Conference noted::bicycle

2285.0. "First impression of a new pedal system" by DECWET::SCOTT (From St. Louis, in the Great State of Misery) Tue May 19 1992 10:50

    In the grips of another bicycle toy buying binge, I took the leap
    Sunday and bought a pair of Speedplay's Bryne (rhymes with nine) X2
    pedals.  These pedals look like little grey lollipops, about two inches
    in diameter.  The cleats are flat plates with a hole in the middle, and
    contain the retention mechanism (recent issues of Velonews have
    featured their ads, which have pictures).

    The cleats are composed of three layers, all of which can be obtained
    separately:  a metal face-plate,  an inner layer containing the spring
    and a slightly curved adapter-plate, which mounts next to the shoe, for
    Look bolt-holes.  The three pieces are held together with four short
    bolts in the Time bolt-hole pattern:  when mounting them on Time TBT
    soles, you omit the inner layer and use longer bolts with thick
    washers to shim the cleat ever so slightly off the sole of the shoe. 
    (The longer bolts and washers come in a separate kit--there is yet
    another kit for new-model Nike shoes and old-model white-soled Time
    shoes).

    The very first thing I noticed when trying this system out is how much
    lighter the cleats are than the Time boat anchors that were on my TBT
    shoes.  When I hit the road, the most striking thing was how *easy*
    these pedals are to engage and disengage.  It really takes no time to
    learn to use them--you just step on the pedal, which are simple
    symmetrical disks.  It doesn't matter what position they're in--if
    they're cocked sideways, they naturally rotate to the flat position
    under the pressure of your foot.  A simple outward, upward twisting
    motion is all it takes to disengage.

    After fifty miles on them, I like them a *lot*.  I noticed a slight
    soreness in the ball of my right foot--there may be such a thing as
    getting the sole of your foot too close to the axel.  Since this is the
    foot I tend to weigh when coasting, it may finally teach me not to
    coast.  They "float" by the cleat rotating on the pedal (Speedplay
    claims some 34 degrees of rotation--10 in, 24 out).  This rotation is
    at the balls of your feet, not the tip of the cleat.  They don't slide
    side to side like my old Time cleats, but I don't seem to miss that
    much.

    They're not cheap, but they're priced quite competitively against the
    high-end Look and Time stuff, whose bearings and level of trim they
    measure up to ($150 for the pedals + $10 for the TBT adapter kit (eight
    bolts and eight thick washers--such a deal)).  I'll bet the system
    weighs a lot less than any of that stuff.

    The only problem I have with them is that they're not very attractive. 
    The little pedal disks are so tiny that they seem way out of
    proportion to the crank arms.  I think I'll get over it 8^).

                                                   -- Mike

    More on Brynes in note 1455, beginning with 1455.167.
    

    	I'm crewing this year (RAAM '92) for Ed Kross from Framingham, MA.
    
    	He uses these pedals and cleats and seems to like them. On
    	a 400+ training weekend, we had to change pedals and cleats.
    	One of the cleats was not fully engaging and he was not
    	getting locked in liked he wanted to. I think a burr was
    	sliding on the plastic part of the shoe and keeping the
    	the front of the cleat from traveling all the way into the
    	locked position.
    
    	The system wasn't new, so it was just normal wear. He did
    	say that you have to make sure the cleats are clean if you
    	walk through sand or something like that.
    
    	As the base noter said, they look a little odd. The pedal is
    	just a small circle on the crankarm. Looks kinda odd the first
    	time you see one.
    
    	Scott

    RE:  .1
    
    Sorry--I looked around for notes on this topic, but I didn't look deep
    enough (should have done a "dir *.*/title=bryne").  Moderators, feel
    free to move this string into that note--mustn't clutter up the
    conference with redundant discussions.
    
                                                      -- Mike