Tested: mid-range road pedals from Shimano, Look, Time and Wahoo

by Suvi Loponen 27.01.2025 Photography by
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Buying clipless pedals – those deceivingly named contraptions that make us sound like tap dancers when we’re stomping around cafés – is almost a rite of passage for most cyclists. After all, almost all bikes sold today come with basic nylon platform pedals. You start with the basic models, convinced by your pals that locking your feet to your pedals is a brilliant idea, only to discover at the first traffic light that it was the clipping out that you should’ve practiced a couple more times. 

And as you get more into cycling, upgrading your kit becomes inevitable. So why not upgrade your pedals too? Moving from budget options to mid-range models can offer practical benefits: weight savings, improved durability, and even enhanced adjustability – without the eye-watering price tag of top-tier models. 

But is mid-range the sweet spot for long-term satisfaction? Or are these not-quite-cheap but not-quite-premium pedals just stepping stones to the top shelf? In short, it depends. This group test aims to expand on that takeaway by comparing four popular mid-tier pedal models: Shimano 105 R7000 SPD-SL, Time Xpresso 6, Look Keo 2 Max, and Wahoo Speedplay Comp.

Road versus off-road pedals: a quick summary 

There is great nuance to this topic, and this isn’t the place to get into all of it, but generally, road pedals are defined by their three-bolt cleats, which create a large, stable platform for more efficient pedaling. However, this design limits the tread on road shoes, making them less practical for walking. Off-road pedals, by contrast, use smaller two-bolt cleats countersunk into the tread, offering more versatility for walking but a less stable platform on the bike.

Road pedals generally excel in stability, stiffness, and adjustability – regardless of your shoe stiffness. Their single-sided design also improves cornering clearance.

What are mid-range road pedals?

For this test, we included Shimano’s 105 R7000 SPD-SL pedal, the Time Xpresso 6, Look Keo 2 Max, and Wahoo Speedplay Comp, all selected based on price (US$100-150) and placement within their respective brand lineups.

Pedals are a little like saddles: the shape and function stays much the same, but different materials and features alter nuances in feel and weight. Mid-range pedals improve on entry-level models by incorporating lightweight carbon-composite materials and protective plates for better durability.

Even if weight isn’t a concern, pricer pedals in a brand’s lineup typically come with other benefits such as more axle length options, lower stack height, and wider platform size.

When you get to Shimano Ultegra and Dura-Ace pedals, you get two more spindle lengths and the slimmer shaping also reduces the stack height of the pedal and offers a touch more ground clearance in corners – same goes for Look Keo Blades, which have a lower stack.

Look only offers one spindle length, but several platform sizes: the Classic comes with a 400 mm² platform, Keo 2 with a 500 mm², and the Keo Blades get 705 mm² platform. (Speedplay and Time pedals are almost identical in platform size across their respective ranges, while Shimano does not list platform size.)

Because don’t we all love a table, the below can give an idea of the weight savings and axle offerings that each pedal system can get you as you move through the offerings. These are based on claimed weights as I don’t have the measured weights of models outside the ones I tested here.

Tech details – Clipping in and cleats

While clipless pedal systems use varying clip-in methods and designs, they do share similarities as well. The system is the same for the pedals across the price ranges within a brand, so this section will apply whether it’s an entry-level, mid-tier or top-level pedals you’re looking at.

Shimano, Look and Time pedals feature a single-sided entry, and the pedal body is weighted to always orient roughly in the same position for the clipping-in process. There’s a tension-adjustment bolt to customise the force required for clipping in and out. The similarity between the Look and Shimano systems in particular is pretty striking from afar, but they all have subtle differences. 

Speedplay pedals effectively reverse the system. First, the pedals have a smaller, lollipop-like design, far smaller than the other brands’ pedal bodies and the pedal body is effectively ‘dumb.’ The actual spring is then housed within the cleat, instead of the pedal. This design means the pedals offer dual-sided entry, allowing riders to clip in regardless of the pedal’s orientation.

This also makes the Speedplay cleats quite chunky with what is essentially three layers. First, a thermoplastic base plate adapter (to fit three-bolt shoes), then a metal spring mechanism and cover and topping it all off, a rubber cleat protector. 

For Shimano, Look and Time, cleats are made out of thermoplastic, with Shimano and Look adding rubber reinforcement for the contact points to aid in grip. They all attach to the shoes with three bolts.

