Best electric bikes 2018: top e-bikes for commuters, cheap e-bikes and e-road and e-MTB | Bike Flat Pedals

Mountain bike shoes do the job, but you can be sure a cycling discipline has reached mass appeal when big brands, such as Shimano, start offering product specific to the space. Joining the likes of Giro and Specialized, Shimano’s relatively new XC5 laced SPD shoe is just this, a mid-range shoe tailored to the gravel crowd, but one that can comfortably handle duty in touring, commuting, cyclocross and even mountain biking, too.

Because they hold your feet in the right place on the pedals and keep them there, clipless pedals are more efficient than regular shoes and flat pedals. They’re also much easier to get out of than the clip and strap pedals enthusiast riders and racers used before the 1980s

The laces are effective at providing a generous range of tension across the foot, however, the mid-foot loops stubbornly hold the laces in position. To some, this may be a positive as the shoe will keep its adjustment between wears, but for me, I just found it slowed the process. Either way, they serve a functional purpose, and certainly the upper would squirm if it weren’t for them.

Like you say, can take a little bit of wearing in to get rid of the stiffness, but get her on the turbo and at some point this will sound less like euphemism and more like shared experience

Rachael is happiest on two wheels, she’s been riding bikes for a good few years now after horses got too expensive! Partial to a race or two Rachael also likes getting out into the hills with a big bunch of mates. She’s been writing for a long as she’s been riding and is equally happy getting stuck into a kit review as she is creating stories. 

Agree, I use these for all my riding and find involuntary unclips are exceedingly rare. They really are a cake and eat it solution, you get the advantages of clipless with no risk of getting it wrong and going splat.

It used to be pretty simple. If you were into downhill riding and dirt jumping, you rode flats. If you were into XC or any other kind of everyday trail riding, you rode clips. That may still be the case for many riders, but as with many aspects of mountain bikes these days, the lines are getting blurrier and blurrier.

Aside from the bent pins, the XT pedals have largely been trouble-free. The bearings have spun nice and smooth throughout testing, though more recently I did notice a small amount of play between the body and the axle, so I got my hands on Shimano’s plastic TL40 tool to pull the pedals apart and take a gander at the insides.

a handy tip I was given for teaching people to use clipless is set the bike up on a turbotrainer – can practise clipping and unclipping until confident – done this with a with a few people and seems to work

The only other issue I noticed was durability. While the stainless steel pedals will take a beating, the cleats I received were aluminum. This kept weight down (about 1.5 ounces per cleat), but they quickly took on battle scars. I asked Lohmeyer about this too, and he sent along Pitbull prototype 2.0. These are made of stainless steel and are about twice as heavy as the aluminum option. But their strength is far greater.

The only issues I’ve witnessed is with two owners of SRAM etape systems who didn’t charge their batteries, so were stuck with limited years in the Pyrenees, but they could swap the front and rear mech batteries round, so low gears for the climbs and then big gears for the descents. Didn’t seem ideal.

Bontrager might be Trek’s in-house component brand, but these Line Pro flat pedals stand on their own merit thanks to tough construction and plenty of tuneable grip. The Line Pros can suck up the punishment and offer plenty of traction. At 420g for the pair, they’re moderately heavy for the money, but that’s certainly offset by the fact they’ve lasted extremely well. Bontrager might not be the first brand you’d look to, but you’d definitely miss out if you ignore these. The only small issue is that if you want a set in this rather lovely orange, then sorry, the only colour currently available is black.