Chinese Speedplay Lookalike Pedals - 10,000km later 

Dude always waiting for your vids... Really love your content

Thanks for theong term review! Great to see that they hold up!

I bought the Titanium ones based on your review 18 mths ago. Have put around 6000km into them. They have been reasonable. Pros: - very light - I have never pulled a cleat out unintentionally, though am reticent to pedal out of the saddle. - easy to clip out of, with heel movement inwards or outwards. I use these for commuting mostly, so that's a priority. - pretty worry free. I apply marine grease to the c clip occasionally. - I have the cleat covers and they are great for walking on at cafes. I feel safe up and down stairs. Not so with my Look Keo covers. Cons: - when you fit the cleat covers, they are held in by two longer replacement screws. These screws are also supposed to hold the cleat on the base plate. As torque for the cleat to the base plate is critical to allow the c-clip to move freely, this is a bit of a compromise. - the cleat covers are well worn now, but have done their job really well. - I have had the left base plate come loose a few times recently. I use my left foot at traffic lights etc. It would probably benefit from loctite on the threads. - When I first used the pedals, the very light and fragile plastic axle end cap on both pedals would start unwinding, and then there would be lateral play of the pedal along the axle. I stopped this by wrapping plumbers tape around the end cap thread. It has never come loose again. - there is no play or grind in the axles, so they have worn well so far. Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised by the pedals. I like to be able to unclip quick and easily, and these allow that. From time to time, I am unable to clip in first go, but with wriggling of the foot or spinning the pedal, I get in. I also like to be able to walk around a bit on cleats, and these are good for that. I don't race or do spirited bunch rides anymore, and would not use them for that purpose. I also don't do lots of climbing, and would have to test the pedals a lot before being comfortable with out of saddle pedaling. One thing I would suggest, is the pedals are interchangeable between left and right side. So swap them over from time to time, if you always use the same leg at stop lights etc. I think the pedals/cleats could be better, and would buy an upgraded model.

Big shout for Huel, love the way you cracked that little chestnut

Loving the new Word of the Day feature 😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

glad to see the name is still Luke

Thanks for the reviews!

Done about 5000 Kms on mine and they are bloody brill 👊

Oooh...very tempting. The 'play' puts me off though. I can imagine it would feel very different to my MTB spds I currently use on my road bike, albeit much lighter! Thanks for the great content, Luke!

So useful, thank you

The hard to clip is not because of the retention clip (metal c clip)... it is because of the wavy plastics base below the retention clip that leave a very tight gap for the pedal to catch the retention clip. That base even kick out the clip from the peal. I flat out the wavy pattern on the plastic base into a round shape and created a bigger gap in order to get the pedal to catch the retention clip easier and hold the clip much more stronger. No need to lube or oil... it just work and clip in perfectly.

will still go with my shimano ultegra pedals and cliets, never had an issue with them, a bit pricey but imho absolutly worth it...

Got my titanium set including covers for roughly $60. Haven't tried them yet, wish me luck setting them up.

Another great video Luke. I got these off the back of the original review - the titanium version for my road bike and I loved them so much I got the steel version for my indoor trainer bike. I haven't done as many km as Luke so I haven't seen the excessive wear (maybe 2k on my road bike and 1k on the trainer), but I am also OCD about cleaning pedals. I haven't seen any obvious wear in the pedals, but I do see some of the same wear in the cleats - it's probably about time that I changed them. I would back up every tip in the video; definitely get the rubber covers for the cleats as it makes walking so much easier (I used to use Look keo compatible pedals which are great on bike, but horrible to walk in). My only other tip is to help break in the retention clip I took it out and used some pliers inversely to loosen up the clip, ie put the ends of neck of the pliers then open them out to push against the ends (see about 2:20 into this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_2ej7x6g2JQ.html).

Luke - enjoyed the video as usual! Have you considered trying to rebuild your titanium pedals by using the pedal body from the steel axle pedals? They’re cheap enough that maybe you don’t care about buying another pair but seems like a way to save some cash! Would also make a good video I think. Maybe they could start selling the body so you could just rebuild them continuously…

Great video Luke. The pedals look like they'd be good at keeping Vampires away when you're cycling. Can you confirm that you've been Vampire free whilst cycling? 😉

I bought these, they only worked on one side. It was a true pain in the ass. Gave them away on my local buy and sell group!

Top tip for them struggling to clip in, do the 4 screws up to 2.5Nm. Any tighter and the plate clamps the retaining clip down, any looser and the retaining clip doesn't function at all. I have used proper Speedplay's for 5+ years now and have started to go down the china play route.

Thanks for oil / break-in tip. I've been using these for about 2 months, and I love them once I'm in, but it can take up to 10 tries sometimes. On my ride yesterday, I finally felt like they were becoming easier. Changing gears, are you going to review any power meters? Some more affordable options have emerged in the last few years.

