Love Mud Distortion pedals – a mid-price pedal that’s not too budget, not too bling | Bike Self Locking Pedals

You can of course adjust the grip levels by mixing and matching the short and long pins, but I just went full-length all round for maximum grip. And boy are these pedals grippy! Combined with the large platform and the concave shape, the steel pins hold onto your shoes with vicious traction, providing plenty of small edges to bite into soft shoe soles. The DMR Vaults are known for being one of the grippiest out there, but I’d say these XT pedals are at least on par with the Vaults.

Because the platform is slightly concave, more flexible, downhill-orientated shoes are well supported across most of the pedal.

The center of the pedal where the spindle goes through has a bulge that is immediately noticeable when riding. On wet trails I noticed my feet slipping around on the pedals and I never felt as confident as I did with some of the others.

While this isn’t the most recent Shimano XTR model, we reckon you can’t go wrong with this top of the line item. That high performance is reflected in the price, but we’ve found discounts to make the purchase a little more palatable.

I have to use the SH56 multi release as my left foot won’t unclip without these. I was advised by a cycle shop that I would have problems with any other pedal systems – but haven’t tested this. What no one tells you is that the cleats wear out and make it hard to unclip. I have fallen over twice, so I keep an eye on this and as soon as they seem the slightest bit sticky swap them for new ones.

15 of the best 2018 & 2019 road bikes under £1,000 — top choices at Cycle To Work scheme prices

Angel Mendoza, a Republic social media and breaking-news producer, had by far the most entertaining experience, for everyone but him.

That’s not my experience: when clean and in decent condition,  I find they’re solid even with quick or sturdy upstrokes on hills, and that they need a bit of a ‘flick’ to disengage, which suits me fine.

I wondered if the "Look" was a pun? It’s grossly overstating things to characterise my comments as a "rant" – including because I honestly don’t care enough to actually rant. If you’ve had a positive experience with them, that’s great you should totally keep using them. I don’t understand the value of your positive experience, either in the abstract or when measured against the negatives you identified yourself (even if you were exaggerating for effect, which apparently you now regret).  I’d suggest that is no more "childish" that your post-purchase rationalisation. If I am riding my road bike I tend to clip in at the beginning and that’s pretty much it. It would be a very disappointing ride if I clipped out more than a handful of time (esp after the first 20 minutes when I have left traffic lights behind). So being able to clip in marginally more quickly isn’t an advantage to me. If I am commuting I either use MTB (clipless) pedals or resign myself to clipping in "slowly" which doesn’t matter because I am inevitably going to have to stop again shortly and anyway I’m only going to work so why would I want to get there any sooner. So being able to clip in marginally more quickly isn’t an advantage to me. If its an advantage to you then that’s excellent, no one is trying to stop you using them, notwithstanding the drawbacks you identified and seem to have overcome/decided to live with. But having tried them (after ages of trial and error to get the screw tension just so they engaged), and having used many competing products, I wouldn’t use them or recommend anyone do so. The internet is full of people who are religious about them, which was why I tried them. I missed the damascene conversion.

I’ve been riding for: Under 5 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Experienced

Not so with the 3-bolt designs, where the cleat is specific to the pedal brand, if not the specific pedal.

Each of the derailleurs of a SRAM Red eTap system has its own rechargeable battery that lasts for over 1,000km (625 miles) of typical riding. A green indicator light on each component turns on after each shift. Once the battery charge is below 25%, that light turns red and below 15% the light starts to flash red.