- What is the most important innovation in road cycling?
Well, there have been a few, but without doubt,
one of the most important innovations
is the clipless pedal.
They're widely used now, but this wasn't always the case.
It wasn't until 1985 when Bernard Hinault
won the Tour de France using clipless pedals
that the world actually started to take notice.
And he did so using a pair of the now legendary
LOOK Pedal Automatic.
So we've decided to come and make a video
about the development of clipless pedals
and to see how they're made today.
And to do so, we thought who better
to team up with, than the clipless pedal pioneers, LOOK.
LOOK has a really impressive history and heritage
in clipless pedals.
The interesting thing here, is that LOOK's history
prior to this was actually in something else.
Ski-bindings.
And the company was looking for another revenue stream
for when, well, it wasn't winter.
And so it turned to cycling
and since then, LOOK has continued to develop
and innovate clipless pedal technology
and well, hasn't looked back since.
So, no pun intended on the repeated use of look.
The next key design was this,
the LOOK Carbo Pro which has an aluminum body
which made it really good in terms of durability
and longevity.
But it was quite weighty,
so LOOK wanted to make lighter pedals if possible
'cause cyclists are always obsessed with the weight
of their parts.
So then, they made this, the CX7
which came out in 1993
and this was a really cool pedal
'cause it actually featured a carbon fiber body
and was the first pedal to do so.
And it was really adjustable as well,
you could actually adjust the q factor,
and also the tilt on this pedal as well
which is really interesting.
But, it wasn't a huge commercial success for LOOK,
'cause it was really expensive to produce.
They then brought out this, the LOOK Keo
and that used the smaller Keo cleat,
rather than the bigger delta cleat
that was found on the older pedals.
This also had a carbon fiber body
and it's really really light.
Then technology continued to improve
all the way to the current day
and they eventually moved away from springs
and brought out this, the LOOK Keo Blade
and the first one you can see
it's got the carbon leaf spring sort of on there
instead of the metal spring in the back of the cleat.
This particular one also has a titanium axle
to make it even lighter and it's really light.
And then that takes us all the way up to the present day
the current current LOOK Keo Blade Carbon
and now you can see that the blade is actually bigger
and fills the back of the pedal,
because this makes the pedal more aerodynamic
and it's better for the airflow coming underneath.
And in case you're wondering
what the difference in weight is between this
and this.
Well this weighs about 90 grams, and this weighs
well, well over 200 grams.
So, yeah, quite a big difference.
Clipless pedals might seem like quite a simple object,
but there's actually a really impressive amount
of engineering that goes into them.
So, here I have all the individual components
that make up the LOOK Keo Carbon Blade Titanium
which is LOOK's most advanced pedal
that they currently make.
So first up we have this,
which is the main body of the pedal
and it's an injection molded carbon composite body.
And then it has a steel alloy baseplate on there as well
that's fixed in place.
You've got the back of the pedal,
which is the bit that holds your cleat in place
and that's secured by this sort of axle if you will.
And then there's the spring
which is the Keo Carbon Blade that gives the pedal its name.
And they have different numbers on,
corresponding to the strength of that blade
and it gives a different spring tension
depending on the number that's on there,
so the higher the number, the more the tension
and you can swap them out.
Then there's the other bits as well,
so we've got some various washers,
we've got the bearing, and then we've got the axle
which, on the lightest pedal LOOK does, the Titanium,
is a titanium axle.
It really is light.
And then that just slots in place here.
But to see how this all fits together
we're gonna have a look behind me now
'cause there's a load of really cool machines
that, like, slot all the bits together,
so let's go have a look.
(gentle jazz music)
The first step is the injection molding
of the main pedal body which I've got here.
And then the next step
is to get the LOOK logos and little decals on there.
And the way they do that is in this printing room.
So they start like this,
with nothing on them
and then using this machine,
they can print LOOK logos on them really fast
and all the other little logos as well.
If you look on these two trays, this is cool.
That tray is yellow, and that tray is blue,
and that's a really simple way
that LOOK separates the left and right pedals,
so the left pedal's are all blue,
and the right pedals are all yellow.
That's how they keep everything separate
throughout the entire production process
throughout the entire factory.
Pretty simple, but cool.
(gentle jazz music)
The next component that goes in the pedal
is that all important blade spring.
Now this is one of the few components
that's not made in France,
it's actually made in Tunisia in LOOK's factory over there
so I think we should teleport over to Tunisia
and see it being made, now.
Oh, that was quick.
So, the raw carbon arrives here in Tunisia,
in the form of massive rolls
and it's pre-impregnated with an uncured resin.
Now what happens is, is the rolls are then cut
into sections,
and then multiple layers are combined together
and pressed together in a big press,
to make these thicker laminate sections like we have here.
These laminate sections are then rolled by hand
in this room here
to give it that predefined cross section shape
of the final blade spring.
