Has anyone used this Look-to-SPD adaptor? Are they any good? Do the cleats hold up well?

[Patrick Moore]

http://www.amazon.com/Wellgo-Cycling-Shimano-Adapter-Cleats/dp/B00E7UZHB6

I see Crank Bros has a different type of adaptor, but the Wellgoes get better reviews.

Anyone?

Thanks.

Patrick Moore, who just converted his gofast to very nice, very light Ritchey 1-sided, road SPD pedals that weigh just 1/2 oz more than his Look Keo Pluses.

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[Peter Adler]

Customer reviews of SPD to Crank Brothers isn't really a fair comparison. Shimano-style SPD mountain pedals are used by orders of magnitude more riders than Crank Brothers, so it's logical that SPD would have more advocates. In courts of public opinion, the majority opinion usually wins, even if it's silly.

The two different Look adapter sets (Wellgo RC8, Crank Brothers 3-hole cleat) include both 3-hole adapters and cleats, but they cleat to entirely different pedals. You choose the adapter system to mate to your preferred pedals. The Crank Brothers adapters can fit SPD cleats, but the Wellgo SPD adapters don't look like they'll accept Crank Brothers cleats - or Time ATAC cleats, or Speedplay cleats, or Bebop cleats, all of which have larger bases than SPD. The Wellgo adapters look like they're molded to fit SPD adapters, and nothing else. Actually, it looks like they've disassembled the regular Shimano SPD cleat into two parts (the brass horizontal bar and the underlying silver top/bottom lobes). If that's true, then that's super-awful; it means that you won't be able to buy regular SPD replacement clets, but you'll have to buy special weirdo cleats from Wellgo - which will be available only for as long as Wellgo chooses to make them available. Ecch.

I'd really like to be wrong about that, if only because forcing people to buy replacement parts from a single manufacturer is a generally bad thing. In Wellgo's case, it would be a case of spending extra money to lock people into the replacement chain; Wellgo already makes standard SPD cleats (98A), so the expense of making an nearly-identical cleat seems pretty wasteful.

The Crank Brothers adapters are a sort of nylon. I've been a CB rider for years, and I hoard the discontinued Quattro road pedals (for which the 3-hole Look adapters were originally designed). Since CB uses the same cleat for both mountain and road pedals, I normally ride the Quattro pedals on my daily rider with mountain shoes, just because they're easier for walking around. I've got a set of road shoes with adapter-ized cleats, but they don't get a lot of use; like other bulky road cleats (Look, Time, SPD-SL), I wouldn't want to duck-walk around in them, for fear of slipping and breaking my butt-bone.

From the Amazon photo, the Wellgo adapters look to be metal, but they don't say. Wellgo is a Taiwanese OEM company, and their English site has no information about the RC8 at all, aside from the image. Obviously, if they're metal, they'll last longer; but who knows?

If what you need is a 3-hole shoe-to-2-hole cleat adapter without the cleat, Sidi has one:

http://www.excelsports.com/main.asp?page=8&description=SPD+Adapter+Plate&vendorCode=SIDI&major=5&minor=7

I don't think this is really a "which adapter is better?" question; I think this is really a "which cleated pedal system is better?" question. That's a very individual question, which is hard to answer except by direct experiment. My own first attempt with cleated pedals was with the double-sided platform+SPD system that (if memory recalls) was from Wellgo; they were cheapies from Nashbar about seven years back. I could never get used to them; I never mastered the technique of cleating in and out. I'd think I was cleated in and then my leg would fly out; I'd think I was cleated out, and I'd fall down with the bike on top of me.

Crank Brothers were comparatively easy for me; cleating in and out was a breeze. I now ride CB (older Candys and discontinued Quattros) on all my cleated bikes. I like the little bit of float they give me; I like the adjustable disconnect angle; I like the fact that I can use the same cleats on both road and mountain pedals. But that's just my own preference; YMMV.

My recommendation for anyone who wants to try cleated shoes/pedals, either for the first time or on a daily around-town bike, is to try SPD mountain shoes/pedals first. Since they're Shimano, they're more widespread than other systems; accordingly, they're widely copied (hello Wellgo and Ritchey!) and cheaper. If SPDs don't work for you, figure out why they don't work, and try another system that sounds like it addresses your problem.

[Patrick Moore]

I didn't look closely enough to see that the CB's adaptor is for CB's cleats. (Perhaps that should be "CBs'.")

If the Wellgos don't accept standard Shimano cleats, forget them.

Has anyone used the Sidis? Do they raise the shoe hugely?

