Commuting - do pedals wear out?

Okay, so I have TIME ATAC's that I love. Easy to clip in and out of. I have about 10,000 miles on them (4 years old). They still work fine, but I am going to Europe for an extended time and will be touring. Should I replace them? I did have the left one fall off because the other part of the pedal unthreaded from the inner metal piece exposing the lubed inner spindle. I just put it back on.

So, do they wear out? Should I invest some $$ now to save some headache later?

The pedals should last a long time, barring accidents and crashes but like you've mentioned, the pedals should last, the bearings will eventually wear out. Depending on which level of ATACs you have from the cheap alumium ALIUM to the Time CARBONS, I believe the bearings are a bit different and of course the axle is going to be a different material.

You should probably regrease the bearings if you can, the manual should tell you how to remove the needle bearing that is inside and you can use a good waterproof lithium grease like Phil Woods or so and regrease them.

I have Time ATACs and I love them too. I have the old style cleats too which are so much better for me than the new ones. The new ones I have found are harder to release than the old one. If yours is 4 years old, it's like mine and it's a lot nicer than the new ones. I've been slowly dremeling the new ones to see if I can make them better...

Jay

Pedals do eventually wear out, but it takes some time. I normally get around 30-40,000km out of them, so 10,000 miles should be OK. To be honest I really don't think you need to worry too much. From the time they show the first visible signs of wear you should still have plenty of time to find a suitable replacement before they actually wear out. I imagine this shouldn't be too difficult in Europe.

No way they'd have a French pedal in Europe.
http://pb.combatwombat.com/images/vizzini.jpg
Inconceivable!

I did manage to totally wear out my look pedals after 3-4 years. The underside of my show had rubbed against the plastic `hinge' that clips over the back of the cleat. I was surprised that my shoe didn't rub away, rather the pedal itself totally wore away - well at least the plastic hinge did.

It was gradual, and didn't need new pedals for months after I noticed it.

No way they'd have a French pedal in Europe.
http://pb.combatwombat.com/images/vizzini.jpg
Inconceivable!

That's too funny!!

<snip> The underside of my show had rubbed against the plastic `hinge' that clips over the back of the cleat. <snip> Are you related to this guy? http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sullivaned/sullivanedIMAGE/sullivaned.jpg He had some "really big shoes"

That's too funny!!http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4539/kaufman_smile.jpg
Denk you veddy much