Look Keo Blade Power pedals review

Look’s Keo Blade Power is its new-generation power meter pedal system, built around its latest flagship road pedal body.

With a new power-measuring spindle, developed in-house at Look’s headquarters in France, the Keo Blade Power pedals are intended to banish the niggles associated with the outgoing Exakt pedals.

In use, Look’s Keo Blade Power is a lightweight and high-performing pedal system.

However, faced with stiff competition, it’s hard to ignore some accuracy and software bugs – and the fact that at £899 / $999 / €899 they’re more expensive, while less adjustable and less user-serviceable, than other options.

Look Keo Blade Power specification

Look’s new power meter pedals come in two flavours – the Keo Blade Power, for use on the road with its three-bolt Keo cleats and the X-Track Power, for use off-road with two-bolt Shimano SPD cleats.

Both systems share the same power-measuring spindle, so my results from testing the Keo Blade Power pedals should be broadly representative of what to expect from the X-Track Power pedals (in terms of setup, user-friendliness and data quality).

The Look Keo Blade Power pedals cost £899 / $999 / €899, while the X-Track Power pedals cost £999.99 / $1,099 / €1,099.

That’s similar to Garmin’s Rally pedals, which cost £869.99 / $1,099.99 / €899.99 for the Keo-compatible version, or £959.99 / $1,199.99 / €999.99 for the SPD-compatible version.

Favero’s Keo-compatible Assioma Duo pedals are a fair bit cheaper at £591 / $756 / €695, while its SPD-compatible Assioma Pro MX pedals cost £637 / $759 / €750.

The pedal body

The Keo Blade power pedals are built around Look’s latest Keo Blade pedal body, which launched earlier this year with claims of improved aerodynamic performance and a more stable pedalling platform.

Compared to the non power-meter pedals, the stack height of the Keo Blade Power pedals is up a couple of millimetres from 8.5 to 10.7mm, while the weight has increased from 232g to 269g.

The Q-Factor is identical at 53mm, though, and in the context of other power meter pedals, a stack height of 10.7mm is competitive, as is the overall weight.

For context, Favero’s Assioma Duo pedals have a stack height of 10.5mm and a weight of 305g, while Garmin’s Rally RS200 pedals have a stack height of 12.2mm and weigh 320g.

The Keo Blade Power pedals are also claimed to have a more aerodynamic design than standard, open-bottom pedals, thanks to the closed-off and smooth underbody.

Look has stopped short of providing data to illustrate how much this might be worth, but it claims the Keo Blade is the most aerodynamic road pedal it has tested to date.

As with Wahoo’s Speedplay Aero pedals, any gains present are intangibly small. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, though.

It can be hard, if not impossible, to discern the difference in performance between vented and aero road helmets, for example. As evidenced by our best-value aero upgrades wind tunnel test, though, such differences do exist and they can save you time over the course of a ride.

Given there’s no obvious drawback associated with the improved aerodynamic shaping, it’s something of a wonder that more road pedal brands don't do something similar.

Surprisingly, Look supplies 16Nm ‘blades’ with the Keo Blade Power pedals, rather than the less stiff, 12Nm ones that come with the standard Keo Blade Ceramic pedals.

This essentially means it’s harder to unclip with the Keo Blade Power pedals than it is with the non power-meter versions.

Unfortunately, unlike with most other power meter pedals, the only way to adjust the cleat-release tension is by purchasing and swapping in a different set of the ‘blades’, which cost £40 / $40 / €40 per set.

Servicing

Servicing the pedals requires Look’s proprietary end-cap removal tool, which, disappointingly, is not included with either the Keo Blade Power or X-Track Power pedals.

It only costs £15, but I can’t see any good reason not to enable the use of standard tools to dismantle and service the pedals – as can be done with Favero and Garmin power meter pedals.

I have some limited sympathy with the argument that inexperienced riders shouldn’t be fiddling with expensive power meter internals, and that this small barrier to entry might prevent some accidents from happening.

But, on the other hand, it feels as if Look is creating a problem in order to sell riders the solution, which doesn’t sit well with me.

All that said, though, this is better than with Wahoo’s Powrlink Zero pedals, which are not user-serviceable at all.

As with Garmin’s Rally system, the spindles used across both the Keo Blade Power and X-Track Power are the same – you could purchase a set of spare pedal bodies and use a single set of power meter spindles across both pedal bodies.

The user manual suggests it shouldn’t be overly difficult, but if it’s intended for riders to do so, it makes Look’s decision to soft-lock disassembly behind a proprietary tool even more perplexing.

Electronics and battery life

As with most current power meters, Look has its own app (available for Android and iOS devices) for dealing with registration, firmware updates and so on. As we’ll come to in the next section, though, my experience with this app wasn’t as smooth as hoped.

The pedals are charged via two magnetic connectors that clip on to the plastic cap at the end of each spindle. These are powered by a split-head USB-C cable that helpfully enables both pedals to be charged simultaneously from a single USB outlet.

Battery life sits at a claimed 60 hours – 10 hours more than Favero’s Assioma Duo pedals and on a par with its latest Assioma Pro MX pedals.

Garmin’s Rally pedals offer significantly greater battery life, at 120 hours. However, these use disposable CR1/3N batteries (one per pedal), meaning you’ll need to shell out for replacement sets every time they run out.

Of course, the upside of replaceable batteries may mean not having to deal with battery-drain issues in the long-term (although in almost four years of using Favero’s rechargeable Assioma Duo pedals, it’s yet to become an issue).

Using fully sealed, internal rechargeable batteries also means fewer potential weak points for moisture or dust ingress.

The Keo Blade Power (and X-Track Power) pedals come with a three-year warranty. In contrast, Garmin, Favero and Wahoo offer two-year warranties for their power meter pedals.