I have a pair of Sidi road shoes that are comfortable, and I'd like to adapt them to the new Ritchey road SPD pedals.

As for SPDs, Wellgo, Onza, Ritchey, etc: my own experience is that Shimano cleat/pedal combination insert and extract better.

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[Patrick Moore]

Wait a minute: the Wellgo special spd cleats look much like the Shimano SH 71 cleats. Yes? No?

On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 2:03 PM, Peter Adler <divis...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[tarik saleh]

Patrick,

they look like them for sure. I would say almost all  current (last 5 years) welgo spd clone pedals  take shimano cleats no problem. I would say most modern shimano pedals usually take modern welgo spd clone  cleats. The ones that don't fit the most category are the ones to watch out for.  The usual failure mode is you can't get out of the pedal with the welgo cleat in the shimano pedal  This is not nearly the issue that it used to be, but I have not tried all combinations.

personally I would not run Welgo cleats in shimano pedals based on some crappy interfaces in the last 10 years.  I run shimano cleats in my welgo wamd10 bmx/spd pedals with zero problems for the last decade.  But try it carefully and repeatedly before you mix and match.

Have fun

Tarik

Tarik Saleh
tas at tariksaleh dot com
in los alamos, NM, USA, po box 208, 87544
http://tariksaleh.com
all sorts of bikes blog: http://tsaleh.blogspot.com

[Patrick Moore]

Good tip about Wellgo cleats in Shimano pedals. I'll have to check more closely about the SH 71s.

[Peter Adler]

What, you mean these?

I'm not seeing the resemblance. 

The SH71 item number is the cleats + the pontoon mounts, an SPD oddity I've never quite understood. I haven't seen them advertised for a few years; my vague understanding was that the pontoons were supposed to make your mountain shoes fit on road pedals, or maybe it was the other way around. I never quite got it, because Shimano's SPD mountain cleating system and SPD-SL road cleating system are completely incompatible with each other - they share nothing in common except the manufacturer and the letters "SPD".

Shimano's numbers for SPD cleats alone without weirdo mounting widgets are SM-SH56 and SM-SH52.

Shimano Cleat Set SM-SH56 Athletic Sports Equipment - Neutral

Shimano SM-SH52 SPD Cleat Sets

It turns out that Shimano makes its own 2-bolt cleat to 3-bolt shoe adapter: the SM-SH40. From the looks of this adapter, I can sort of see the logic of the pontoon business in the SH71; the pontoons would press up against the sidewalls of the SH40, which might make the mouting a little more stable.

http://www.amazon.com/Shimano-SM-SH40-Adaptor-3-Bolt-2-Bolt/dp/B004QEWMXY/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0AA4F7NV3BPWKQVM4720

As I say, to my eye, the Wellgo cleat+adapter looks like it's in three pieces: The 3-bolt/2-bolt adapter, the "vertical" part of the cleat (runs toe-heel), and the "horizontal" part of the cleat (runs across the ball of the foot). I may well be wrong, but all we have to go on is the one picture on Amazon and the Wellgo site; there's no description of how the thing is assembled. I must say, though: If the adapter and the cleat are one piece each, there's an *awful lot of screws* in that photo. What are they all supposed to do?

I'm with Tarik. If you're going to buy SPD cleats, just buy Shimano and save yourself a headache. Every SPD pedal is going to have to work with SPD cleats, or they'll never sell any. As far as adapters to mount the SPDs to your road shoes, well...

Peter Adler

Berkeley, CA/USA

[Patrick Moore]

I asked the question about the Wellgo ones, but the cleats looked like the SH71s.

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[Patrick Moore]

Thanks for the Shimano adaptor link; that's what I want. I have a mess of the pontoons + SH 71s (or, at least, the cleats that work with the pontoons), and I'm not satisfied with the setup. The Wellgo setup looked less makeshift, and the Shimano adaptor looks even better.

My last question, regarding the Wellgo and the SH 71 cleat, was, basically, can I use the latter with the former? -- I myself like Shimano pedals and cleats better than any clones.

FWIW, Shimano did make road pedals in the SPD design; I own 2 Dura Ace SPDs and I've seen Ultegras and 105s. I also own a pair of very nice Ritchey SPD road pedals.

The DA SPDs are ultra cool (if you are into cool; I try but generally miss the target) because (1) they are very nice pedals in their own right; (2) they are silver and pretty; and (3) they provide the owner with the smug satisfaction of knowing something arcane that many cyclists don't know, as with Dura Ace centerpulls.

As for road shoes to SPD: I like my Look-type Sidis and would like to use them with (road) spds.

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