I've got to be honest. I've never used a pair of Look pedals. And now, all of a sudden, I have 2 pairs of earlier (?) PP65 and 1 pair of another type.
Already at young(er) age I was a lover of classic components and a late adept.
Around 1984, when Look introduced their clipless bike pedals, I though it was a gimmick and an unnecessary, funny item. They looked bulky too. I had no urge to try a pair. How wrong I was. These pedals caused a real revolution in bicycle development. Look was certainly not the first company that made clipless pedals, but technically it was okay and marketing wise, they made a brilliant move. First, Bernard Hinault and later, Greg Lemond used and promoted Look clipless pedals and due to their enormous successes in the Tour de France and other races, it became a commercial hit.
When I joined Shimano in 1990, I got my 1st pair of "Look patent" pedals, a set of Shimano 105 pedals PD-1056, assembled by Look in Nevers, France. These pedals were better than the SGR and Systeme 3 pedals I had tried and rejected before.
The Look pedals were the 1st commercially successful pedals and racers performed well with them. As mentioned earlier, they looked bulky and from what I heard from other riders, there were some quality issues, too (noise, wear, bearing quality, cleat quality), but overall, it turned out to be a pedals system that was going to stay for a long, long time.
These early Look PP65 pedals have an adjustable preload (just a few turns). The bearings are kept in place by the dust caps. Needle bearing on the inside and (industrial) ball bearing at the outside.
NOTE: I hope the type indication is correct, because I see some strange things on The Web. Please let me know if you think that this is right or wrong. Thanks a lot.
Arty not farty
3 days ago
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