Which pedal has the highest release tension
 

Which pedal has the most retention, that is, the highest release tension and therefore the hardest to unintentionally release when really sprinting hard out of the saddle?

I don't know about highest, but I know speedplay makes a track specific pedal with higher release tension.

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/ro...134.336.0.html

The higher end Look pedals can be made pretty tight.

my shimano pedal has higher release tension than my regular speedplay zero.

My CB pedals feel like they'll pull the cleat out of the shoe before they release... as long as I keep my feet straight, anyway. I don't really have a problem with flailing feet, though, but then again, I've never raced, either.

a lot of the track people swear by dura ace 7700 spd-r.

fresh cleats will go a long way. I have to be careful everytime I put fresh ones on. Busted my A%% real good with brand new DA pedals and cleats two months ago

If the 7700 SPR is the non-Look one, yes. I use them on the track, on pretty loose tension. If I tighten them up too much I have to use my fist and hammer on my shoe to get out.

cdr

First off, "break in" your pedals. If you aren't getting easy release, try riding them on a trainer with lots of clip outs. For immediately putting on your bike for the road, screw them to lightest clip-in and clip-out release, then gradually tighten the screws. For Spedplays, the tension is not adjustable. For Zeros, release angle is. SPD, Looks, Shimano SLs et al have have adjustable spring-tensions for clip-ins and clip-outs.

What you want is, It clips in and out fast. If you are on the open road for long stretches, go lightest weight. If you have to do stop and go a lot, go for something that clips in easily, or something that gives you a pedaling platform to cross intersections not being clipped in. Or watch your lights ahead so you can semi-track stand if you don't want to unclip. A true 2-3 minute track stand requires, for most riders, the ability to make forward-and-backward micro-travel, or windless absolute stationariness, or astonishing skill in gusting cross-wind on a free-wheel bike to be totally motionless except balancing yourself against crosswind gusts.

Crosswing gusts suck. I was doing 40+ crosweind gust today, NWS said they were over 50. F**k. The worst ones aren' the gusts per se, it is when you get microcyclonic winds, I'm getting hit from the left, okay I lean, I got it, then 5 seconds later they're coming from the right. These quick shifting cyclonic winds can really make your ride uncomfortable. Scary actually. Which is why CA is the best place to ride. When the wind comes up, you know where it's coming from. It's not winds that are, "I wanna be a tornado when I grow up." s**t.

I have the lowest tension setting on my Ultegra pedals and they are pretty tight, so I imagine I could get it up pretty high.

I have my DA 78xx pedals set at about 1/4 out of the highest tension. It is enough for me, however I only weigh 135 pounds, but I don't think anybody could get out at 100% release tension.

Thanks all. Looks like the spd-r is the way to go.

....if you can get compatible shoes. SPD-R does not use the three hole bolt pattern used for Look or Shimano SPD-SL

look keo blades come with 16N tension i believe. this is pretty damn high.

Oh, did not know that, back to square 1. Thanks.

Older Sidis will work with the Sidi adapter thing; since I have a few of those shoes/adapters I use them for a particular bike. I think that's the least of his concerns though. I used to drill out my shoes, put in t-nuts, bolt on an adapter, and then put my cleats on the adapters so I could use a particular pedal (Aerolites).

I should point out too that my SPD-R pedals are well used, about 10 years of use, and usually at about 1/4-1/3 tension. I've never had them at more than 1/2 or so, based on the travel of the screw indicator thing. I think I've swapped cleats 2-3 times just to make sure it wasn't the cleats.

cdr

*edit* maybe drilling isnt in the picture

Huh?

Forget it, he's rolling.

Seriously. I thought he was going to start telling us about how he used to tie onions to his belt, because it was the style at the time.

And the winds in CA were far from predictable yesterday.

He's always like that. All his posts are non-sequiturs and bizzare streams of conciousness

It should be noted that if you are worried about clipping in, Time makes a pedal that stays "open" after you clip out, so there is really no effort in clipping in. I believe it is their highest model, but I can't say how much the maximum release tension is but I believe it is adjustable.

Quite a few of the trackies around these parts use SPD-SL, taking good care to keep their cleats fresh and really ratcheting down on the tension.

Ain't that the trick. Most clip-outs in sprints aren't because the sprinter pulled them straight out and, what, broke the cleat or something... no, it's because they ended up twisting their feet significantly while applying a lot of force to the pedal.

In the professional road races I've seen/heard of this happening, it's either because the guy's cleat broke in a crash and he didn't know it or it was a sprint from a breakaway (read: a sprint finish by diesels who don't know how to sprint) who are playing cat-and-mouse at 10mph and jump by trying to pull up really hard on their pedals with their bike laid way over in a huge gear.

I use SPD-SL, never had a clip-out that I didn't want to happen.