Look Cycle

Keo Blade Carbon Ti Road Pedal

A few years back, we were speaking with Keith Bontrager. He commented that, in time, just about everything will be made of carbon fiber, even bottom bracket spindles. The carbon bottom bracket isn't here just yet, but the steel spring might be on the way out. Look has figured out a way to use a carbon fiber blade to replace the spring in the top of the line pedals, the Look Keo Blade.

This pedal has everything. Carbon fiber body. Titanium axle. Stainless steel wear plate. And a blade of carbon fiber that flexes against the retention plate to hold the cleat in place. The blade helps make the pedal crazy light without costing it any durability. That all reads good, but, you might be thinking the blade is fragile. It isn't. It would take some serious work to accidentally disengage the blade or break it. A pretty heavy hammer blow to just the right spot is about the only way to damage it.

The carbon fiber blade is the proverbial cherry, the icing, the final piece of the pedal. The rest is extremely tech-forward as well. Start with the redesigned pedal body. It's quite different than the Keo, utilizing the new Keo 2 design. It is 17% wider than the old Keo, about on par with the Shimano Dura-Ace pedal. This 62mm platform increases the surface area that contacts the cleat to 402mm² , yet the cornering clearance is actually better because the extra width is on the top of the new pedal rather than the bottom. The result of the design change is 31% greater surface area than the old Keos, which should leave you with the feeling that your foot is on a more stable platform where foot pressure is spread over a wider area.

The axle is new as well. It's 12mm in diameter on the inboard side near the mounting threads and remains so through the support for two sets of roller bearings, and then starts to taper towards the end, where a needle bearing sits. The greater diameter not only insures stiffness, but also allows Look to offer this pedal without the caveat of a rider weight limit.

The larger spindle diameter might set off alarms with some people. These people fear that with the larger spindle, stack height must have increased. It hasn't, still at a slim 15.7mm, thanks in part to the stainless steel wear plate atop the pedal. Your cleat will not wear down the pedal body over time, so they could afford to make the pedal body fairly thin under the plate.

The Keo Blade Carbon Ti pedals come with a set of Grey Look Keo Grip anti-slip cleats. They have 4.5 degrees of float. You can also use the Keo Grip cleats in Red, with nine-degrees of float, or Black, with no float. The anti-slip designation is due to both the forward and rearward parts of the cleat being topped by non-skid pads. The cleat also has Look's Memory Clip built in to the center pad, which, depending on your shoe, can simplify changing cleats without having to futz with re-positioning. The pedal body and retention bar on the back are black. The claimed weight of a single pedal is 95g. Look currently makes the carbon blades with two different spring rates. Please choose between the 12Nm option (the lowest setting on Look's Keo 2 Max pedals, which is pretty good for most riders and racers) and the stiffer 16Nm option (just below the stiffest setting on the Keo 2 Max).