LOOK Cycle - KEO Blade Carbon Bike Pedals - High Performance Pedals - Powerful, Light and Aerodynamic LOOK KEO pedals with Carbon Blades, Chromoly+ Axles, Steel Bearings

Product Information

The new look kéo blade 2 cr pedals essentially combine the best features of the original kéo blade and the kéo blade aero: the new look kéo blade 2 cr pedals essentially combine the best features of the original kéo blade and the kéo blade aero While weight is far from being the most important aspect of a bike component, it still matters. The cheapest Kéo, the Classic 3, weighs 350g/pr including cleats. The base-model SPD-SL pedals, PD-RS500s come in at a claimed 320g without cleats; a pair of cleats weighs 74g, so that’s 394g in total.

Weather resistance has been improved thanks to an updated end plug with an o-ring washer and an internal, double-lipped seal. Certainly, no water had got inside during three decidedly wet winter months of testing. Shimano also colour-code their cleats. Fixed cleats have red bits on them, cleats with blue trim have two degrees of float, and yellow-decorated cleats have six degrees of float. Designed to win, the new KEO BLADE CARBON improves the experience associated with the use of blade technology in a clipless pedal. This new version is the result of experience gained during years of development in the heart of our manufacturing facility and to continual improvements made thanks to daily input from the greatest of champions.

Because Shimano use cup-and-cone bearings it’s also possible to adjust them, though the TL-D63 tool for that job is both expensive and quite hard to find. Once you have your cleats set up and you’re ready to ride, the experience on the bike is an enjoyable one, clipping in is positive and secure, there’s that previously mentioned very wide steel platform to support your foot and stop any off-axis roll while you’re pedalling. The fitted 12 Nm springs offer a nice clipping in and out tension with a 16 Nm carbon ‘blade’ spring included with the set. I didn’t try swapping the springs over as I found the included ones to be of adequate tension. It’s a relatively simple procedure to swap from one tension spring to the other, involving 2 Torx keys, a pin drift and a torque wrench, but this is still much more complicated than either of the other two Look pedals on test or any of the Shimano pedals. Wahoo, meanwhile, does not offer any adjustment to the release tension, short of swapping cleats altogether. I made the switch for the exact same reason this year. The Faveros are fantastic pedals, but they are a pain to clip in to, just because they spin soooooo freely. More broadly, Cavell says, “Both SPD-SL and Look are well designed and stable pedalling platforms with a choice of float profiles to suit most riders. Not sure I see too much difference in the pedal real estate but their functionality and ‘feel’ are different enough to give a different proposition to riders.”

Intended for performance cycling, the blade of the Keo Blade is optimised for speed. As the name suggests, rather than the traditional coil system, these pedals use a blade retention system. The integration of the blade and pedal lessens the frontal area presented to the wind, improving aerodynamics and ultimately increasing speed. Look has developed a Keo Fit system where suitably-equipped dealers can get your cleats set up just so, and also give you specific advice about which of the float options best suits you. I didn't try this as I already had Keo cleats set up on a pair of shoes so just used them as they were, but it could be a useful service if you're changing over.The bottom of the pedal is completely closed-in by the spring blade, with only a slim gap down each side. This makes them a bit more of a dirt trap than more open pedals, but I didn't have particular problems with them clogging up, even when I had to walk through mud. The pedal platform is 67mm wide (Shimano Dura-Ace, for comparison, is just a millimetre narrower) and has a surface area of 700mm 2 meaning that the pressure is distributed over a large area and you can get plenty of support. As a result, you’re either very much ‘in’ or very much ‘out’ and there’s no vagueness in between, whereas with the standard system there’s a short period where the rear gate is flexed open and you’re still partially engaged. The axle of the updated Blade Carbon pedals has been redesigned, the distance between the roller and needle bearings having been increased by 25%. Look says that this provides more rigidity to the entire length of the axle and, as a consequence, improved power transmission. Look also claims that its new axle design allows a gain of about 2 watts at 100rpm. Will you notice this in use? I can't say that I did. For me, ceramic bearings still have a tough job beating the Shimano system that has served me well for years. My XT cyclo-cross pedals go through awful conditions every winter and my Ultegra 6800 pedals have done four long years of road riding. Look's claim that its ceramic bearings will last '4 to 6 times longer than standard steel bearings' will take quite a few years to test. The two months that I've been riding and racing with these pedals have caused zero issues, so all good so far.

I’ve grouped these factors together because between them they describe and determine the interface between your feet and the two pedal systems.

A tried-and-tested design built from carbon fibre is unlikely to go too far wrong but how does it compare against its competitors?

The 12Nm spring fitted to the test pedals kept a vice-like grip on my cleats, even when climbing or sprinting. Releasing the pedal sometimes required quite a firm twisting motion but this will likely relax a little as the pedal and cleat wear together. Lighter riders will probably prefer the 8Nm spring option. I believe that Shimano provides a significantly better product compared to Look, with the differences being; This comparison seems a little bias to me, but that's probably because I am a little bias the other way.

The spindle and bearing assembly is not serviceable, setting it at odds with a lot of the competition. Look say that it's been tested to withstand two million cycles at 100 rpm with a 90 kg load on the centre of the pedal, or the equivalent of a 1,700 watt sprint for 333 hours, so it should be okay for a while with the sort of loads that you or I are likely to put on it. Certainly the sealing shrugged off the wet conditions we've had lately without any issues and the pedals are still spinning smoothly. Shimano don’t specify the range of release tension of their pedals anywhere we’ve been able to find. Burt agrees, adding that he thinks the longer-axle version came about “because we used to request them specially made for Mark Cavendish” when he worked for British Cycling. Shimano Dura-Ace pedals: Shimano's top-tier pedal is lighter, easier to adjust, but slightly more expensive At the rear of the pedal's upper face, an easy-access hex bolt can be used to adjust the cleat tension, while the axle houses the bearings. PerformanceAs with all of the pedals on test, the installation was straightforward: regular thread on the drive-side, reverse thread on the other and an Allen key to tighten them up. Cleat setup has been the main differentiator with how straightforward or difficult each pedal has been to set up. All the Look pedals feature a three-bolt cleat, similar in setup to Shimano’s SPD SL platform but with a few differences. The material of the Look cleat supplied with the Keo Blade Carbon Ceramic pedals is a hard grey plastic, with harder wearing white sections at the front and rear of the cleat. These offer 4.5 degrees of float (the amount you can twist your foot while remaining clipped in), but 0-degree and 9-degree float options are also available aftermarket. Lightweight, aerodynamic, powerful, the new KEO BLADE CARBON has all the assets to allow you to improve and optimize your performance until victory is yours. It is for these reasons that KEO BLADE CARBON is the unanimous choice of many champions who have made it a weapon of choice in the conquest of their greatest achievements. Last autumn we brought you news of a new pedal from Look, with the Keo 2 Max Blade set to make the company's blade-spring technology available at a lower price point. There was a video, too; who knew the French were such fans of dubstep? This isn’t something you notice when you’re just riding along, unless you concentrate hard on how your feet are moving or ride with a Kéo pedal on one side and an SPD-SL with yellow cleat on the other. Burt agrees, adding: “I’d say if you can ride one or the other you can ride either bio mechanically speaking — it will just be personal preference.”