Cheap vs higher end pedals for dedicated trainer bike

I need some SPD-SL pedals for my dedicated trainer bike on my Kickr. I’ve been using my Assiomas over the winter but they’ll be back on my road bike if it ever warms up here :cold_face:

Sure, there are really cheap knock offs on Amazon for $30ish. I’ve seen Shimano PD-R550 SPD-SL pedals as low as ~$60 and it goes up from there. Is there any benefit for shelling out for higher end pedals? Maybe the bearings are better or sealed better against sweat/humidity in my basement?

On my wife’s trainer bike I have some knock off ali express SPD pedals and on my trainer bike I have the cheapest look pedals you can buy. They work great. Usually the difference in pedals is weight and obviously that’s not an issue with trainer bikes.

:slight_smile:

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Forget about knock-offs, you cannot see machining tolerances or the quality of the bearings they use. Get Shimano 105 pedals and be done with it. All the Shimano pedals I have owned have never needed a bearing service. They just work.

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I found Shimano PD-RS500 for $40 but 105 pedals look to be at least $100 (can do some more searching). I’d think cheap Shimano would be better than Ali Express knocknoffs…think it’s worth paying more for the 105 level pedal vs something like the PD-500?

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I’ve had knock off SPDs on my KICKR bike for 2+ years with no issues whatsoever.

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IIRC, the RS500 have steel spindles and 105’s have stainless steel. There is an increased chance of rust on the spindles for the RS500’s.

Now, it will take years of abuse and lack of care to reach the point where it is safety issue, but just thought I would mention it,

FWIW, I have an old pair of Speedplay X1’s on my trainer bike with regular steel spindles…they have been dedciated trainer pedlas for many years. Yes, there is a bit of rust on them, but they are still chugging hard and they have many years of life ahead.

I tend to favor the cheaper stuff for my dedicated trainer equipment…with the exception of a saddle. Not that I am using a carbon rail or anything, but I’ll get a decent saddle that I know is comfortable vs. some cheap OEM saddle.

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I’ve got a $300 Specialized saddle on my $300 trainer bike so I hear you! :rofl:

I’ll probably go with the RS500’s for $40 (includes cleats). My local bike shop sells the yellow cleats alone for $30 so guess I can’t go wrong.

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Used set off of Pinkbike?

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I’ve found some great deals here and shipping to the US has been just as fast as some more local sites. I got some killer deals on GP5000’s and some other stuff like Shimano chains/rotors.

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Used 105 or ultegra or dura-ace off eBay.

In fact, a quick eBay search found these New Old Stock ultegras. . I’d buy these. Metal body, so they’l last forever, and I don’t think you really need carbon pedal bodies indoors on the trainer. But if you do, there’s used R8000 ones for decent.

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I’d spend the little extra and get Shimano branded pedals. I had some knock offs on my trainer and they ate two sets of the yellow SPD-SL cleats in the exact same spot. Buying new $30 cleats earlier negates the cost savings.

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I vote for a cheap set on for the trainer. I previously used a nice lightweight set of Shimano Ultegra pedals. Just something I had from my road bike. Over time sweat from extended trainer sessions corroded the retention springs in pedals so much that they never clipped in the same again even after trying to clean / lube them. Kind of gross I admit. Even with two Lasko fans I avoid using anything nice on my trainer, which is now attached to my retired Trek 2300.

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I’ve had 550’s on my trainer bike since May of 2020, never given them a second thought and still going strong.

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I’ve gone from Ultegra to the light action SPD-SL pedals and almost anything in between, and never really noticed a difference, except the price I paid for them. The Ultegra pedals were hand me downs from my road bike so they were depreciated but still were pretty expensive to begin with. If you’re on a trainer and sweat a lot, like me, and have ruined a pair of Speedplay pedals due to it: go low end. Save money. Get better shields potentially for the bearings. In the closed environment of a trainer, pedal drag seems to be pretty meaningless to me. Heck, even using power pedals continuously seems excessive and risky due to sweat/salt. I’d hate to kill a pair of Ultegra or Dura Ace pedals on my trainer.

Shimano killed the light action pedals (PDR-540) I put on the wife’s Peloton. :person_shrugging:

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I opted for Shimano PD-R550 pedals (SPD-SL) when I reduced to 160mm crank arms (ran M540 MTB pedals with heavy ME-702 shoes on my road bike 170mm not knowing better).

The main reason is they have both the Hex bolt and spanner wrench capabilities as the M540’s were seized on (used wrong grease and torqued to 54 Nm per SRAM instructions :person_facepalming: ). I rounded the hex-only bolts trying to get them free (got one but the other is still attached to the Force D2 arm). Hand tight only now with anti-seize paste.

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