The other area where brands vary the most is in their cleat options and approach to float, or in other words; how much you can move your heel in and out while clipped in. Shimano, Look and Time vary float by set amounts, with different cleat options; Speedplay features a wide range of float, adjusted within the cleat.

Tension adjustment

The Time, Shimano and Look pedals have a dial for adjusting spring stiffness (how hard it is to clip in or out) – though technically speaking the Time pedals have a carbon blade for the stiffness instead of a spring. The Shimano R7000 and Look Keo 2 Max pedals have visual indicators at the back of the pedal, while Time – at the Xpresso level – relies on the plastic dial orientation for tension settings. 

When it comes to the stiffness achieved, the Look, Shimano and Time pedals offer a similar sense of stiff versus loose engagement. The Speedplay pedals, however, are more of a learning curve, and you don’t get to adjust the stiffness apart from choosing between two different cleats: easy or standard tension.

The Look and Shimano pedals both require an Allen key to adjust the spring stiffness (3 mm for Look, 2.5 mm for Shimano) – and the visible indicator offers a rough guide to spring tension.

The Time Xpresso pedals have a three-position setting similar to the higher-up Xpro pedals, but the adjustment is done with a small, flat-blade screwdriver – something that you’re less likely to carry with you for mid-ride adjustments. The plastic in the dial is also relatively soft, as I came to find out trying to adjust with a relatively thin screwdriver blade, so it needs much more care than the Look and Shimano options to not round off. The Xpros have the three tensions marked on the dial, and you can add an additional carbon blade for even more tension if needed. 

Of the three pedals, the Shimano and Look pedals were the easiest to adjust and also offered tangible changes in the feel, from very stiff to light engagement. This meant that at their stiffest, I really struggled to even clip out and had to back off the tension. With the Time pedals, it was easy to make them lighter in feel, but they never quite felt as locked-in as the other two – perhaps also because of the slight 1.25 mm of lateral float that is built into the Iclic cleats. 

Getting in and getting out

The Time pedals were the most surprising on the clipping in front. They are less rear-weighted than the Shimanos or Looks – meaning the pedal body remains much more level rather than spinning back to a vertical position when you’re clipped out. With pedals, you develop a sort of muscle memory on where the pedal is and how to clip in, and the way the Xpresso keeps changing around isn’t as effective as the Look and Shimano pedals for swooping your foot in without looking down. But at the same time they allow you to press the cleat in more easily instead of the more direct push Shimano and Look require. 

The softer engagement is nice, but overall the pedal feels only marginally different to the other three-bolt systems. The Time pedal body is about 10-15 mm longer than the Shimano and Look, but it has sharper edges than the others. So if you slip your foot off the pedal or bash your shin against one when walking the bike, these pedals are likely to hurt you the most.

I found the Look pedals the easiest overall to clip in and out of  – at least with the standard 4.5-degree float cleats they came with. The pedal is well-weighted and that means it’s always at the same position when you start to clip in, and the spring tension can be easily adjusted. 

A close second are the Shimano pedals, then Time, and last the Speedplay. This might come as a little bit of a surprise – and I admit I was torn making this assessment. The Speedplays are the only dual-sided road pedals and that might suggest that they are the easiest to clip into. As much as that is true because you have two chances to get it right instead of one, the small lollipop pedal body design also means that it takes a lot longer to learn where the platform you’re aiming for even is.

The cleat mechanism also has the highest engagement force – as a smaller rider, I really have to push with full force to get the pedal to engage with the cleat. This is harder in the early days of using the pedals, and if you haven’t regularly lubed the cleat with dry lube as Wahoo advises, but even with fresh lube and after a few hundred kilometres, I would not say this is the easiest clip-in experience. Clipping out was no issue, though, quite the contrary as it sometimes happened a little too easily with the easy tension cleats. 

Serviceability and sustainability efforts

We’ve talked about incorporating sustainability into our product reviews and while it’s a lot harder when it comes to bike reviews (due to the number of components etc), pedals are easier to tackle. The obvious sustainability metric here is durability and serviceability; the longer you keep your pedals and the more serviceable they are, the better they are for the environment.

In the case of pedals, basic re-greasing of the bearings is the first level of servicing; the second is the possibility to replace parts in case they’re beyond repair. This is a bit of a grey area; you can find off-brand spare parts online, but the brands themselves don’t necessarily recommend ever opening the pedal body.

