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

The shoes feel plenty efficient, and only minimal heel slip is felt when making a specific effort to seek it. Where a race shoe’s complete stiffness means your foot naturally wants to pull away from the board-like sole, the XC5’s sole allows some flex to retain the foot.

"Nobody wants to get stuck with product that is no longer viable," said Jason Kilroy at Ciclista-America, the distributor of Sidi shoes in the U.S. Although Sidi doesn’t make BMX-specific shoe models, it does make its mountain bike shoes available in small sizes that are used by many BMXers. Kilroy said it is a very small part of the company’s business.

AIGLE, Switzerland (BRAIN) — Before preteen BMX racers head to the gate at tracks around the world next year, they may hear a new command from the starter: "Show us your feet!"

The key difference is that the cleats and pedals are much broader, arguably offering greater power transfer.

Granted, there are caveats. That stability and rotation performance are heavily dependent on how well the shoes interface with the pedal, and perhaps not surprisingly, shoes designed for cross-country MTB racing work best in that situation given they’re usually made with fairly hard tread blocks and stiff carbon fiber soles that provide added support.

Unlike more aggressive shoes from FiveTen, the Hellcats don’t feature ankle protection. The upshot is the shoes don’t have all that added weight, and they don’t feel especially hot during summer rides.

I use flats on my road bike as well as my MTB thanks to having dodgy knees in the past, which used to benefit from my moving my feet around on the pedals slightly when I felt ‘tension’ behind my knee caps. I think I’m nervous about upsetting them again by trying clipless.

I’ve been testing them for many months, through the winter and into the summer, with riding that has included cyclocross, mountain bike and gravel riding. They’ve stood up to everything I’ve thrown at them exceedingly well. The upper material cleans up after muddy rides really well and they dry out quickly too. They’re not the airiest of XC shoes for the higher temps we’re dealing with at the time of writing though.

Offering an alternative to the major players (Speedplay, Look, Shimano), they provide 2.5mm side-to-side float to suit your pedalling style, but don’t allow for alterations to float engagement (how hard or easy it is to clip in and out) as per other models.

GCN tested this in the lab in a recent YouTube video and found that clipless did not increase power – they seemed a bit shocked that the common precept that clipless are better for power and efficiency could was not proven in testing.

The bad news is that very few models of Shimano pedals come with multi-release cleats, so probably you’ll have to buy them in addition to the pedals. The good news is that basic SPD pedals are very cheap but really durable, so buying extra cleats isn’t a big financial burden.

John D’Anna, a Republic reporter, rode his bike 11 miles to the last light rail stop in Mesa and then took the light rail the rest of the way.