Speedplay maintenance

Chris M said:

After 15 years of Speedplay (X/2) exclusive use, I have never had
reason or opportunity to repack the bearings or tear them down for an
R and R. The only maintenance I have done is using the recommended
(White Lightning) dry lube and occasional oil based lubes in the
spindles.

The other day, I sensed and then heard the sound of dry bearings on
the left pedal. I immediately went to the nearest hardware store and
applied some spray lube. When I got home, I turned the bike on its
side to allow gravity (one side at a time) to assist the lube entering
the bearings (hopefully). I then downloaded the Speedplay PDF doc on
their recommended maintenance routines.

The question I ask of those who have worked on these pedals is, "will
injection of lube in to the grease port suffice, or should I tear down
and inspect the bearings and related components?"

Only complete way is to take them apart...grease injection is a
tempoary 'fix'.

Quoted message said:

I have 2 pairs of X/2 pedals in use, one pair has at least double the
service of the pedals that are dry. I never had to tear them down. I
can't think of any reason why the wear would be accelerated on the
newer pedals, except that most of their use is during the summer
months, in weather that is around 100 degrees F, for hours at a time.
It doesn't seem to me that the bearings are less able to handle this
vs cooler and often more damp use but that is the only thing I have to
distinguish the differences in their use.

Also, are their bearings I can use from any other sources, or is this
a specialty part that needs to be purchased from Speedplay or one of
their dealers?

Inboard roller bearing is integrated into the 'puck, the 2 outboard
bearings may be a standard size but SP dealers will have them

Quoted message said:

TIA

Chris M said:

After 15 years of Speedplay (X/2) exclusive use, I have never had
reason or opportunity to repack the bearings or tear them down for an
R and R. The only maintenance I have done is using the recommended
(White Lightning) dry lube and occasional oil based lubes in the
spindles.

The other day, I sensed and then heard the sound of dry bearings on
the left pedal. I immediately went to the nearest hardware store and
applied some spray lube. When I got home, I turned the bike on its
side to allow gravity (one side at a time) to assist the lube entering
the bearings (hopefully). I then downloaded the Speedplay PDF doc on
their recommended maintenance routines.

The question I ask of those who have worked on these pedals is, "will
injection of lube in to the grease port suffice, or should I tear down
and inspect the bearings and related components?"

I have 2 pairs of X/2 pedals in use, one pair has at least double the
service of the pedals that are dry. I never had to tear them down. I
can't think of any reason why the wear would be accelerated on the
newer pedals, except that most of their use is during the summer
months, in weather that is around 100 degrees F, for hours at a time.
It doesn't seem to me that the bearings are less able to handle this
vs cooler and often more damp use but that is the only thing I have to
distinguish the differences in their use.

Also, are their bearings I can use from any other sources, or is this
a specialty part that needs to be purchased from Speedplay or one of
their dealers?

Speedplay suggests purging the grease fully at regular (and short)
intervals through the port. If you think about it, the bearing diameter
is roughly half other pedals, which means frequent lube as there's just
not much of a bearing in there. That's one reason they are so light.

I would not consider spray lube at all reasonable but call Speedplay on
that point. Curious to hear their comments.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Quoted message said:

Chris M said:

After 15 years of Speedplay (X/2) exclusive use, I have never had
reason or opportunity to repack the bearings or tear them down for an
R and R. The only maintenance I have done is using the recommended
(White Lightning) dry lube and occasional oil based lubes in the
spindles.
The other day, I sensed and then heard the sound of dry bearings on
the left pedal. I immediately went to the nearest hardware store and
applied some spray lube. When I got home, I turned the bike on its
side to allow gravity (one side at a time) to assist the lube entering
the bearings (hopefully). I then downloaded the Speedplay PDF doc on
their recommended maintenance routines.
The question I ask of those who have worked on these pedals is, "will
injection of lube in to the grease port suffice, or should I tear down
and inspect the bearings and related components?"

