[Jeff in CO]

I went to Fruita and Moab last weekend and on the 3rd day, one side of my pedal spring came off. Kinda strange, but I assumed I must of hit it pretty hard on a rock. The next day, the other pedal lost it's spring.....(fortunately it was one pedal on each side so I could still ride). Basically, the spring fell off of the resting pad. It can be fixed, I'm sure, but am curious if anyone else has had these problems with the new pedals. Thanks!

Oh, the spec said the pedals are m515's but for some reason I think they are m520's. In any case, they broke.

 

[Axe]

Oh, the spec said the pedals are m515's but for some reason I think they are m520's.

You can look right here, on MTBR, for the picture.

There were reports on 969 loosing spring, when set on loose release force. Mine 969 and 540 work just fine...

 

[neveride]

Happened to mine

On the first ride, at a place with no rocks at all, and I know it didnt' hit anything. I did have the spring tension really loose. Did the ride with the one side, fixed the pedal when I got home (not as bad as I thought), tightened up tension all around, and haven't had a problem since.

I only use these on my retro bike, which has Topline cranks, and they aren't drilled through, so I can't use my 959's on them which only mount with an hex wrench (which is my one complaint about the 959's). But I've don'e 15 decent rides with them since, and no problems.

 

[Pelon]

Rode the dog puckey

out of my 520's and smaked them on a few rocks to with no problems

 

[Trevor!]

Never heard of that happening with Shimano pedals. Perhaps the pedals got through QC when they should have hit the reject bin.

 

[richeyr]

I have a pair of Shimano M-540 pedals that came stock on my 2004 Hollowpoint expert I am trying to get rid of. IF you are interested I will part with them for $25 and I will pay for the shipping. PM me if you are interested.

 

[Jeff in CO]

Thanks for the offer.....check your PM's.

 

[Jeff in CO]

After reading some of the reviews on the pedals, it does look like others have had the same problem. Now that I think of it, the first pedal failed while climbing Porchupine Ridge (the 1st 4 miles up). It could be possible that it broke without even hitting anything.......(seeing that I was climing and all.)
The next day, I'm sure I was cruisin' down the hill pretty fast. I guess it just makes it more interesting when I only have 50% of a pedal on each side!

 

[Hecubus]

Shimano pedals used to come with a warning saying not to fully loosen the tension screw or the spring would basically fall off. I'm not sure if they did something to prevent that but in the old models if you released the tension all the way and kept going the tension screw would basically just unthread right off the spring. You need to make sure there is always some thread engagement left. I suspect this is the possible cause for the spring just falling off.

 

[LiquidRider]

Jeff, don't know what kind of ride you're talking about but my wife had the same deal with her Stumpy FSR 04, spec'd for 515's and she got 520's. The 520's are much better than the 515's anyway. No problems with ours though.

Richeyr, hey if Jeff passes on those 540's let me know!

 

[ArmySlowRdr]

yup..

yeah, I agree that's likely the case. My first clipless 10 years ago were Wellgo's; I set the tension very loose and on the very first ride one of the pedals came "undone".

then being an overzealous WO1 back in the day I thought I'd have the knowledge to take the pedals off myself and replace with another set--I promptly proceeded to loose my cool and in frustration put a nice big ding in the top tube w/ the pedal wrench. Ouch.
So goes the story of why the Scott Comp is still not in the stable--

--and why newbies should ALWAYS almost seek help when attempting the most minor adjustments. IMO anyway.

Shimano pedals used to come with a warning saying not to fully loosen the tension screw or the spring would basically fall off. I'm not sure if they did something to prevent that but in the old models if you released the tension all the way and kept going the tension screw would basically just unthread right off the spring. You need to make sure there is always some thread engagement left. I suspect this is the possible cause for the spring just falling off.

 

[Jeff in CO]

Same bike...

Jeff, don't know what kind of ride you're talking about but my wife had the same deal with her Stumpy FSR 04, spec'd for 515's and she got 520's. The 520's are much better than the 515's anyway. No problems with ours though.

Richeyr, hey if Jeff passes on those 540's let me know!

My bike is the 04' Specialized Stumpy FSR Elite Disc. Suppose to come with 515's and were actually 520's.

 

[avsb514]

another ? about the 520's

I have read most of the reviews for the 520's before I picked mine up. I must say they are pretty nice pedals.

The thing that I'm concerned about is that when I first set them up, I had the tension screw almost all the way out, near the very edge of the screw itself. I had the hard time getting in and out. So I tightened the screws all the way down to the point where they would not go any further in. This made clipping in and out extremely easy. From what I've read, it always sounded like it should be the opposite, all the way down=tighter, all the way out=looser. Did Shimano change the mechanics of this or was I just wrong from the start??

 

[LiquidRider]

My bike is the 04' Specialized Stumpy FSR Elite Disc. Suppose to come with 515's and were actually 520's.

I thought it might be a Specialized thing. Her's is the Elite Disc Women's. I think maybe the 515's were discontinued or something and they started using the next ones in the bin...

 

[Mr.P]

The thing that I'm concerned about is that when I first set them up, I had the tension screw almost all the way out, near the very edge of the screw itself. I had the hard time getting in and out. So I tightened the screws all the way down to the point where they would not go any further in. This made clipping in and out extremely easy. From what I've read, it always sounded like it should be the opposite, all the way down=tighter, all the way out=looser. Did Shimano change the mechanics of this or was I just wrong from the start??

I will have to try that out, thanks. 540's are pretty tight when adjusted all the way to the "-" symbol. Maybe it's time to try adjusting to the "+" symbol, because we all know that + is better

Mr. P