Bicycle Mechanics - Rebuilding Speedplay X or Zero series?

Hi -

I am switching pedal styles, and was at the LBS checking out the speedplays. One thing he mentioned is that they need to be rebuilt every year, which I hadn't heard before. He said the bearing is small and its positioning causes a lot of load on the bearing, so it needed to rebuilt every year. Anyone else have that experience? How many miles is this recommended?

Thanks,

Todd

Absolute LBS BS. Speedplay recommends that you grease your bearings once per year but that really depends on how much you ride. My LBS will grease his regular customers' Speedplays at no cost. X-1, X-2, and Zero pedals are very reliable and have excellent bearings. They'll probably last at least as long as any pedal on the market. X-3 pedals have bushings instead of bearings and have a shorter life expectancy, but for most this would still be at least a few years. The X-3 peadals have been discontinued and superceded this year with the X-5's which have some kind of bearings. I have a 5 year old set of X-1 pedals that are as good as new. I grease mine every other year. Speedplay has an excellent reputation for customer relations.

Al

Regreasing the Speedplay Zero bearings is very simple since it has a grease injection port. There's no need to disassemble the pedal. I can't remember if the X pedals also have a grease port or not. Someone care to comment?

i have both the x-3 & the x-2's. grease them both a couple of times a yr. because it's so simple. they're both 3 yrs. old with about 1k mi./yr on the x-3's and 3k/yr on the x-2's. just now am in the process of replacing the sealed bearings on the x-3's-left one is shot. got them from a bearing specialist in boston for $3.75 per. simple to replace-the x-3 have a bushing & a sealed bearing the x-2's have a sealed bearing &, as i understand it, needle bearings-but i haven't had to look into them yet. from my experience the x-3 didn't last any where near as long as the x-2 but, if replacing the bearings is this easy & cheap i really don't care.

I have what are now called X2s. Back when I bought them 10+ years ago I think they were called Bryne Speedplays. Before last season was the first time I did anything (including grease) to them in over 25,000 miles and they may not have really needed it then. It just seemed as though it was time.

Hi -

I am switching pedal styles, and was at the LBS checking out the speedplays. One thing he mentioned is that they need to be rebuilt every year, which I hadn't heard before. He said the bearing is small and its positioning causes a lot of load on the bearing, so it needed to rebuilt every year. Anyone else have that experience? How many miles is this recommended?

Thanks,

Todd

My instructions from Speedplay differ a bit from the above poster. My instructions say to grease the pedals every 3 months or 2000 miles. Having said that, I have run into users of the Zeros (which is what I use), that were not even aware of the maintenance requirement, and their pedals worked flawlessly. The instructions mention nothing about a rebuild requirement.

I believe they all have the injection port on the small black cover. Take out the little screw and squirt a shot of grease in there. If you want to do it yourself get a Pedros grease gun, around $22, comes with a tube of grease that will last forever if all you do isgrease the pedals. For the guys that have never serviced their pedals, they might feel OK but there is a mess inside. I just did a set today, pre-grease fitting models. The needle bearings were pretty toasty, surprisingly the spindle looked good. The guy did not want to spend any money so I flushed the needles greased the heck out of every thing and put them back to gether. Nice and smooth.

I just did a set today, pre-grease fitting models. The needle bearings were pretty toasty, surprisingly the spindle looked good. The guy did not want to spend any money so I flushed the needles greased the heck out of every thing and put them back to gether. Nice and smooth.


My experiences are similar. The balls and needles are very small and need to be greased. Mine typically feel pretty crunchy after a year so I'd guess more often than this would be best. At some point the axle starts to wear where the needles run. I'm a long time Speedplay user and go back to the solid aluminum puck days. My origional set started to saw a groove in the axle but they still seemed to spin smoothly enough.

Love the pedals. They're all I run. :D

Ed

Mine are pre-grease fitting and as I said I had over 25000 miles on them and they were still fine. In reference to the original post my experience is that the older ones certainly don't need to be rebuilt every year as the LBS indicated.