Here, Shimano is the leader. It provides very detailed instructions on how to service the pedals on their website, and spares are also very readily available online. And with YouTube filled with instructions on how to disassemble and service these pedals, once the bearings get a little gritty or loose, this is work that a home mechanic can get done too. 

Time and Look both offer some serviceability but recommend the procedures to be left for certified dealers. But for both pedals, you can replace the spindle or the carbon blade on the Time pedals. In reality, the serviceability here is limited, and any bearing issues are typically solved by replacing a spindle unit rather than just cleaning/greasing like with Shimano.

Speedplay, by contrast, is unserviceable, with Wahoo explicitly voiding the warranty if a pedal is disassembled. On the other hand, the Speedplay cleat system requires very frequent maintenance and mine started to gather rust very quickly as soon as I’d left the pedals unattended after a single wet ride. Wahoo gives instructions to lube the spring inside the cleat, but the rusting took place all over the metal parts, which only speaks of the fact that you need to be much more attentive to this system.

In short this means that in case your Speedplays eventually wear out or develop any sort of play, you’re faced with buying a whole new pedal set, as you can’t get just a single pedal, either. That said, in case it is a warranty issue, Wahoo is often praised for its customer service and replacing products quickly. Even when I contacted them about the problems I had with the pedals like a normal customer, I got a reply promptly within a day. 

Regardless, the fact that you can only replace and not repair the Speedplays seems a very backwards view for a product that can – as the others prove – be made serviceable and one that by its very nature is a part that wears out.

Even if it’s not the biggest concern, packaging plays a part in sustainability, too. Of all the pedals tested here, I’d say three out of four used mainly recyclable cardboard (except the screws that were packed in plastic). Wahoo Speedplays, however, were packed in heavy-duty dyed cardboard packaging that is not as widely recycled, and inside, the pedals sit on a black plastic tray and everything is wrapped in plastic. 

Highlights from the group test

Best overall: Shimano 105 (PD-R7000)

Perhaps the best-known clipless road pedals out there, it’s hard to fault the Shimano R7000 pedals. They’re available in most local bike shops and online retailers, and while their recommended retail price is highest in this group test, they’re often available for less. 

As I’ve detailed before, the pedals are simple to adjust – you get one dial to adjust the spring tension and there is an indicator at the very back of the pedal too to see tension level, which makes it easier to have it even between both sides. 

Though the R7000s are much on par with the Look Keo 2 models in terms of performance and spec; the two are pretty close in terms of stack height, as well as the platform and cleat width, and only a few grams apart in weight. But it’s the serviceability that places the R7000s a notch above.

The first part to wear in any clipless pedal system is the cleat – but you can replace the Shimano SPD-SL ones for about £10/US$20. The spares are widely available at even the smallest of bike shops (at least the yellow cleat option) so even if you’re on a holiday, you’ll get a new set of cleats easily. Additionally, you can replace pretty much every part of the pedal in case it wears out. Bearings and spindle are all available, but basic servicing should ensure you’ll never need such parts. 

There is little to fault in terms of clipping in and out, too. You get a reasonable room for moving the cleat laterally and lengthways, and three float options. When I spoke with Julian Wall from CycleFit (he fits the EF Education women’s team and hundreds of other riders each year), he agreed and said that Shimano’s SPD-SL pedals are their most popular pedals because they simply work. They offer enough adjustability and are easily accessible for most customers, and don’t take ages to figure out when installing or using. 

The only reason to not go for the R7000s would be really that you feel odd about mixing them with a different drivetrain brand, in which case Look is certainly the close second and also, if I have to nitpick, beats the Shimanos in the cleat walkability front.

Best cleat system: It depends

Though you shouldn’t choose your pedals purely based on the walkability, this is something to consider – especially if you know you have specific requirements for float or have to walk on slippery surfaces or down stairs a lot. I live in a flat and the stairwell is regularly a near-deathtrap with the wet concrete flooring – and I’ve found that most road cleats are generally not great on stairs.

The Speedplay cleats are often dubbed as best for walking, but I found the sheer height the cleat system adds to the shoe to feel almost like having a high heel on the wrong way around. Also, with the mechanical components in the cleat, Speedplay is the most problematic if walking in dirt or mud. In fact, even the smallest bit of dirt between your cleat and the pedal in this system results in nerve-breaking squawking while pedalling. Yet, I do admit that in terms of materials, the Speedplay cleat cover is the grippiest.

