For context, I bought these for a gravel bike used primarily on the road, wearing Shimano RX800 wide shoes with Silca SPD cleats, and am an old guy with sketchy knees. Have always used traditional XT/XTR pedals for this type application but wanted a more planted, road-like feel. So I pulled the trigger on a "race carbon" pair.
For me, these pedals are a huge improvement in that the shoe/cleat/pedal interface feels waaaay more planted and stable....much closer to a road feel. My sketchy knees have noticed the difference, too. Even clipping in seems easier for some reason...no more hit-and-miss (my same shoe/cleat combo). On the scale and in use, their weight and stack height are equal to or a little better than my old pedals. They are too new to judge their reliability, but so far the only downside is that I wish I'd have bought these back when they first came out.
I've been running these on my road/sometimes gravel bike since November. 2500mi and counting, no issues whatsoever. Rock solid, stable platform (bigger than most spd 2-bolt pedals) for everything from casual spins to sprinting to out of the saddle climbing. I wear Shimano RX8's with them and really like the set up - easy to put one foot down stopped at a traffic light, and I've been in a couple of situations where I had to walk for a bit and was thankful I was not running a normal road pedal/road shoe set-up. Also, imo, this set-up (carbon pedal body plus carbon shoes) make this 2-bolt style cleat set up comparable to most typical 3-bolt 'road' set-ups. I also dig the red accents at the end of the pedal axles - matches the red accents on my bike!!
After several years with Shimano Ultegra pedals on my Eddy Merckx EM3, I have returned to my favored pedals from Look. I am an "old school guy" and have ridden with Look over past years and simply prefer the feel of these pedals as well as the ease of ingress/egress. The Keo 2 Max Carbon are light, have a simple clean look to them with plenty of freedom of movement. Very easy tension adjustment. The manufacture's description of "improved foot stability and comfort" are accurate.
This is my 2nd pair for a new gravel bike and they are working out just as well as the first pair. They feel more stable than the equivalent Shimano MTB. My only complaint about both of my sets is that after install I've had to loosen/adjust them to what I guess is the least tight setting, otherwise I have a struggle getting out of the cleats quickly when I need too, which is especially important on trails and gravel roads with the new gravel bike. But at the least-tight setting I can get out when I need to and yet they don't then release when I don't want them to when cranking up steep hills or whatever.
