It’s a little late, but better late than never right?  I decided to write this review because I recently changed out all of my old Look to Shimano.  When I first started on a “road style” clip I used a Look Delta pedal that was on a bike that was given to me.  They were old, but they worked.  So I stuck with them.  When I upgraded my Felt F90 to the Felt F5C I put those pedals on it.  When I was given the Time Trial bike for Father’s Day by my awesome wife I put on a set of inexpensive Forte pedals from Performance Bike.  Then came the track bike, that bike got a new set of Look brand pedals that use the older Delta style cleat as well.  I noticed no difference at all between any of the pedals as far as performance  I fully agree with what First Dropped said in regards to the Forte pedals: “These are just like the Looks in every way except the price.”

When my wife started cycling a couple years ago she was persuaded to go to the “other side” and put Shimano pedals on her bike.  So, we had my three bikes with Look and her Felt Z35 with Shimano.  Next came the trainer bike.  A mid-80’s Raleigh Technium Pro that came with authentic vintage Shimano pedals.  When I got home with that bike I hopped on it with my Look Delta cleats and clipped right in!  The weekend after I got it I rode 35 miles with the Look Delta cleats on Shimano pedals.  There was no play or slop when pedaling.  The only thing I noticed was a little extra float when compared to my other pedals.

This is getting a bit long winded so I’ll get back on track.  I noticed a clicking sound when riding my F5C on the road.  It sounded to be coming from the pedals so I swapped pedals.  It was still clicking with the other pedals.  I could always recreated the clicking sounding by lifting hard on the up stroke and then quickly bringing my foot in to the down stroke.  This sound was driving me nuts so the next step was to get new cleats.  That proved impossible locally seeing as EVERYONE is using either Shimano or Keo.  I don’t want to have to rely on online retailers for something as simple as a cleat.  I also did not want to have to wait for a local shop to order them in.  My trainer bike and Amber’s bike already were set up for Shimano.  The logical choice at this point was to go Shimano so that all of our bikes were the same.

I purchased one set of 105 pedals for the F5C and one set of standard Shimano pedals for the Track bike.  I rode the F5C on the 100 mile Tour de Cure the day after I installed then and noticed no major difference between the pedals.  I rode the Track bike last weekend in the wind for the Saturday morning Pungo loop and again noticed no huge difference between a Look Delta and Shimano pedal.  Ironically, the clicking continued when I was riding the Felt FC with the new pedals and cleats.  After much tinkering I think I fixed it by tightening the crank bolt and bottom bracket.

The arguments I was given when I mentioned switching to Shimano were that the Shimano pedal is slightly wider than the Look Keo or Speedplay and that Shimano was harder to clip in to.   The greater width meant more care when cornering.  The difficulty clipping in was not much of a concern.  When I compared the Shimano pedals and the Delta style pedals they were about the same width.  I found that I did like the Shimano better in one aspect.  The front of the Shimano cleat has more height which I found made it easier for me to clip in.  Ultimately, I think that the Shimano vs. Look argument is like the one photographers have with Canon vs. Nikon.  Both have advantages and disadvantages, what is right, what is better comes down to a matter of opinion.