Timely video, I was just looking at these Chinaplay pedals. I was hoping those Titanum 3D printed, kickstarter funded, clipless pedals would be on sale by now but they aren't so I need a temporary lightweight solution.

I have the titanium ones on both my Brompton and my road bike. Once broken in they are excellent.

Thanks Luke

The wobble and float can be easily adjusted. With two pliers you can make the big C Clip smaller or bigger. No break-in period and no need for oil if you widen the retention clip with two pliers.

I bought these pedals after watching your first video about them. I never could make Tham to work (almost impossible to clip and when I can there's no way I can unclip. But since I was changing pedals, I put a pair of eggbeatbers and I've been happy ever since.

Just get some Shimano SPD SL pedals and cleats as they last forever and they are a super stable platform. I only change the grease every 10,000km (squeeze out old grease with new, without full disassembly). Super easy! Edit: forgot to say they are cheap too!

That lateral wobble may be the cause of my peroneal tendonitis. I have ridden Speedplay branded pedals since 2006 & ever since riding with these this is the first time I have developed this issue.

I have both Chinaplay/Speedply .. originally the Chinaplay were difficult stiff to clip in2 .. I grinded down the horseshoe clip .. and haven't looked back .. speedplay are now on the top shelf next 2 the cookies .. 🍪

Flipping heck has literally been 2 years since you bought those pedals😲

Love your Vids Luke. I’m an AliExpress addict too. I Love seeking value for money. I bought these for my trainer. I’m having weird problems with them. I found them difficult to clip into quickly and yet when i do they don’t hold and just pop out! Go figure! At this stage I’m not impressed but I ’ll try some of the suggestions. Thanks again. J

Tbh even if these are less than stellar, the new Wahoo Speedplays are so riddled with issues that the Chinaplays are a no-brainer to buy (not that older Speedplays were problem free).

I purchased them after I saw your first review, but they were impossible to clip in. I decided to go for some "Look Keo" compatible ones. By the way, you have almost all parts of the bike reviewed, except the seat post... Do you have in mind any review on it? Would love to see one. Great vid, as always. Greetings from Southamerica!

We need to get you to try a set of our Pitbull bike pedals. 360° engagement!

HELPFUL TIP: If you're having difficulty clipping in, use a knife to cut off the wavy part of the plastic on the cleats, the part right under the C clip. That's what's preventing the cleat from clipping in.

My main question is how do you find the time to get 10,000 km of riding done in a year, while working a full time job and making RU-vid videos?? As regards the pedals, they seem like a good alternative to expensive road systems but honestly, the MTB system is so much better in the end, not slipping around like bambi on ice on the dismount and not walking like you've filled your chamoi during the ride being highlights. The Time system has worked best for me over the years, lots of lateral and rotational float, which is actually great biomechanically protecting the knees, but with no vertical slop, which I think would feel wierd. So not all play is bad play in my experience. Keep up the good work Luke 👌

Epoxy on a bunch of shims to fix the play XD Nice vid as always

That's really beyond excessive wear. Be lucky you didn't got knee problems! I went to a bike fitter because of knee problems and he immediately said I needed to ditch my worn Speedplays. The bikefitter told me you get accustomed to your pedals, you will notice the difference when you replace them. He wasn't wrong, back to Shimano SPD-SL felt so much more stable. Especially out of the saddle. He told me that fast majority of the pro's are on SPD-SL or Look because of the large contact area. I'm glad I ditched Speedplays because they where also prone to (plastic) creaking...

I use real speedplays and they do suffer the same issue, although nowhere near that level of slop. I used to buy official speedplay cleats, but the ebay knock off ones are actually perfectly fine. I do regularly grease the c clips, and spray with GT85 fairly often, i don't know if you already do that, but i wonder if that would have any effect on the wear of the chinaplays.

Looks like it is adding up a lot of stack with the different adapters and such. And as you pointed out, the weight of the cleat are ridiculous. I bought a pair of Shimano PD-R9100 Dura ace pedals, came in at 234 grams, the cleats 36.7g the screws almost 34g, a total weight of 304.5 gram. BUT there are titanium screws and washers for Shimano cleats on Aliexpress dropping the weight with 17, so total weight should be 287 which is very hard to beat. Dura ace pedals have lowest stack of any pedal if I am not mistaken. There are also titanium axles from Titanium planet dropping the weight another 30 gram if really going serious (would be 250-260g all in all).

Three pairs of these pedals for two bikes. The third set came about because one pedal out of each pair had the end cap come loose and the pedal body started "walking" off of the axle. Contrary to Luke's experience, after 10K+ km on each set, I have minimal play and very little wear on the cleat's mounting plate. Coming from the Speedplay X2 pedals, I have set the adjusting screws such that I have probably 10° (?) of free rotation. Not sure if that has anything to do with my wear vs. Luke's but overall....I've been happy with them once I discovered the end cap issue and put some loc-tite on the threads to help hold them in place.