The three more traditional-shaped cleats are all rather similar to walk with – they make noise on hard floors and if the surface is wet, the grip isn’t the best. The Look and Shimano cleats feel quite similar, but the Look cleat is smaller and shorter (lower) in size and the rubber bits protrude much less than the ones on the Shimano cleats. Because of their placement, I find that the rubber bits on the Shimano cleats can wear out prematurely if you walk in them a lot – similar happens to the Look cleats at about the same rate. But in both cases, the worn-out rubber bits don’t always mean that the cleats are unusable – though the lack of them makes the cleats ever more slippery. The Time Iclic cleats are much more like this from the get go, as they don’t have any rubber to soften them against the floor.

Then there’s the float. As the table further up shows, Speedplay trumps the others with the 0 to 15-degree adjustment.

The Time pedals also offer a little bit of lateral float which, in all honesty, at its stated 1.25 mm is hardly noticeable when pedaling. Another thing that sets the Time cleats apart is that they are asymmetric, so by swapping them from left to right you can adjust your stance width further. 

Would not recommend: Wahoo Speedplay Comp

That verdict might seem harsh, but considering the niggle-free performance all the other pedals in this test had, the Speedplay Comps were by far the ones that I found increasingly hard to recommend. Despite their nice initial performance, after a few rides my feet started to have rocking movement on the pedals – and after the first longer ride I could see the axles showed a round wear mark, seemingly coming from the cleat cover touching it. I first feared this was due to lateral play in the axle – an issue for which early iterations of the current Speedplays became quite notorious – which could perhaps allow the pedal and cleat to twist. I tried twisting and turning the pedals and the axles and as much as it felt something was moving, it was hard to identify what it was. 

I contacted Wahoo about this, and the customer service said the likely cause is a wrongly installed cleat. Following the manual they had re-sent, I proceeded to re-install the cleat on three different pairs of shoes to make sure I was getting the base plate as level as possible, but the issue persisted on each tested shoe. In my mind that was ruling out the cleat causing the movement, so I took the pedals to a local bike shop. The guys there were convinced the cause was a loose axle, due to that visible rocking and play.

Given that Escape’s own Ronan Mc Laughlin had issues with lateral play on not one but five sets of Speedplay pedals (though not the Comp model), it’s fair to say that these pedals come with niggles that seem to be pretty common. Having this issue come up and knowing that there is no serviceability option outside replacement, the situation is frustrating to say the least.

A few emails with Wahoo later, I managed to connect with my region’s Wahoo rep and have him check over the pedals and cleats. He ruled out play in the axle (saying he has experience of how that feels, but this wasn’t it), and also re-installed my cleats one more time. This was an attempt to change their position against the axle, but still, the cleat cover kept rubbing and the rocking remained. He told me this was not something he’d seen before, and after some deliberation, he deemed the culprit to be the cleat spring.

The Comp pedal model is delivered with the easy-tension cleats which have a lighter-action spring. That spring could then allow the rocking movement, which then makes the cleat cover rub and everything feel a little loose.

While this is not anywhere near as bad as the axle having play which I’d first thought was causing the issue, it’s still a design fault. As this review goes out, I’m waiting for Wahoo to send me the standard-tension cleats so I can see if the issue is resolved with them, and after I’ve tested them for a while, I will update the review accordingly. Even if the cleat resolves the issue, that is another US$55/£50 spent on fixing something that shouldn’t need to be fixed, and it might be that at that point you better go for the Zero model with multiple axle lengths and unpainted stainless steel axle.

Overall, I feel the Speedplays took more time than any of the other pedal systems to figure out, even before the issue with the pedal/cleat interface happened.

I timed each cleat installation process of each of the pedals in this group test and in most cases, the job was done in under five minutes. With the Speedplays, it took a good 20 minutes attaching the pair and I had to refer to the manual several times – figuring out what part is to go to the left, what to the right, and where each of the screws is meant to go (only to be left with six extras – luckily this is not a piece of IKEA furniture I was building and they were simply a longer alternative for the baseplate).

You might benefit from having a straightedge (such as a ruler) on hand when installing these, because one of the requirements for the cleat-pedal interface to work is to get the base plate as level as possible. Wahoo provides shims to help achieve this, and even the manual says that while you have to aim for as level as possible, the fit might never be perfect. And the less perfect this interface is, the more likely you are going to experience the same rocking of the shoe on the pedal that I experienced. 

