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Bicycle tech geeks of the 90’s may remember Bebop pedals, now back on the market under new ownership after a few year hiatus sorting out some legalese. Clipless pedal design has followed two basic paths – one with the binding mechanism in the pedal, another with the binding mechanism in the cleat. Bebop follows the latter school of thought, with a simple two sided pedal and a cleat that has an opposing pair of teeth that engage with the underside of the forged chromoly pedal body rings. For the roughly $125 BBP-01 model which we have for review, the pair of pedals come in at 199g and the cleats at 75g putting this system squarely in the ultra-light category of pedals.
The Bebop design isn’t just to be different, on paper at least the design offers some advantages beyond simply being lightweight as opposed to other clipless systems. First and foremost is the free float inherent in the design, a full 20 degrees. “Float” is the amount of free rotation the foot can make before reaching disengaging from the pedal. People prefer various amounts of float, with common wisdom saying that a large range of free float is best for touchy knees. For those not into the single degrees of float offered by most traditional systems, the wide range of free float can be a real treat.
The cleat design also keeps the shoe nearer to the axle than most systems, with a short stack height of 11mm. This is so close in fact that many recessed shoes need some tread trimmed back around the pedal axle. This should result in a slightly lower seat height as compared to other pedals, and consequently a lower center of gravity. Basically, stuff the real bike nerds like to talk about that has some, albeit very little, effect on performance. The cleat also affords a pretty large contact area on the pedal, which may help with people that experience hot spots on their feet from other system’s smaller cleat/shoe/pedal contact patch.
The model we have received for test feature a stainless steel axle and forged chromoly rings, but possibly more importantly features real roller bearings in the pedal. Sealed ball bearing on the inside, needle bearing on the outside and nary a bushing to be seen. This should bode well for long term pedal body durability, as bushings tend to wear out and get sloppy in pedals.
The fact that the binding mechanism is housed in the cleat rather than the pedal does bring up some questions though, mainly in terms of durability. The binding mechanism appears somewhat delicate to make it manageable inside the cleat. Your cleat takes a lot of abuse clipping in and out, and especially walking around generally grinding it into the ground. Having the binding mechanism in the cleat leads to an expensive cleat to be walking around on, hopefully the stainless steel plates keep the binding “tooth” well protected. Further adding to this potential issue is that the cleat is larger than normal and looks like it may stick out from the edges of the recessed area of my mountain clipless shoes.
Back in Bebop’s first run at the market I had the chance to use them for the better part of a season and am looking forward to another run, this time mainly on the road bike. Check back for reports in the coming weeks once I get some miles in and refresh my memory of this design.
Help! Help! I’m being repressed! Oh, now we see the float inherent in the system…
…Bloody peasants!
Looking forward to the road reports. The pedals look top-notch; small, but possibly enough of a flat pedistal for short cleatless street-shoe rides to the market, as well. From the pictures, though, those cleats don’t look very stable (thin backplate, and are those rivets?).
Been riding Bebops for over 10 years, on and off road, summer and winter. I’ve not found that the cleats wear out from walking – the mechanism seems bulletproof from that point of view. What’s worn is simply the interface between the spring tab on the cleat and the mating surface on the pedal body forging – but I got probably 6000 miles on my first set before I started pulling out of the right pedal under high effort (I always unclip to the right).
The float took getting used to, but I like it now. It’s a bit like clipping in to ice at first, but once your lower legs figure out what the deal is you get much more stable.
I just got a very lightly-used pair of the new VP-One manufactured pedals; I’ll be interested to see how they compare.
I’ve been riding on Bebop pedals since ‘98-’99 and I weigh over 350lbs. I can tell you that the cleats don’t fail because of walking on ‘em, and if they were going to have problems I’d be the destructomatic that would bring the issues to light.
Definitely the best clipless pedal design out there and always has been for both road and mountain.
Shame on Speedplay for attempting to get these removed from market after they clearly copied the Bebop design for their X-Series (Speedplay threatened litigation to any reseller or shop that carried Bebop pedals. It took years but Bebop won the lawsuits. I’ll never ride on Speedplays again.)
Can they even be used with race-shoes? I have for example Shimano SH-R151 and their sole is bend, not flat. How can I mount the bebop-cleats on them?
The sole of the shoe must be SPD (2 hole) and relatively flat. I used Bebops for several years, they worked great on my Mtn bike shoes and my Sidi and Specialized road shoes, but not on a pair of Nike road shoes I had, the soles were too curved, the cleat would flex and the pedal would disengage by accident.
I have been riding bebops for the last six months. They are attached to my Bacchetta recumbent. The 20 degree of float they offer is very helpful in alleviating knee stress often realized in recumbent cycling. The only draw back I have found, is the increased sloppiness between pedal and cleat once the cleats start to wear. Possibly more noticeable in the stroke motion, (more push /pull ) of a recumbent rider as opposed to that of an upright riding stroke. At 37 plus dollars for a new pair of cleats I hoped that the life span of the originals would have been longer lasting.
Anyone know how adjust so they release easier w/o the need to twist your foot around?
I have a pair of Bebops that are ten years old. I love them. Strong, lightweight, low profile cleat, easy to get in and out of. Perfect!