I honestly don’t see how you can get 6 months out of them before the bearing play shows up. Are you riding the pre-wahoo versions?
Mine are pre Wahoo merger. Is it a well known issue, ie, that Wahoo and Speedplay products have suffered quality since that time. If so, does it impact both product lines?
My experience with bearings was an eye opener, somewhat. We had a gen-1 Peloton, and I rode the hell out of it. I wore the hub bearings out which I thought was surprising. Shouldn’t they last forever? They get very little exposure to sweat and dust, so why did they die?
Peloton was great and setup a replacement visit (for when they had home visits for repairs) and they swapped the hub, and at my urging, left the old one. I removed the bearings (3 sets) and went to the ‘bearing store’ and got interesting news. The bearings their OEM used were really crappy grade bearings that weren’t really recommended for that use, so I replaced them with higher grade ones. So easy to do, and not that expensive. The replacement worked until we ‘free stuffed’ it at the end of the driveway. Saving a few pennies (at volume prices) meant that people that actually used their bikes would eventually end up having it fail and need a replacement, hopefully under some kind of warranty.
To save PENNIES per bike, their OEM used crap bearings.
When I rebuilt the pair of Speedplays that I rotten out the bearings, I used higher grade bearings too, even the needle bearings. I get that designing products to last is sort of self defeating, but deliberately using crap parts really sucks for us purchasers/users.
I’m not saying manufacturers should use top grade bearings in everything, but good grief, choose some that will last for the possible life of the whole product. Dealing with Peloton, and waiting for ‘the call’ and setting up the day, and waiting for them to arrive was kind of excruciating, and then having to lone them tools to get the swap done was embarrassing. Planned obsolescence is cheating purchasers!
On a side note, there were approximately three different hubs that were used in gen-1 bikes and one of them used a really small bearing size that wore out really quickly, that coming from the repair people. They expected ours to be that small bearing hub and were surprised when they arrived. ‘Well, we actually use the bike’ was my answer. We got a near identical hub, which I thought of removing and upgrading the bearings.
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My knees love my speedplays. I wouldn’t lose dual sided clipping in for a purported ‘aero’ advantage.
I have old ones (pre-wahoo) on my trainer bike, and new ones on my road bike. I’ve had lateral play in the wahoo ones starting about 9 months in to using them. I wrote Wahoo, and they asked for a video. On review, they told me they’d replace them. Great! The catch? I have to send them video of me destroying them in a vice before they’ll ship the new ones. 
I didn’t want to be short a set of pedals for the indefinite future, so I still haven’t done it. Going on ~2 years, it hasn’t gotten any worse. Some day when I can do without the trainer bike for a while, I’ll see if Wahoo is still willing to replace them.
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its a long article so just scroll to the bottom for “about the elephant”
Mine are currently out of warranty so I purchased another set 2 days ago. I don’t believe they ever addressed the cause.
I was one of the first people to buy a Peloton, and the entire OG crew replaced ours. They ALL developed that grinding glass sound and feel. For many of us, they also replaced either the monitor or the entire bike under warranty too. It had to be an ENORMOUS expense for them.
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Yep, we had the tablet replaced too after finding out that the U-Verse we had played holy hell with the original one. It took me WEEKS to get Peloton to agree to replace it which was ridiculous and disturbing, but the new (refurbished) console tablet worked like magic. The rust was an issue too as things started looking a little shabby. I hope it’s still out there somewhere being ridden like it’s stolen! I really kind of miss the Peloton Experience.
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I love the idea of a peloton being ridden like it’s stolen!
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Jonas Vingegaard was using the aero speed plays at the TdF last year. Seems they work well enough for him, but who knows how well they hold up or if it takes a team mechanic to keep them working well.
I thought about trying them myself, but I also realize that I’d need a crank based PM for both bikes plus two sets of pedals and two sets of cleats. $2000+ cash outlay to save 3 watts seems pretty silly for a masters racer.
yeah totally makes no sense unless they somehow help your fit tremendously.
as it is, I will be currently pedal-less come spring time and I already have a built in power meter. and I only have 1 pair of warm weather bike shoes so will only need 1 cleat pair. so price is ~ the same as a duraace pedal in my case.
I have 2 bolt pedals on my bike now - as my warm winter shoes are 2 bolt.
we’ll see…I might give speedplay a shot in spring time though. fussing with pedal maintenance is leaning me away from dealing with it. I am considering a bike fit update in spring / summer so if I do I’ll ask them to help me choose and install it.
if I do I will def go for the 2 sided though - as I start and stop in traffic much more than going 35km/h. so clipping in faster will prob save me more time - and obv much more convenient.
Installing new cleats was a big PIA.
Because Look pedals are better?