For as long as fitters have been tweaking riders’ set ups, there have been multiple ways of dealing with leg length discrepancies. Most of us probably take for granted that our legs are roughly the same length, but for others it’s a big enough issue that special equipment is needed. Speedplay has long offered shims to fit under their road cleats to equalize the distance to the pedal, but the nature of mountain bike cleats made this same technique a bit more difficult. It’s one thing to have a large flat road cleat sticking out a few inches from your shoe, but a small pointy metal cleat is a different story.
Fortunately, the design of the new SYZR mountain bike pedal allows Speedplay to flip the fit and build the distance into the pedal rather than the cleat…
Speedplay’s new SYZR pedal uses a fairly radical design with the float built into the cleat which allows a more firm connection between the pedal and cleat. That not only supposedly improves energy transfer, but it creates a construction that uses two separate metal plates attached to a composite body. It’s that separation between the two halves of the pedal that allows for their new take on leg length discrepancy. Rather than shimming the cleat, the actual pedal body itself is enlarged by 1-2mm per shim which makes for a wide range of fit. Theoretically, this should make clipping in just as easy, and the range of adjustment is limited only by ground clearance. The SYZR is also available with 5 different spindle lengths to really tune in pedaling dynamics. Firm details on pricing and availability weren’t yet available, but the standard pedals sell for $165 (Chromoly), $199 (Stainless), and $389 (Titanium).
