Pearl Izumi X-Alp Launch SPD shoes review | Spd Pedals

Say you come off and wreck a Shimano Ultegra Di2 rear derailleur, for example: a new one is going to cost you £244.99 at full retail price, compared with £84.99 for a cable-operated model — nearly three times as much — and you can’t save money by downgrading to Shimano 105 like you could with mechanical because there’s no Di2 version available.

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. 

The pedals use a three-bolt design, with a large surface area to the cleat that can make walking a little cumbersome but does provide a good contact patch.

The 10 adjustable pins provide ample traction, but I couldn’t feel any noticeable concavity at all. At times, the pedals felt like riding on giant square blocks. The large footprint also proved to be an issue when riding tight rocky trails.

These shoes are a specific shoe to be used with flat mountain bike pedals. They have a flat sole with no opportunity to bolt on a cleat. The soles of these shoes are usually very tacky to grip the pins of the pedals. The design usually errs more towards the skate style of shoes as these are most often worn by trail riders and downhillers.

“These were the shiniest pedals in the grouptest, both literally and metaphorically, as they were polished to a mirror finish and loaded down with almost all of the features you’d expect from a high end flat pedal.They run fully on bearings with no bushings. The crank end contains two…” Read the full review here.

hands down the most comprehensive list of flat shoes i’ve found on the world wide web, well done Brian, I will be using this list when my current pair wears out. One thing I thought was interesting was that adidas now owns five Ten yet they’re putting out their own shoe…. would like to see some field reports of those Terrex. For now I’ll stick with my Five Ten Contacts

If you do ride with a narrower stance though, it may be worth considering the S/M size that shrinks the width down by 10mm. The other option is the new Saint M828 flat pedals, which may be the Goldilocks size with a claimed 110mm length and 105mm width. I’ve just started riding with a set of these, so check in at a later date for my review on those.

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).

Otherwise, I’ve been really impressed with the performance of the Infinito X1 shoes, but the only thing that doesn’t impress is the rather big price tag. £325 is a lot of money to spend on a pair of kicks, though it’s worth shopping around as you can find them cheaper. Not as cheap as the Shimano XC7 shoes that Rachael reviewed recently however. Still, if you want maximum performance and aren’t put off by the price, they’re a good pick.

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.

Do you have a favorite pair of mountain bike specific flats that are not included here? Let us know in the comments and we will periodically add new kicks to this list.