Cycling UK Forum

alexnharvey wrote:How much weight would one have to add to the back of an es600 to get it to sit right?

probably about the same as the weight difference between A600 and ES600 models?

FWIW if you ride mainly on the road and don't have to unclip often then even single-sided pedals which hang awkwardly are not the end of the world; you can always unclip quickly, (which is the main thing I suppose), even if reclipping is slightly more awkward than it could be.

However if you have to unclip and reclip often, or are riding offroad regularly, a lot of riders would choose a double-sided pedal instead anyway because it is easier. A single-sided pedal which was more awkward to clip into than is necessary would be a step backwards; how far backwards is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

In any event it is only once the bearings and seals have "run in" that the chickens come home to roost; before then the pedals may not move freely enough to consistently hang at the angle gravity might otherwise dictate.

cheers

If I am totally honest, part of the reason I like my single sided A520s (no longer made) is simply that they look so good when I am off the bike and gazing at it (as we do), with their sleek low profile lines and the silver finish that doesn't show scratches the way painted pedals do.

But when I next buy pedals, if the single sided SPDs are not hanging the right way I will revert to the double sided sort, which have always worked very well for me. I can live quite happily with either, not doing a lot of stop/start urban cycling. I'm just hoping Shimano will not have thought of some way of ruining those before I need them.

pwa wrote:If I am totally honest, part of the reason I like my single sided A520s (no longer made) is simply that they look so good when I am off the bike and gazing at it (as we do), with their sleek low profile lines and the silver finish that doesn't show scratches the way painted pedals do.

I have to confess that is the only reason I put A600s on my best bike! So I was particularly disappointed with how quickly the spindles rusted.

pedalsheep wrote:

pwa wrote:If I am totally honest, part of the reason I like my single sided A520s (no longer made) is simply that they look so good when I am off the bike and gazing at it (as we do), with their sleek low profile lines and the silver finish that doesn't show scratches the way painted pedals do.

I have to confess that is the only reason I put A600s on my best bike! So I was particularly disappointed with how quickly the spindles rusted.

I had the same with some XTR pedals. It seemed that if you splashed out on the very dearest SPD you ended up with rust, whereas the more middling pedals (eg A520s) don't rust. Baffling! The rust is cosmetic but annoying.

IIRC PD-A520 has a polished finish to the pedal bodies and PD-A600 has anodised. IME once the A600s get scuffed up that's it; they ae doomed to look scruffy for ever. By contrast A520s can be repolished ad infinitum.

cheers

Brucey wrote:IIRC PD-A520 has a polished finish to the pedal bodies and PD-A600 has anodised. IME once the A600s get scuffed up that's it; they ae doomed to look scruffy for ever. By contrast A520s can be repolished ad infinitum.

cheers

And even in their scratched state, A520s look okay except very close up because the scratches are the same colour as the non-scratched areas. Why would anyone think putting a fragile coloured finish on a surface likely to be struck by a metal object (a cleat) a good idea? It is like painting the striking surface of a hammer.

pwa wrote:

Brucey wrote:IIRC PD-A520 has a polished finish to the pedal bodies and PD-A600 has anodised. IME once the A600s get scuffed up that's it; they ae doomed to look scruffy for ever. By contrast A520s can be repolished ad infinitum.

cheers

And even in their scratched state, A520s look okay except very close up because the scratches are the same colour as the non-scratched areas. Why would anyone think putting a fragile coloured finish on a surface likely to be struck by a metal object (a cleat) a good idea? It is like painting the striking surface of a hammer.

Yes I have to admit it wasn't my best ever idea! They did look lovely in the box!

OP there is a refurbished set of PD-A600 on eBay at the moment.

I prefer the PD-6500 for single sided SPD pedals. No platform but work perfectly with a reasonably stiff shoe sole. Quite light too if I recall.

Well the ES600 look very very nice, matching the colour themes of the bike but I am well aware this won't last. Thus far the have performed well on the indoor rollers.

In my head if the weighted problem becomes an issues, I might fasten a small weight to a point on the outer cage to help them hang better

frustratingly a pair of PD-6500 are up on ebay in good nick just showed up

PD-6500 are nice pedals but they (and PD-7410 too) are slightly different from other SPD pedals; for one thing they have shorter spindles and this means the shoe sits ~2.5mm closer to the crank than with many other SPD models. They work well enough with current cleats (I think, anyway) but they are really meant to be used with the now-rare SM-SH70/71 model cleats.

cheers

some photos of PD-A600 pedals etc, showing how the dark anodised finish gets marked up and so forth;


new PD-A600 (left) vs used PD-A520 (right)


typical scuffing on PD-A600; IRRC the 'hang' angle is about normal for this pedal model


oops

the last photo shows what can happen if the RH cone/locknut assembly fails. Most often this afflicts older model SPDs which have a RH cone/locknut thread on the RH spindle. What seems to happen is that if the locknut isn't tight against the cone, one of two things occurs

a) both cone and locknut back out together and the pedal disassembles itself or
b) the threadlock on the locknut prevents the locknut from backing out, but doesn't spare the spindle from the fatigue loads imposed by the loose cone.

In the latter instance the spindle breaks between the cone and locknut; this looks the same as a) but when you take it all apart you realise that there is a short length of spindle still inside the locknut. Since this is never seen in LH pedals (only RH ones) the thread handedness seems to be significant.

For the last few years shimano have steadily been revising the spindle design (even in established models) so that RH pedals come with LH threading on the spindle for the cone and locknut. This means that if the cone and locknut loosen, the same thing happens to both pedals as used only to happen to the LH one, being that the cone precesses inwards and renders the bearings tighter than normal. So if a LH pedal starts to bind (even slightly) in an older set or either pedal starts to bind (in a newer set) this is a good sign that the cone and locknut may be loose on the pedal spindle instead of being tight against one another.

When LH threading on the RH spindle for the cone/locknut was a new thing, the revised spindles usually had a blob of paint on them. However in more recent times I have seen such spindles with no paint blob and these are not easy to discriminate by sight from the earlier version. Pedals which could have either type of threading are (unless newer spare parts have been retrofitted) less than about seven years old. It could be that all models now have the revised design, but at one time it seemed to be pot luck.

cheers

Well if I don't get on with the one sided, I wonder what the lightest two sided with decent plate size is?

plate size?

nomm wrote:Well if I don't get on with the one sided, I wonder what the lightest two sided with decent plate size is?

I don't know how these compare for weight but there is the PD-ME700 double sided.
https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-pd ... 04688.html

Okay, firstly I don't know where you can get these at the moment, and secondly they are stupidly expensive. But they look good, are light for double sided pedals, and offer two axle lengths.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-xtr-m9 ... less-pedal