The shaped laminate section is then placed
in this heated press for seven minutes
at 150 degrees.
And after that, it's then placed in another oven
where it cures the resin further.
And the result is this stiff-shaped plate
I've got here.
But this is still far removed from the finished article
we see in the blade pedal.
So this is now shipped back to Nevers in France
so that it can be finally transformed into the spring.
So, these are the pieces, well the blades
that come as they do from Tunisia,
and then this long sheet here
is cut unto 12 individual blades
that fit into a pedal.
Then it's polished
so that it has a nice finish on it
and the transfer is applied to it as well
that says the Keo Blade and the,
also the number referring to the stiffness of each one.
Cool.
(gentle jazz music)
We're now in the main room where LOOK assembles its pedals
and there's two lines
so here you have the spring zone
which is for LOOK's Keo pedals with a spring actuation
at the back, and then just over here
you've got the blade zone
which is for LOOK's Keo Carbon Blades
that have the blade spring system in there.
And you can see, there's two,
well, the assembly line is split into two halves
we have that continuation of yellow on the right
and blue on the left to keep the pedals separate
so left hand pedals on this side,
right hand pedals on this side
all the way to the end down there
where they package the pedals
and that's the only point which they come together.
The first step of the assembly is to take the body,
the blade, this back part here
and then this rod and this machine pushes it all together
and slots it into place.
Much better than my hands are trying to do it right now.
Mid-way through the assembly of each Keo Blade Carbon
is a quality control test
where they put it in this machine here
which sort of pushes it forwards and backwards 60 times
to stress test it.
And if it's not of the standard
it will fail and break during this test.
After the stress test, the next step
is the axle assembly within the pedal
and that's done using this machine here,
which sort of presses everything into place.
It's really quick and impressive.
The axle is pressed into place, the bearing goes in as well
and then an end cap that seals it all up
is also pressed on at the end as well.
Which you can see here.
So there's one without the axle in place
and you see the end cap there.
Cool, huh?
The last manufacturing process is putting the pedal spindle
through inside the pedal and there's an end cap as well.
And that's actually glued in place and then lock tighted on.
And then it predetermines with a predetermined torque
screws on the end cap on really fast.
It's like a formula one pit lane gun,
it's really cool.
We're almost at the end of the production line.
But, we've reached a hurdle which needs to be overcome
by every set of pedals that LOOK makes
and that is quality control
which is something that LOOK absolutely prides itself on.
So in this box, are pedals
which haven't passed quality control
for different reasons.
And they're all assessed
and they're given a different color coded sticker
depending on what's wrong with them.
So what LOOK will do is take this away,
it'll recycle all the parts that aren't faulty
and put them back into the production line
and the ones that are, well
they'll just get rid of them.
But in order to make sure
that LOOK's products pass quality control,
they have a really cool room
which I think I should go and show you now.
So jet lift power right.
This is the first test
and this machine cleverly simulates a cleat
going into a pedal, unclipping,
and clipping back in again.
And what they do to test the pedals
is they make this work for 24 hours
and that simulates three years of intensive pedal use.
All in 24 hours.
Amazing.
We've managed to lose some of the noise
because the LOOK mechanics have gone for their lunch break.
I'm sure the screaming pedals will be delighted.
So onto the next test
which is to test the bearings and the axle of the pedals.
So the pedal is placed in this machine here.
It then has a load of 90KG pulling down on it
and then it goes through 2 million cycles
and that's placed also at an offset
within a cam of 5MM
so it puts more stress on the spindle
and the bearing, rather than just spinning it
round on it's center axis.
They also do an offset of five degrees,
so the pedal's actually wonky as it spins round
in the cycles as well.
And to do 2 million cycles in both of these tests,
it takes two weeks to do 2 million cycles.
That's amazing, and a huge amount of stress on the pedal.
It's in there, screaming, for two weeks.
It doesn't end there though.
These pedals really do get a tough time at LOOK.
This machine is actually testing the bearings
and the spindle of the pedal and even more.
And again, they have to be able to survive this
in order to pass LOOK's test and go into production.
Now that we've been satisfied that quality control
has been taken care of
we can head back to the packaging zone.
I'd like to say that no pedals were harmed
in the making of this video but that'd be a lie.
We're now at the end of the line
which is packaging of the final completed pedals
that have also passed quality control.
So we've got all these boxes here.
These empty boxes, well the packaging's designed
by LOOK and it's made in Nevers as well in France
and just driven down the road.
The completed pedals are put in there
and they are put in their finished complete boxes
which I think you'll agree, wraps things up nicely.
So, I hope you've enjoyed this video
and found it useful.
And if you'd like to watch another video,
then why not check out our LOOK factory tour
where we go to visit LOOK's bike frame factory
in Tunisia and see how carbon frames are actually made.
It's really cool.