Speedplay Overhaulin'

One of the speedplay pedals on my old TT bike has really been feeling junky recently. Spins very freely (which is actually not good-sign that it needs lubing) and very loose. Well, I found out why tonight, when I finally sat down with all the necessary tools, including a head lamp.

It actually didn't take too long to take the pedal completely apart, trickiest part was getting the snap pliers to work well- I bought a pretty flimsy pair. Speedplay's instructions are actually pretty.... pretty..... pretty... pretty clear. I was confused once I got everything apart, though- I was missing a whole cartridge bearing somewhere.There are two cartridge bearings inside the pedal body of speedplay Zero pedals- and I only removed one. The other was completely destroyed. The outer race was so fangled and broken apart that I didn't even realize it was a race.

yup, that's what a bearing bracket looks like after you beat it to shit. The other matching piece that would have held the balls secure was ripped to shreds. Check out how small the ball bearings are.

The bearings themselves are TINY! most of them fell out without me even realizing it- it is likely most were already gone anyway. The inner race was the real bitch though, it was stuck to the spindle of the pedal itself. I took the other pedal, which is pretty healthy, apart to prove to myself that the thing stuck on the spindle was indeed the inner race. Once I knew it was junked anyway, I set out to tear it off with some pliers. Still took some work, but it came off. Now I just need to find someplace to buy some new Speedplay bearings...

The spindle once I had gotten the inner race removed