Man. First, thanks for another great content. I got excited from the first video and ordered one while back. It didn't work well with 3 bolt system. The adapter was bending(based on the shoe bottom shape) which bent the socket and it was impossible to clip in. I wouldn't recommend if you're going to use the adapter. You will be gambling, hoping your shoe shape will work.

I think Speedplay recommend using a dry lube on the retention ring and cleat adaptor (on a fairly regular basis) to help slow the wearing process down.

I have the same and love them.I just them for race also

So glad his name is still Luke

Was this before or after you started using pedal spacers? Which pedal spacers would you recommend?

You can use original speedplay cleats with these ones? Also spindles are compatible?

Oh wow that sign is still up in polperro‽ Haven't been there for maybe 20 years and it was there then!

There is much comment here about these pedals being very hard initially to clip in. Indeed some respondents, including myself, actually couldn't clip in at all. The problem lies in the fact that the pedal cannot easily (or even at all) be engaged deeply enough into the cleat to allow the clip to lip over the metal plate on the pedal part. The solution is to take the plates off the pedals and reduce the thickness a little with a metal file, taking care to only reduce in the lip area where the clip engages. This way, the pedal does not have to go quite so far down into the cleat to gain engagement. It's kind of like pre wearing them a little.

Could you do a video on bleeding the hybrid brakes ? including the juin tech

At 9:52 it looks like a significant amount of play could be because the grub screws (used to set lateral limits in the cleat) are partially unscrewed. maybe they fall out over time. is it STILL bad if you tighten these fully?

Another excellent production indeed. Not really super interesting in the weight savings department but ever thought about giving some aliexpress bar tape a review?

Since I spotted it in the background (and it's still on the bike!) - what are the longer term thoughts on that Senicx crank + chainrings?

Took your advise and bought these for my venge. Initially twas kinda hard for it to engage brandnew but after the metal loosened up, it was alright.. seems quite easy to disengage when i get off thr saddle but never had inadvertent disengagement so far.. pretty good for the price. My issue is that i couldnt find any rubber covers online that would fit with it. Tried the rubber for the original speedplay but it wont fit

Big fan of Huel myself, congrats on the new sponsor!

Hello Luke, great video. And i'm really interested in these pedals. 2 years ago i had an ankle surgery and full movement won't come back. So spdSL pedals are really difficult for me to unclip, basically unusable now. Plain spd, the mountain bike variation i can unclip much easier. Do you think i could use the chinaplay ones? Or they are too hard to unclip?

Cool new video! That's interesting with energy levels; I never eat/I fast before a ride. I ride anything between 60-100km per ride and never had any issues nor hunger. I do IF and low carb diet as well, works nicely for me.

Thank you for trying all the cheap parts so i will not buy it and just be disappointed .

You Maverick, I told you to get on the pedals case

I use SpeedPlay Luke and until I brought those black cleat covers which you screw on they were a pain. I just wished I had known AE sell them given the price I paid for mine.

Will the new wahoo speedplay cleat fit on these pedals? Or it will only fit the provided cleat?

Huel is great and i use the neutral version.

I had a pair of these. My experience was 50/50. Super cheap, super lightweight and when you break them in they work as expected. The rubber cover are a must, I lost my first set and walking around destroyed the cleat, grabbed a second pair and lost the rubber covers again, I didn't think to superglue but would recommend. The break in is the worst, don't do it on your bike you'll break something. Put them on a towel on the floor and stand on them from there. I disagree with Luke, the cleats are rubbish, it's such a fine balance between being able to clip in or not, I tried loosening the screws so I could actually clip in and the cleat came away from the shoe with the c clip still on the pedal a couple of times whilst climbing in the mountains. I got my lbs to try and service them, I think they put grease that was to thin, eventually the bearing seized and almost thread my crank arm on the trainer. After this I've gone with legit speedplays. Would I buy them again, probably not. I would say they would work great with legit speedplay cleats (which are lighter than the China cleats) but as a package give them a miss.

The lateral or rocking movement you get was a real problem on the old design before they got bought by wahoo and now they've put a circular section of metal on the top of either side of the actual speedplay pedal

Baller haircut, sir. Super glue, or silicone or something is a great tip. I use these as well, and nothing is as disheartening as going on a long ride and seeing the cover missing

Pro tip. SPD non SL (MTB) with stiff soled shoes and light pedals.

Seems like you forget the recommended steel adapters and cleat covers when you did your weight comparison.

Luke, can we have the link to the rubber cover for easier walking?

10,000km is like 2-3 years worth of riding. I'm a casual rider. Been using mine for 2000km and it still works fine.

