issue nor a knee problem. All of a sudden I developed some knee issues, one of which is becoming a real problem on the outside of my right knee. I analyzed what was different and came to same conclusion....the Keo cleats rock laterally back and forth while my old Delta cleats/ pedals are all locked down firmly. I have had a full fit at a world class cycling store ( Cadence in Philadelphia ). They are dumbfounded. I sent Look an email a week ago and no answer. I worked for 2 hours with the Cadence team today and we jointly discovered that the Keo "Cleat"...not the "Grip"....has less lateral rocking as the cleats are tighter fitting.....but still way looser than my old Deltas. Just did 27 miles, and sure enough, the issue reemerged again at the 15 mile mark and I had to nurse my way home. If you learn anything please post, I will do the same. If Look cannot resolve this on their top end pedal, I will leave them after riding them for 15 years. thanks. FairJack

[ksroadie]

Bummer FairJack. Fortunately, I didn't use my Blades enough to develop any knee issues. The rocking problem was so bad I removed the pedals from the bike right away.

Wouldn't expect much help from Look USA. Just got my two sets of Blades back from them after many weeks of the usual corporate delays and stonewalling. A new Look warranty department hire eventually took one set out for a lunchtime spin, pronounced them a-ok, and sent everything back to me. Think that's the only attention my pedals ever received.

Don Lamson at D2 now has the pedals and my D2 shoes. Slim chance the curvature of my D2 soles is off and doesn't match the curvature of the Blade cleats. (If so, the cleats would distort when screwed down and not mate properly with the pedal.) But there's no rocking or looseness using my Dura Ace pedals and cleats with the D2's, and I also had the same results with my Sidis—solid on the Dura Ace, rocking on the Blades—so kinda doubt shoes are the issue. Will let you know what Don has to say in any case.

Got a bad feeling I'm gonna have to dump some new Blade pedals pretty soon.

[ssimon4]

Hi,
I have just got a pair of keo blades & immediately noticed the same thing!
See that your post is a couple of years old. Wondering how you ended up?
I have just written to Look to see if they have any answers.

Regards
Scott

[ksroadie]

Don at D2 was able to rig thin rubber shims under the cleats that pretty much eliminated the rocking problem of the Look Blades cleats. But a real pita when it came time to replace the cleats: lots of fiddling with the shims and repeated cleat installation was required before getting a good contact and fit. In the end the Look Blades never equalled the solid platform of my Dura Ace pedals, and I wound up selling both pairs.