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

One of the other advantages of clipless pedals is that you can get more power out of your legs by being able to pull up on the pedal stroke in addition to pushing down 

Albeit, many of us don’t commute in every day because we’re out and about doing journalism and need our cars in case of breaking news.

I’ve got the M324 pedals mentioned above on my pub bike. They are great for what they are, but you do have to watch it if you’re clipped in, as it’s very easy to catch the cage on the floor when cornering.

Mat has worked for loads of bike magazines over 20+ years, and been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. He’s been road.cc technical editor for eight years, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a past winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer.

Disagree with the Speedplay comments above. I moved to them this year and yes I hated them for a few weeks and was considering eBaying them.

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. 

That said – definitely not a beginnner setup. Tightening the cleat screws even .5nm too much and you can compress part of the housing enough to give you issues with the spring. Breaking in the spring must be a hell of a time for a light rider, and if the missus moves on to them (I have bought her some, but after realising the initial learning curve she lost interest), I’ll have to break the spring in for her. Also actually finding the pedal isn’t just step down and go – you have a few cm wide circle under you foot that you need to mount so like Keo’s etc, you still need to develop muscle memory.

Constant pressure on the button can eventually drain the battery of an electronic shift system. We’ve heard of this happening during air travel, the rider finding that the battery they’d topped up before leaving home was completely empty by the time they came to build the bike up before the start of their training camp. You can avoid this by unplugging the wires or removing the battery/batteries.

Staff at The Arizona Republic took on a carless commute to explore public transit options in the Phoenix area.

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).

The Maltese Falcon has a skate-style feel similar to the company’s Freerider Pro but is a bit narrower and has a stiffer feeling sole. Despite the narrower last, it’s still roomier than other comparable shoes, but the padding around the ankle and on the tongue keeps the fit snug. This shoe excels at repelling mud and water, and even when it does end up in a puddle, it dries pretty quickly. While out riding, the only time I was able to notice a major difference between the Freerider Pro and Maltese Falcon was on rock gardens; the SPD cleat on the latter gave me that little extra from each pedal stroke to get me through.

Sixpack has drawn on many years of expertise when it comes to the pedal body and bearing, using only high-quality materials and components with the aim of providing reliability and durability. The pedal body is made from 6061-T6 CNC milled aluminum. Hardened coated CrMo steel is used for the axles, and the bearing consists of a combination of sealed industrial bearings and IGUS bushings.