Luke I think you might just need to tighten the cleat screws. You can see the bottom plate wobbling with the pedal. They do back out and require some Loctite to stay torqued.

To be fair, the amount of wear on those in 10,000KM is pretty acceptable (given the price). I'm just recommissioning one of my road bikes and very tempted to give these a go - given the price of Keo pedals and cleats. Thanks for the video.

Out of the box, the C clip is clearly not wide enough to make contact with the right part of the pedal to widen it - thus I suspect rotating the foot will cause extra friction allowing the clip to expand (I haven't tried this). To get them to work, I carefully used pliers on the clips to widen them. Unfortunately I snapped one of the clips near the end (although still functional). Also, my left foot was too loose and clipped out a few times (I luckily avoided dangerous situations). After some more tuning, these pedals function excellently - I regularly sprint up hills and on the flat! My only issue now is the durability.

Hey Luke any dealing with this model of bike..ZXM New T1000 Full Carbon Road Bike

The steal plate, can't find them on AliExpress. What key words should I use?

Hey Luke, you recommended siroko clothing, I trusted your recommendation and they have been extremely difficult to work with in regards to returning an item that I needed a different size for . I would not recommend anyone to siroko for any cycling clothing.

by the way, before I buy any item that says "free return" I now ask a seller if that means they will pay the shipping to return them. Seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious in writing is a lot more powerful

Mine seemed to not bind into the cleats at all. It was almost as if the spring was too small to actually go over the lip it was meant to for binding. Which is a shame as I quite enjoyed the prospect of trying speedplay ‘style’ pedals without spending speedplay prices for the honour. Although I was glad I didn’t invest in the ‘walking’ cleat covers (which come with speedplay) as they almost cost as much as the chinaplays in totality!

How much more weight for the steel plates and protectors?

Could you share the link? I'm newbie and don't want to buy the wrong one.

Thanks for showing the ins and outs of this system. I use mountain bike spds for both mountain and road, just with a more ridgid shoe for road. I have never felt a lack of power transfer (but that may be due to my pathetic legs) and the ability to walk properly outweighs any potential performance gains.

👍🏻

What are these pedals actually called if you are searching for them on Aliexpress? I'm fairly certain they are not called Chinaplay pedals in the ads on Aliexpress.

does it have the same mounting dimensions with legit speedplays?

can you use the legit cleats of speedplay for this kind of pedals?

When can we see the GRAVEL BIKE??? 😎

My actual speedplays do the same thing if I keep them too long. They recommend fairly frequent replacements

I know they're not walking shoes but what if you step in a little bit of mud will it pack inside the hole?

I've used Shimano, Look, Eggbeaters, Time, and Speedplay. The worst pedals IMO were the Speedplay. Eggbeaters are okay but wear quickly and I got tired of replacing them so often. Time cleats break to easy. Look are good pedals but Shimano are better and give me a much better platform. I'm convinced Shimano are the best and that's all I'm ever going to use from now on.

Omg my crankbros still owns total weight

The SPD SL Pedals are not the lightest out there. I think there is a large wheight difference between the standard and Duraace/Ultegra pedals. They have a carbon compund material and so the difference shouldn't be as big as here. Of course they are much more expensive, but you should keep that in mind before changing to this chinese pedal systems because of saving weight.

Aside from a 100g weight saving I'm struggling to see the advantages over shimano (either SPD or SPD SL), where the main wear item is the cleat. It also seems odd to clone speedplay and not put a sacrificial bit of plastic round the pedal body.

Has anyone found flat adapters for these pedals? I ride sometimes with normal shoes or sandals, and I don't wanna keep switching pedals around.

Nice haircut!

I bought a pair of these and in my experience there was just too much side to side wiggle movement when pedaling compared to my spd-sl pedals

They honestly seem pretty fiddly, but I can see the appeal of double sided pedals. I love my SPDs on mtb and gravel, but I probably wouldn't put up with these. That's a good thing, because I am already committed to SPD-SL because of power meter pedals. *P. S.:* 27 degrees is sublime weather, we had 39 today and I am hard boiled

Just replace the metal pedal plates and cleats and you back up and running. My speed plays are like it. But wouldn't go back to SPD or Look

With proper speedplay pedals you get a set of shims to fit the cleats properly to the sole of your shoe (not all shoe soles are the same) and you also get rubber cleat covers that you fit permanently to the cleat that help with walking You also get a ‘plug’ for the cleats for if you have to walk through mud. The real deal also don’t suffer with all that slop and wear either.

bike fitters more likely to comment on 0-degree float than the wobbly pedal. No float usually results in joint pain in the knees but not limited to the knees.

Ok. Where can I get some? 🙂

7:34 the fuck kinda sliding caliper measures in only one decimal place

"replace the cleats 2-3k miles" whats the point if spd-sl or keo last many times more

Are they compatible to Speedplay cleats?