Beginner’s guide to indoor cycling: five ways you can get your pedal fix inside | Bike Flat Pedals

Measuring in at 114mm x 111mm, the Stamps are pretty huge. Using the same sealed bearings and Igus LL-glide bushings found on their other pedals, they spin insanely smooth.

Not that I’m in the market for light pedals myself, as I’m quite happy with my SPD’s for commute/CX duties and my Shimano 105 SPD-SL pedals on the road bike. Hard to beat when it comes to performace/durability/cost considerations.

The first batch of the Surface Ti sold out almost immediately, and Chromag will update their site with availability as soon as the next run is ready. For the second batch, they have shortened the seat tubes across the size run by 20mm to make room for a wider range of dropper posts. For those who dream of the perfect hardcore hardtail, this frame is calling your name.

Not that I’m in the market for light pedals myself, as I’m quite happy with my SPD’s for commute/CX duties and my Shimano 105 SPD-SL pedals on the road bike. Hard to beat when it comes to performace/durability/cost considerations.

With its hybrid mechanism, the X2 combines the snappiness of an SPD pedal with the smoothness of Time’s ATAC system. The high tension level can be intimidating to begin with, but get your cleats and pins dialled in and you’ll be rewarded with confidence-boosting grip and speed-friendly stability.

We still wanted to challenge our habits. For one week in December, some editors, reporters and producers agreed to leave their car at home and try a carless commute for a day into our downtown Phoenix newsroom, near Second and Van Buren streets.

The open architecture allows the system to still be fully functional when caked with mud, snow, and debris, which definitely isn’t the case with traditional road pedal systems.

So they take a long time before you can use them with confidence, they are mechnically delicate (even before you factor in mechanism wear from putting your foot down at lights/walking in them, vs replacing a plastic cleat) and the real advantage – is this a real advantage* – comes when you are pulling away from the lights. [If I am riding my road bike the number of times I stop is pretty small, so marginal benefit of marginally faster engagement - I think I'm pretty good with my Keos - probably not so important for me. YMMV.] This is before you get to the fact that they are quite expensive (because they aren’t very popular so unit volumes not high) and (again because unit volumes not high) finding spares is a pain in the arse. I tried them and wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.

Unlike Shimano’s old Saint and DX flat pedals though, the pins used on the XT body don’t thread in from the back. Instead, Shimano uses steel grub screws that thread directly into the pedal body. This presents an issue if you grind a pin against a rock, as you’re also grinding away the surface that you would insert a 2mm hex key into for installing or removing the pins. Once this happens, it’s a case of getting out the ‘negotiator’ (pliers) to remove those busted pins.

Giro Riddance Mid Riddance uses the same Vibram sole as many of the other Giro shoes, but in a high-top format with a large ankle-strap to keep them snug. Claimed weight 445g in size 43. €140.

Shimano’s cheapest carbon-bodied pedals have an old-school steel spring for the retention plate, but are nevertheless reasonably light. The SPD-SL design provides tension adjustment so you can make it harder or easier to release, and like the Look Keo it has a large, broad contact patch with the cleat for stability.

I am using Shimano PD-T420 CLICK’R pedals on my road bike. Using my bike also for communting, I can easily pedal with my leather shoes for office on the flat side.