The SPD pedal is a stalwart. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a set that’s weathered years and years of abuse. If there’s a downtrodden parts bin build rattling around the trails, it’s a pretty safe bet there’ll be a set of M530s wound into her.

This mod was conceived by Mike Trudgen, ordinarily of bike bag making persuasion, he’s also a part-time mechanical cuisinier in the workshop at Capital. Seeing the mod invokes an “of course” moment – it’s one of those satisfyingly simple innovations. It’s probably been done by others, but we couldn’t find it documented anywhere, so thought it was worth sharing.

The gist: a grease port to flush your SPD pedals.

Obviously this might void your warranty. But this is hardly a problem when that’s almost always eclipsed by the lifespan of the pedals. We used the ports from a defunct Yeti switch linkage, but if you’re canny enough to do the mod, you can probably sniff out a suitable substitute.

This also won’t work with every SPD pedal. We found the pedal needed a recessed body, a la M530, but even then the tolerance was too tight between pedal body and axle on some models to accommodate the port (the M8000 was too tight, but the M8020 worked well). Czech before you drill.

Otherwise it’s a simple process. Pull the body off the axle. Check clearances. Drill a hole. Tap it (M5 for the switch linkage port we used). Clean out the detritus. Wind in the port. Reassemble. Have a grand old time flushing it.

In the style of a true innovator, Mike’s already moved on from this iteration and is tweaking the mod to be a little more refined. But if you want the ability to service your SPDs in about 10 seconds without even winding them out of the crank, this is still a great solution. 

Peace and keep the scrout alive.