The cumbersome and time-demanding cleat installation alone shouldn’t be a negative big enough to steer away from the pedals – it’s not like you have to change the cleats that often unless you’re swapping shoes all the time. But combine the precision and patience you need with this system with the issues you might have with the functionality even if you’ve done everything as well as you can, and it quickly becomes a less appealing option. 

That adjustability and different axle width options meant that Speedplays were once a popular pick with bike fitters, but the professional fitters I spoke to about the different pedals all agreed that they would generally not recommend Speedplays anymore, and hardly ever see customers come in with them, either.

There were things I liked about the Speedplays, too: the dual-sided entry and a wide range of adjustability in terms of the cleat angle both laterally and longitudinally, as well as easily adjustable float. However, for me the drawbacks outweighed the positives, including the fact that despite being the cheapest in the Speedplay range, these pedals were still the second-most expensive set in this test, and cleat replacements cost US$55/£50. 

Best in terms of durability

Without dedicating years to this test, I’m assessing the durability here from the visual wear of the pedals from the test period, but also take on account their repairability, which means that even if a part wears out, you can either service or replace it.

During the test period, only the Speedplay Comp pedals developed notable issues with wear. The Time, Look and Shimano pedals all remained largely unscathed, and despite riding a lot in an urban area where clipping in and out is necessary, none seem to be excessively worn.

Most of the wear is visible at parts that the brands have reinforced. At this price level, all of the pedals had a protective stainless steel plate at the pedal body – Shimano includes this feature on even its entry-level RS500 pedal, but it’s something that Time and Look forego on their Xpresso 4 and Keo Classic models.  While these plates add a tiny gram or two of weight, they do an effective job of keeping the actual pedal body functional for longer, which is excellent news for a part that gets bashed multiple times each ride. 

Here again, the Look, Time and Shimano pedals showed equally as many scratches and slight shine on the pedal body where it engages with the cleat, but in all cases this impact is mostly handled by those protective plates that prevent the pedal body from wearing out.

When it comes to the durability of the bearings and internals of the mid-range pedals, both Look and Time told me the sealed steel bearings don’t need maintenance. Shimano says in their service manual (available at si.shimano.com) “Adjustment is required if the rotating parts are not functioning properly” and continues to give a detailed exploded view of the pedal, making servicing a rather simple task, at least on paper. 

I also asked a professional mechanic, Gregory Thomas from Precision Bicycle Services, about his experiences in actually servicing all of these pedals. “Shimano is for sure the most reliable, dependable pedal system for a few reasons,” he said. “Bearings need very little servicing, and the procedure is pretty straightforward. The cleat interface is very stable and stays that way longer than others. I do wish the front ‘hook’ area was replaceable as well. Time and Look pedal axles and bearings will develop a slight amount of play that won’t go away, although it’s not an issue in use. Sometimes a bearing seizes, and you have to replace an axle assembly. It’s not as straightforward. Time don’t offer the tool for their pedals [to de-assemble them]; you have to find an aftermarket version.”

If you wonder if he mentioned Speedplay, yes he did, but referring to the old models that offered some level of serviceability, a feature that is now removed.

While the pedals themselves are likely to last years, the cleats aren’t. Each of the Look, Time, and Shimano sets has wear indicators to tell when a replacement is due, and often you’ll notice that the engagement is simply not as smooth when the cleat is too worn. 

How long the cleats last is a highly subjective matter and depends heavily on what type of riding you do. If you, like me, have to ride through a lot of traffic lights, one of the cleats is likely to wear out quicker than the other. If you regularly walk longer distances in your cleats – even just to the cafe and back from the bike – this wears out the cleats quicker. And generally, the more you ride the quicker the wear. 

With that, and having not ridden with the Look and Time cleats for a full year yet, I can’t say if they’ll match the durability of the Shimano cleats that usually serve me at least a good 12 months – but based on how they look they seem to be on par in terms of wear. 

Conclusion

Is it worth spending more on the mid-range pedals? I think if you’re into road cycling, then you won’t go wrong with getting a set of the three-bolt pedals tested here. They are not extravagantly expensive, but at the same time they deliver added durability which can end up saving you money in the long run, compared to the lower-tier options. 

If you have specific fit needs, then the entry and even mid-level pedals might not serve you. To get more axle length options you need to splurge on the top-tier products that are also even lighter and, more often than not, get a lower stack height.

But the mid-range pedals are effectively a sweet spot. You get lighter carbon composite materials, protective plates for added durability, wider platform, lower stack height than the entry models and if we leave Speedplay out, reliable performance.

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