Time RXS Pedals

Hey All,

I have been riding a pair of Time RXS pedals. The ones I have (or had he said in foreshadowing manner) are the entry level pedals in the RXS line. I got them for one basic reason, they were

the cheapest thing I could get my hands on and they were relatively light. I was building up my road bike at the time and wanted a 3 bolt "Look" style cleat that wasn't a Shimano or a Look. These guys don't really need any help selling their product and it's what most people have. I like to be a little different, that's why this is "as close to a regular guys opinion" as I can give. Here is a picture I sourced from Amazon.com, which looks like they took from QBP.

The pedals quickly got recalled as the cap at the spindle, with the RXS logo in the picture, would come lose and the pedal would fall off the spindle. Really the kind of thing that would only be an issue for a New Fred, not the thing a mechanic would miss. You SHOULD notice anytime something clicks, thunks, creaks or wiggles and take care of it immediately. Parts don't just fall off. JRA is usually your falt. Once I had the pedals back they worked pretty well. Also Time was super good and fast about getting them repaired and sent back to me.

The biggest issue I had with the pedals for the first year of ownership was that they were a bit stiff at spindle and maybe too light. As the back of the pedal didn't always hang down. This was worse after getting them back from the recall and never got much better. They may have been just a skoash tighter due to concerns about the recall. Not a huge deal except that you could hook the front of the cleat into the back of the bottom of the pedal (this would be opposite the top front where you should clip in). So it felt like you were about to lock in but never could. When you would look at the pedal it was upside down. Bummer. But for the first year of use this was my only complaint. The cleats were easy enough to walk in, but wore out. Like all cleats they wear out. Mine lasted about a year. I walk a lot in my cleats and the fracture in the cleat was due to walking not riding. They were easy enough to find at several local shops, always a plus. They were a bit expensive but I bought in kind of a rush. Online they are more reasonably priced. I had little or no trouble setting up the pedal and was able to get the spindle under the ball of my foot well and adjust the Q-factor so I could keep my knees in line.

The final demise of the pedals came not that long ago about a mile from my house. I was stopped at a busy intersection in the left turn lane. When I stepped back onto the left pedal I placed the cleat slightly on top of the crank as it was in the forward most position. As I pushed down on the pedal and the crank rotated down pushing my cleat and shoe outward to where it should have been. Then, there was a snap, the sound of plastic hitting the ground and my foot quit moving. I pushed ever onward through the intersection before I was able to asses the carnage. When the crank pushed the cleat/shoe outboard, the toe of the cleat had hooked on the inside triangle of the pedal, in the wrong spot. When it shifted outward the triangle snapped off, as you can see in the image above. The broken part still lives in the intersection. (Well, maybe not as they are rebuilding that as we speak, er write, er read. Or, as I write and you eventually read.) It looks like there is a stress riser at the two points where the fracture propagated from. These stress risers, or sharp corners, are due to the parting line on the molding tool that creates the parts. Hopefully it has been, or is being, designed out as I sent images and a description to Time, that should be all they need! As of this writing I haven't heard back, weird. I have read from Zack Vestal, over at Velonews.com in this article, that this is a noted problem on the RXS line of pedals.

I got about 2.5 years of life out of the pedals. All in all I would recommend the pedals. They rode nicely and were easy to set up and pretty cheap. They felt very stiff for the price and were pretty light. I liked the nice wide platform coming from Speedplays the tensioned float is a nice change. If you like a positive feel to a moving heal, totally personal preference. Honestly, I worry more about things working and being comfortable than the weight, that can easily be looked up by you. And, if you get a set I've got a great set of back up cleats you can have!