Qui si parla Campagnolo-www.vecchios.com said:

Only complete way is to take them apart...grease injection is a
tempoary 'fix'.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I have 2 pairs of X/2 pedals in use, one pair has at least double the
service of the pedals that are dry. I never had to tear them down. I
can't think of any reason why the wear would be accelerated on the
newer pedals, except that most of their use is during the summer
months, in weather that is around 100 degrees F, for hours at a time.
It doesn't seem to me that the bearings are less able to handle this
vs cooler and often more damp use but that is the only thing I have to
distinguish the differences in their use.
Also, are their bearings I can use from any other sources, or is this
a specialty part that needs to be purchased from Speedplay or one of
their dealers?

Qui si parla Campagnolo-www.vecchios.com said:

Inboard roller bearing is integrated into the 'puck, the 2 outboard
bearings may be a standard size but SP dealers will have them

I'm curious about why a pressure purge works on auto front ends and not
on Speedplay? If one pumps until the grease flows clean, what else is
needed?
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Chris M said:

After 15 years of Speedplay (X/2) exclusive use, I have never had
reason or opportunity to repack the bearings or tear them down for an
R and R. The only maintenance I have done is using the recommended
(White Lightning) dry lube and occasional oil based lubes in the
spindles.

The other day, I sensed and then heard the sound of dry bearings on
the left pedal. I immediately went to the nearest hardware store and
applied some spray lube. When I got home, I turned the bike on its
side to allow gravity (one side at a time) to assist the lube entering
the bearings (hopefully). I then downloaded the Speedplay PDF doc on
their recommended maintenance routines.

The question I ask of those who have worked on these pedals is, "will
injection of lube in to the grease port suffice, or should I tear down
and inspect the bearings and related components?"

Quoted message said:

Also, are their bearings I can use from any other sources, or is this
a specialty part that needs to be purchased from Speedplay or one of
their dealers?

TIA

Taking apart and repacking the bearings is easy. The tricky part for
me was on one of my Frog pedals the bolts that hold the pedal body
together must have been bolted together with an impact wrench. To top
it off they're hex bolts that uses, as I remember, a 2.5mm hex
wrench. Needless to say I stripped the bolt head. I had to find
someone with a dremel tool to cut a slot in the hex bolts so I could
use an ordinary screwdriver. The pedal faces got a little defaced, but
so what, can't see it when you're clipped in and it saved me the cost
of the full rebuild kit. One last thing. The bearings are normal
everyday of-the-shelf types. If you need new ones get them from places
that specializes in bearings. They're 3 to 4 times cheaper than the
Speedplay branded ones.

A Muzi said:

Quoted message said:

Chris M said:

After 15 years of Speedplay (X/2) exclusive use, I have never had
reason or opportunity to repack the bearings or tear them down for an
R and R. The only maintenance I have done is using the recommended
(White Lightning) dry lube and occasional oil based lubes in the
spindles.
The other day, I sensed and then heard the sound of dry bearings on
the left pedal. I immediately went to the nearest hardware store and
applied some spray lube. When I got home, I turned the bike on its
side to allow gravity (one side at a time) to assist the lube entering
the bearings (hopefully). I then downloaded the Speedplay PDF doc on
their recommended maintenance routines.
The question I ask of those who have worked on these pedals is, "will
injection of lube in to the grease port suffice, or should I tear down
and inspect the bearings and related components?"

Qui si parla Campagnolo-www.vecchios.com said:

Only complete way is to take them apart...grease injection is a
tempoary 'fix'.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I have 2 pairs of X/2 pedals in use, one pair has at least double the
service of the pedals that are dry. I never had to tear them down. I
can't think of any reason why the wear would be accelerated on the
newer pedals, except that most of their use is during the summer
months, in weather that is around 100 degrees F, for hours at a time.
It doesn't seem to me that the bearings are less able to handle this
vs cooler and often more damp use but that is the only thing I have to
distinguish the differences in their use.
Also, are their bearings I can use from any other sources, or is this
a specialty part that needs to be purchased from Speedplay or one of
their dealers?

