Longterm Review: Shimano XC7 vs XC9 SPD Mountain Bike Shoes | Road Bike Clipless Pedals

Before buying a pair of flat pedals, it’s well worth looking into the internals and how much it’ll cost you to service them. It’s no use having the best pedals in the world if they break and you can’t get spare parts.

Ride Concepts Wildcat “Featuring cranked-up stability and ankle protection, it’s a mid-height, sticky-soled, flat pedal brawler.” The Wildcat are somewhere between a mid-height and high-top shoe, with a small ankle strap for adjustments on the go. Claimed weight 482g. $120 USD.

Durability has been really good. The shoes are reinforced in the key places to avoid the upper getting damaged when walking up an unrideable track or smashing your toe into an unseen rock. The rubber tread is showing little sign of wear and tear despite a reasonable amount of hike-a-bike and cyclocross racing, which is a good thing as it’s not replaceable.

Ultimately, there really are only four main players when it comes to road-oriented, three-hole pedal systems: Shimano, Look, Speedplay, and Time. There are others to consider, such as Keywin and Coombe, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any of these alternatives in your local bunches. Given this, it shouldn’t be too surprising to see that our team’s preferences are split amongst the mainstream brands. Many of us have used many others, but we retain our go-to choices. Read on to learn more about our personal choices, and why we all went that way.

For me…. The Time Expresso’s have proven themselves to give the most comfortable fit to the pedal in terms of float, release force e.t.c – BUT – after repeated bitter experience I’ll never now buy anything above the Expresso 4s/Mavic’s Zxellium Elites as the bearings, on these models and their more expensive siblings, have too often proven themselves to have a hypochondriacs sensitivity to moisture. I’ll count myself lucky if I get a winters use out of a pair & one cursed set seized after just the one ride in the rain.

Yet again Canyon has no idea about their own mudguards and recommend clip-on guards as a temporary solution… for a bike out for a year with…

Shoes come at various prices and can be found for a lot less than retail if you look carefully. Around £60 will get you a reliable pair of Shimano trail shoes with Velcro straps, a little more will get you a nice looking XC/trail shoe from a brand like Giro. Start inching up towards the £100 mark and you will find stiffer shoes that are designed for longer periods in the saddle or for racing or in terms of flat shoes, you might be able to find a pair of last season FiveTens for flat pedals. Head towards £150 and the shoes might offer great features such as the storm flap keeping fastenings clean as on the Shimano ME7’s or as on the Scott MTB AR shoes, Boa fastenings. Head upwards from there and the shoes will be more specific in terms of winter proofing or efficient shoes for racing, those Shimano XC9 shoes we mentioned retail at a massive £319!

Shimano shoes are generally quite generous with who they fit, and the XC5’s relaxed nature only adds to this reputation. With a more open heel design, a forgiving upper and a pliable sole, there’s certainly more leeway here than with a race shoe. However, a lack of width choices is perhaps as much a sign of the price as it is of demand. If your foot shape is at one extreme of the bell-curve, you’ll likely want to pursue something with additional width options.

But for those who followed the AeroLites and maintain interest in the concept, here’s what we found in our preliminary tests.

Guinness World Records have a very detailed definition, minimum of 18,000 miles, 2 antipodal points, and no significant East/West backtracking …

One of the biggest motivations for sticking with a traditional three-bolt road pedal system is the larger contact surface area it provides. Under harder pedaling efforts — and especially on longer rides — this helps distribute the load over a greater portion of the shoe (and thus, your foot) for greater comfort as the kilometers tick away.

There are two cleat options—free and fixed, with the free offering the traditional angular float, as well as lateral float. This is designed for most riders and minimizes the risk of knee injury from misaligned cleats. As the name implies, the fixed cleat offers no float and is designed for pure powermongers whose fit is dialed in and who think float is a bad word (it isn’t).