Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Crazyarm: Is there a legal requirement to obtain a manufacturer's permission to sell items designed to work with their products?
No, but are the parts this guy is using to rebuild the pedals designed specifically to work with those pedals? I don't know, but I think not. They may be the same size/shape/rating....but you're basically asking Speedplay to trust the aftermarket part manufacturer's word on testing. I can see why Speedplay doesn't want to do that.
Car parts, computer programs, etc. I doubt they all obtain licenses from the companies. As long as you don't claim it's licensed or made by them (just compatible), I don't think there is anything wrong with it. And no, if someone does their own work on an item, that potentially releases the manufacturer from liability.
Got it, we all know that doing aftermarket work on those things voids the warranty, but thinking in terms of this specific situation....these pedals are being sold on ebay. Imagine this scenario: dude buys a pair of rebuilt pedals on ebay, rides them, breaks them, gets hurt, and wants to sue someone. Who can he potentially get more money from? The random ebay seller or the manufacturer of the pedals? Obviously the manufacturer. So he claims he bought them new, and when the case goes to court, how does Speedplay prove that the needle bearing (or some other very small part) is not their OEM, but an aftermarket rebuilt part? On small things like that, I'm not sure they can....and because of that, they may be screwed. Again bottom line is I can understand why, in this situation, Speedplay doesn't want people putting their name on ebay auctions of pedal rebuild kits using parts they haven't vetted themselves.