Qui si parla Campagnolo-www.vecchios.com said:

Inboard roller bearing is integrated into the 'puck, the 2 outboard
bearings may be a standard size but SP dealers will have them

I'm curious about why a pressure purge works on auto front ends and not
on Speedplay? If one pumps until the grease flows clean, what else is
needed?

When I put my grease pump against the grease port (little annoying
plastic thingy you have to remove to take them apart) and try to push
the grease through the bearings the grease port pops off, meaning that I
can't push the grease all the way through the bearings. It's a handy way
though to remove that plastic thing though ;-)

Lou
--
Posted by news://news.nb.nu (http://www.nb.nu)

Quoted message said:

Taking apart and repacking the bearings is easy. The tricky part for
me was on one of my Frog pedals the bolts that hold the pedal body
together must have been bolted together with an impact wrench. To top
it off they're hex bolts that uses, as I remember, a 2.5mm hex
wrench. Needless to say I stripped the bolt head. I had to find
someone with a dremel tool to cut a slot in the hex bolts so I could
use an ordinary screwdriver. The pedal faces got a little defaced, but
so what, can't see it when you're clipped in and it saved me the cost
of the full rebuild kit. One last thing. The bearings are normal
everyday of-the-shelf types. If you need new ones get them from places
that specializes in bearings. They're 3 to 4 times cheaper than the
Speedplay branded ones.

I bought a used pair of X/2 pedals on eBay, and the bearings in one of them
were no good, I found one of the outboard bearings at an LBS, I ordered the
other (actually a sleeve of 10 for $25) from VXB on eBay (7x13x4). I then
snapped the head off the retaining bolt reassembling the pedal, not fun
getting the broken part backed out. I replaced it with a generic part from
the local AutoZone, no problems since. I find using the grease port works
best when I put the pedals in a vise, port pointing up. I can then lean on
the grease injector and flush out the old grease.

Roger

All useful comments, and appreciated as well.

I did find a PDF doc discussing these issues. The problem I am having
is that the port (the tapped hole only large enough for the very small
screw, unless the plug too comes out, but I think it doesn't) is so
small that my grease injector is not small enough to get a seal, and
direct enough grease in. The photo used by Speedplay seems to have a
flexible tips that would seal the temporary joint made with the
injector. It reminds me of the older Record (before the sealed bearing
models replaced it in the mid 1980s) port that may have been for
grease, but I only heard of it being used for all in between repacking
the bearings. I don't know if that makes sense, and I never did that,
and I have also never used an oil lube to replace grease, except in
cases where I am using the oil to clean the bearings just prior to
application of the grease. This is what I have done so far on the
pedals, and I did get the old grease out and it seems to be clean now.
The only option I have is to either take them apart or maybe gently
try to force some grease in bit by bit while spinning the pedals to
reduce the resistance that the small gaps of the pedal fully
assembled. The only other option I have is this huge veterinary
syringe (about 6" long and 3 mm diameter) that I have used for those
occasional non-medical syringe duties. That will waste an awful lot of
grease. One more thing I did already that I thought was the best idea,
is that I went to a local "Home Depot" (huge DIY hardware and home
improvement store) and found an aerosol based grease (the only one of
its type) and the grease did not set up very heavily once the
dissolvable medium evaporated. Right now, it seems like the
combination of very light grease is no more viscous than light oil.
So, if the last option I have does not work well enough I'll hit up a
local Park dealer to see what cycling specific tools

The last tip about positioning for leverage sounds like that might
help for those of use without specific hardware grease injectors with
the tip as shown in the Speedplay document.

Thanks again everyone.

I use a Pedro's grease injector, it works pretty well if you can lean on
it. Just google for it, here's an example:

http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/product/280/2443/7017

Roger