Look Quartz Carbon Ti Pedals

Look, renowned for their road bike pedals and frames, are a relative new comer to the MTB market, and have come up with a pedal which seems to tick most of the boxes. The Look Quartz pedal is light weight, offers a large platform and claims to have excellent performance in the muddiest of conditions. We take a look at the range topping Quartz Carbon Ti.

Look offer three pedals in their MTB Quartz range, the basic Quartz at 140g (a pedal) with an injected fiberglass polymide body, the Quartz Carbon with an injected carbon body at 135g and the Quartz carbon Ti with a titanium axle bringing the weight per pedal down to a minuscule 120g. The axles run on 2 cartridge bearings and a needle bearing for smooth rotation. For the float conscious, 3 degrees of rotational float is offered in addition to lateral float of 1.5mm, which combined should offer enough knee saving movement for most.

The pedals are supplied with 2 sets of cleats of 15 and 20 degree release along with a number of shims to optimise pedal/shoe interface, allowing the shoe to sit squarely on the pedal body with no rocking. With shims as thin as 1mm, these can be adjusted as the lugs on the shoes wear to maintain a perfect fit. It’s an ergonomists dream!

The most significant feature of these pedals is both the size of their platform and their subsequent lack of weight...

The open design claims to offer excellent mud clearance properties making the pedals suitable for the worst of conditions. Look back up the mud-friendly life of their pedals with a full two year warranty.

The most significant feature of these pedals is both the size of their platform and their subsequent lack of weight. Which initially brings into question their durability and stiffness. Despite their light weight, the pedals do feel stiff with no give in them when putting the hammer down. The large platform area is immediately apparent and feels more comfortable under foot than some of the more minimalist designs. This increased support helps to reduce any hot spots on the balls of the foot even with when riding with a softer soled shoe. One comment commonly associated with larger pedals is the problem of striking the pedals more often out on the trail, but we’ve not experienced this in practice thus far.

Installing the cleats with the appropriate shims is straight forward, the supplied cleat bolts being long enough for the highest shim combination. There’s a very useful online shim guide for specific shoes which has given an accurate fit for the two shoe brands tried so far.

the foot feels more than securely held, seemingly with the right amount of tension...

The pedal’s spring mechanism is minimal, but well thought out. Locating and engaging the cleat is quick and easy, with more of a subtle ‘clunk’ than an overt ‘click’, with minimal effort required to clip in. The pedals do lack the ability to adjust the spring tension, somewhat like Crank Brothers’ system, but like theirs, this doesn’t affect performance. Once in the foot feels more than securely held, seemingly with the right amount of tension. The float is more subtle than the more obvious free float of some other pedals, similar in a way to a road pedal. The combined rotational and lateral float allows the foot to settle into a comfortable, natural position, giving a good range of movement.

Unclipping is a different feel to some other pedals. Instead of reaching the limit of float and instantaneously clipping out with a definitive ‘click’, there is a very slight delay once the float limit is reached as you continue to twist the foot before clipping out with a ‘clunk’. Emergency clip outs were never a problem. A downwards pressure on the pedal whilst clipping out does make the action a little smoother however. Of the 2 sets of cleats supplied, Look recommend the 20degree cleat for racing, presumably to avoid any accidental unclips, but we have been constantly using the 15degree cleat and found it works well in all situations, especially where a quick dismount is required.

Mud shedding performance stands up to Look’s claims with none of that kicking and stamping you might be used to in order to clear the pedal and cleat. The system is also pretty impervious to snow and ice too and you’re less likely to find yourself in a situation where you can’t engage. Bearing life has held up well and they’re pretty smooth still after a year of hard use.

Overall, the Quartz Carbon Ti a good solid pedal with substantial support for the foot. Once the cleat is engaged, clipping in is a breeze, although it may take getting used to the action of unclipping if coming over from certain other brands. And not having any spring tension adjustment hasn’t been missed either.

The only aspect which lets these pedals down is the price. For substantially less money and a very minimal weight penalty of 30g for the pair, there is the option of the standard Quartz carbon with a chromoly axle which would be our pick of the bunch.

About as good as pedals get, but then we suspect the significantly cheaper non-ti version is too!

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