Ask Pinkbike: Back to Flats, Inches of Squish for Enduro, and Pondering the Next Upgrade | Spd Pedals

The trails here are quite different to where I usually ride, though. Leafy, wooded undulating chalk land is pretty scarce in the corner of the Pennines I call home. I’m more used to wide open moorland, liberally strewn with rocks. Calderdale in Yorkshire has woods, sure, but mostly precipitously steep ones, with weirdly grippy Millstone Grit under tyre and sardonic Yorkshiremen in flat caps eating chips cooked in dripping commenting impenetrably as I inevitably hurtle over something foolish. There are steps. There is weather. All of the weather. Frequently, all of the weather at once. My local riding has incrementally become something of a gnar-fest. Granted, my enthusiasm usually outweighs my competence, but riding for any length of time in Calderdale gently massages you down a greasy chute of tech. Of course, there’s plenty of non-technical riding too, but a ride’s not a *proper* ride unless there are liberal helpings of thrutch, a couple of ‘oof’s and (usually) more than one whimper.

Two other reporters who live in central Phoenix challenged each other to see who could get downtown quickest, one on light rail, one on a Grid bike.

I did experience a hiccup with unclipping the Hellcats. Essentially, the wide toe, combined with the cleat placement, causes the crankarm to block the twisting motion required for me to unclip. This turned out to be a problem from the beginning, and it didn’t matter if the cleat was slammed all the way forward or back.

Tubeless provides perhaps the best of all choices in every regard. They have lower rolling resistance than even great clinchers (thanks to the lack of hysteresis between the tube and tyre found in clinchers). With sealant inside, they can repair small- to medium-sized punctures as you ride (sometimes you won’t even know you got a puncture).

I have a pair of the five ten free riders .I had a shoe lace wrap around the axel of my Specialized Fat Boy Carbon.The result my foot was jammed into the pedal causing me to fall into a patch of prickley pear cactus. Noe I have a narrow piece of velcro underneath the laces to prevent this from appending again. I consider this a design flaw.

Now I couldn’t use anything else. They are just pheneomenal compared to the various Looks I usually use. They need broken in first of all as the spring is super stiff, but once done then it only takes a little force to clip in. Actually finding the insert point is a few weeks of muscle memory (I stuck them on the indoor trainer first which sped this process up).

While the shoes and cleats were new, I also removed the pins to begin with to limit interference. As everything settled in though, I added the pins to increase traction.

Any recommendations for a flat pedal winter show. I’ve heard that the Five Ten Freerider High Top is a good show for winter riding but it’s out of stock everywhere in most sizes and Adidas told me they won’t have more until Fall 2019. Wow, they are obviously a customer-centric business… NOT!

I’d like to not argue doctrinal points, and World Cup leader boards aren’t necessarily a great place to look for data to apply to people who aren’t racing World Cup courses. The fact is that both pedal systems have advantages for mere mortals. If you’re already a flats rider, feel free to skip ahead to the reviews, though if you’re flat-curious, then let me take you through a couple of points to help you unclip that toe and dip it in the water.

Providing a platform this wide in a dual-sided pedal would not only make for a lot of aluminum (which would make the pedals heavy), but also adversely affect pedal clearance through corners. Getting a set of dual-sided SPD-type pedals this light would also mean spending a lot more money. Whereas retail price for a pair of A600s is just US$110 (and the street price is much lower), only Shimano’s XTR Race pedals are similarly svelte, and those retail for US$180. Sure, lighter dual-sided MTB pedals exist outside of the Shimano catalog, but few offer the same combination of pedal body and proven durability. Replacement cleats are dirt cheap, too, and they’re infrequently needed, anyway.

I switched last year to PowerTap P1 pedals, which require Keo cleats and just used the old pedals in the winter, because I still have SPD winter boots.

Strangely enough I’ve found that the Atacs, which I bought back in 2008 & 9, have shrugged of all sorts of soggy muddy crap.