simple question that I can't seem to find a simple answer for via google or bf searches. I use SPD-SL on my road bike(s) but have a couple different pedals that have come with bikes I've bought...some are unidentifiable, some are not, like a pair of Look pedals. The SPD-SLs clip in to the Look pedals, but have some vertical play. I gather the SPD-SL is a copy of the Look design, but I just want to know if I should expect the SPD-SL cleat to work in the Look pedal. It would be great to have another good set of pedals so I don't have to move pedals from bike to bike (which is OK...but changing cleats on the single pair of shoes isn't gonna happen)

(BTW, this is *not* a question about the relative merits of either style of pedal/cleat.)

keep all the same pedals on all of your bikes if you dont want to switch pedals or cleats. You can clip in and out but sometimes they get jammed and they just dont work right. I would never ride like that willingly.

sure, but that could add up to a lot of pedals! (so a perfectly good set of pedals with a little different aesthetics is worth looking at as long as they're just sitting there)...but really, my point is just whether they are *supposed* to be compatible. If they aren't, I would have thought there would not have been patent issues or whatever it was I was reading about with the two designs.

They might work, but they won't match up exactly the same. SPD-SL have two protruding parts on the bottoms of the cleats....kind of like a triangle. Looks don't have such defined cleats.

I have both, but I've never tried to fit them into one another. Like Jynx mentioned, getting your feet jammed into the pedal could prove to be disastrous.

SPD-SL do not work with the older LOOK pedals.. they do not hold or clip out well at all. I highly doubt they work with the new LOOK Keo system either

It's not government work; I wouldn't mix cleats/pedals from different mfrs and call it good just because one snaps into the other.

You already know this answer. No, they are not supposed to be compatible at all. From my experience, like yours, the SPD-SL cleat will click into a delta LOOK pedal, but there will be a lot (I would consider unsafe) of vertical play. The two cleats look like they are based on the same basic outline, but the pedal bodies differ significantly and are definitely not made to be compatible.

FWIW, it appears that Shimano SPD-SL design has some components of the LOOK Keo, probably allowed under a licensing structure (not the first time these two companies have worked with each other). If you look closely, the only difference between the SPD-SL and the Keo is the shape of the pedal body and the cleat that goes with it. The actual clip/spring mechanism of the two pedals seems to be identical.

OK...thanks all. I'm not into making cycling an extreme sport in the sense of random binding or unclips either! I just happened to have picked up a bike that has Looks and it was the first time I'd had the opportunity to look at the two types side-by-side on the work bench. At this point, I'm rather invested in SPD-SL for serious road riding & SPD for "less serious" (??) road riding, so the Looks will be stored for a rainy day.