Review of 1994 model Shimano Ultegra PD-6402 Road Pedals

[wongaga]

Yes folks it's tongue in cheek, but with a serious for Shimano quality.

I bought these fellas in about 1994 and can only guess the km they've done for me, but it would be somewhere around 50,000km of fitness, racing, commuting and Audax riding. I never got around to replacing them because, well, even though they look like poo now, they continue to work perfectly.

The only thing that's broken is the plastic bit on the rear knob that selected fixed or floating mode, which fell off. It didn't matter as I only ever used floating cleats. I reckon I've stripped and greased them maybe 4 or 5 times, reusing the original ball bearings, and the rotation is still completely smooth.

I've retired them now only because it suits me to use SPD pedals on both my road and hybrid bikes, but I feel a little sad. Maybe I'll frame them and put them up in the pool room.

Gotta love really well-made stuff.

Cheers, Graeme

[Tim]

I can't complain about Shimano pedals.
I fitted a pair of 105 SPD-SL pedals to a new Cannondale CAAD9 bike in 2010.
I still ride it and it's done just over 56,000km's.
I have done zero maintenance to the pedals apart from a few drops of oil on the moving part of the plastic pedal latch maybe five times since I've owned them.
There's a tiny amount of side to side slop in the bearings but they've been like that for as long as I can remember.

[Mr Purple]

I had a 105 spec pedal (2008) break in half once. But otherwise they've been stone cold reliable.

Even better are the mountain bike equivalent. The PD-M520 costs $45 and will pretty much outlast the nuclear holocaust.

https://www.cyclingtips.com/2020/07/an- ... ble-pedal/

[P!N20]

I use those el cheapo PD-R540 pedals on three of my bikes and I've never had any issues.

Well, I've had cleats break, but that's not the pedals.

[Mr Purple]

I use those el cheapo PD-R540 pedals on three of my bikes and I've never had any issues.

Well, I've had cleats break, but that's not the pedals.

What gets me is that the cleats cost $20. The pedals cost $43 and come with free cleats.

How do they even do that? They've almost done themselves out of business as well by just how indestructible they are.

[Duck!]

6400-series (600, Later to become Ultegra) will be the long-discontinued SPD-R pedals & cleats. From a mucketing perspective the major flaw is the long, narrow cleats lacking lateral stability, which then led to the re-adoption of Look-style broad triangular cleats in the form of SPD-SL. Mechanically, at that time Shimano were approaching their peak balance of durability and serviceability. Keep them rolling as long as you can!