Road Cycling - SPD-SL vs. Look

Im thinking if picking up some ultegra spd-sl's or some PP396 Look's. They are about the same price on ebay. Any thoughts on which I should go with? Im leaning towards the Shimano's. I was bidding on some CX-7's but the price went too high. I can get teh look's for $79 on ebay and the shimano's for $87. Are shimano cleats going to last longer? I thought I had heard that. Any insight?

from what i've heard the shimano cleats are metal... the look cleats wear out cuz they're plastic.... it's darn annoying! but my friend gave me his pp396s for free so i guess beggars can't be choosers!

the shimano cleats are not metal

Surely someone is riding on ultegra spd-sl's or look pp396's. What do you think of them?

I heard the 396's have a lot of squeaking and fall apart...any thoughts on the A5.1?

I'm on 296's right now. Not the latest generation, but they're good pedals so far. I think I've mentioned in your threads that you can get cleat covers that protect your Look cleats and also give you more grip when walking, if that's a concern. They don't wear that fast from regular riding (putting a foot down at stoplights, etc.), but they will wear relatively fast if you walk on them much.

At any rate, I haven't heard as much about the 396's, but Look and Shimano both have great reputations for durability. It's going to come down to riding them, which becomes tough.

As for Looks squeaking, a little grease or bar soap will keep them from doing that. Not sure about the falling apart, though. Depends on who you heard that from.

Originally posted by TriDevil
Surely someone is riding on ultegra spd-sl's or look pp396's. What do you think of them?

i have ultegra spd-sls

great pedals...do a search..I know of several threads about them.

I have the PP396's, I like em, no problems with cleat wear - 1600 miles and no replacements yet. If the cleat isn't wearing then it probably means the pedal is instead, and its cheaper to replace cleats (10$ for looks).

They do squeak a bit, but there was a thread not that long ago about lubing cleats to get rid of that. It's not a problem though. As far as I understood it the Shimano pedals are based on the generic Look design, I feel I'd rather stick with the original than the copy. Of course I may have got this completely wrong. CX7's are supposed to be very nice and 396's you should be able to get really cheap, I got mine back in october for about 60$ from nashbar i think.

You can get them from totalcycling.com for 65$ plus delivery (which is likely to be a fair amount more). I find if you wait around for sales you'll get equal prices if not better than ebay and i'd rather buy from a shop unless its significantly cheaper

Tridevil, checkout nashbar..I got a catalog yesterday and they had some deals on LOOK pedals.