Look Keo Blade Power performance

Installation and setup

Look’s Keo Blade Power pedals require only a 15mm pedal spanner to install them on your bike, meaning the process is mechanically very simple – just like changing any bike pedal.

Per Look’s recommendations, I used a torque wrench to ensure they were tightened to between 30 and 40Nm.

Having initially installed the Look Cycle app on my iPhone, I created an account but then wasn’t able to log in.

No matter how many times I tried, it kept saying either my username or password were incorrect. Resetting things didn’t work either.

Once I was able to log in, though, the problems sadly didn’t end there.

In the end, Look had to manually approve my account, which enabled me to log in. It said I should have received an email, post-registering my details, to confirm my account, but I didn’t.

When first attempting to update the firmware (from version 1.005, as the pedals arrived, to 1.011 – the latest available at the time of writing), the app kept stalling at 20 per cent, meaning I couldn’t complete the update.

Having abandoned my first few attempts, I tried again later and was able to complete the update for both pedals.

A good result in the end then, but hardly the (mostly) pain-free experiences I’ve had with Favero’s Assioma app, Garmin Connect or SRAM’s AXS app.

Clipping in and out

Using the provided grey cleats, which offer 4.5 degrees of float, clipping in is met with a satisfying snap and the feeling of a secure and stable connection to the pedals.

With new, official Look Keo cleats, there’s no wobbling or slack in the system and your connection to the bike feels excellent.

Things weren’t as good with third-party Keo-style cleats, however, with a comparatively vague clipping-in experience and some occasional wobble.

This isn’t Look’s fault, of course – it’s not responsible for third-party Keo cleat designs, after all. However, it means riders will need to purchase the pricier Look Keo cleats rather than cheaper, third-party options, for optimal performance.

In contrast, I’ve found both the Favero Assioma Duo and Garmin Vector 3 pedals to be tolerant of both first- and third-party Keo-style cleats.

I also found the lack of cleat-release tension adjustment on the Keo Blade Power pedals frustrating.

The 16Nm release tension was usable, but it definitely made clipping out tougher than I’d prefer – I occasionally had to make a conscious effort to unclip rather than it simply being an automatic process.

Look says the blades can be swapped in only 30 seconds, but that obviously doesn’t include the time it takes you to purchase a set and have them shipped to you.

With most pedals, you can simply use an Allen key to make adjustments whenever you like, free of charge and often with no discrete steps (other than at either end of the scale).

It’s also worth noting my colleague, Ashley Quinlan, described the softest, 12Nm blades as “overkill” for most riders in his review of the non power-meter Keo Blade Ceramic pedals.

If you’re less confident using clipless pedals, then, these may not be the right choice for you.

Perhaps Look views its flagship power meter pedals as designed for strong and experienced riders, but this design seems at odds with one of the key selling points of power meter pedals – that they’re simple and easy for any rider to install and use on any bike.

Look Keo Blade Power data accuracy

In terms of data, Look’s Keo Blade Power pedals were something of a Jekyll and Hyde experience.

Outside, the data consistently compared well to the Quarq DFour DUB on my Giant TCR Advanced Pro Disc, with similar overall averages and no obvious discrepancies when looking at the power traces overlaid on each other.

Inside, however, I consistently came across an issue where the Keo Blade Power pedals would noticeably underreport and the left/right power-balance data would go wonky.

This issue occurred both on the pedal’s original firmware, version 1.005, and on the latest available version (at the time of writing), 1.011.

I also encountered one indoor ride where the pedals suffered from frequent drop-outs over the course of the 1hr 15mins I was riding.

Drop-outs aside, comparing the data to that from other true dual-sided power meters, such as Verve’s InfoCrank Classic, it appeared the right (or driveside) pedal was underreporting in these indoor situations.

This would explain both the lower total power figures and the unbalanced left/right data, which suggested I was favouring my left leg significantly more than I would expect, given my extensive experience with using dual-sided power meters.

Speaking to Look, it suggested there could be an error occurring in the zero-offset process, due to the amount of signal noise present in my indoor training setup.

This is a fair point. When I’m testing power meters indoors, I typically have three power sources transmitting data at the same time to three separate bike computers – in this case, one smart trainer (an Elite Direto XR) and two on-bike power meters.

On top of this, I’m typically playing Zwift on a laptop connected via WiFi, with a set of Zwift Play controllers and some music or the BikeRadar podcast playing through a set of wireless headphones.

It is an extremely ‘noisy’ environment, in terms of wireless signals, then. It’s also arguably an unrealistic one – after all, most people won’t ever ride indoors with multiple power meters reporting to multiple bike computers simultaneously.

However, it’s also worth noting that the best power meters typically don’t have any trouble performing within this setup – it’s only the Look pedals that appear to be tripped up by this.

More critically, it simply doesn’t instill confidence in the Keo Blade Power’s ability to provide robust, consistent data in all scenarios.

Look Keo Blade Power bottom line

Overall, I had a decidedly mixed experience with Look’s new power meter pedals.

The form factor is excellent and the pedal body itself is a good performer, even if it’s not as adjustable or user-serviceable as I’d prefer.

Likewise, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the Keo Blade Power pedals performed well outside, with solid data accuracy. This suggests Look has a good power meter platform that could be competitive with some software refinement.

Unfortunately, though, I can’t ignore the issues I had with setup and power-data accuracy when riding indoors, both of which undermined my confidence in the system.

Having presented my findings to Look, the brand said it was working on firmware updates, which it hopes should iron out the issues I saw during testing. If Look can do that, I’ll update this review in the future.

As things stand, though, it’s difficult to recommend Look’s Keo Blade Power pedals over trusted competitor options that are similarly priced or cheaper.