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

I really dislike the look of the current crop of flat-pedal-specific footwear. They either resemble ugly bowling/golf shoes, or clown shoes. Give me a sweet pair of Vans any day. Better designs, better feel/comfort, a lot less expensive, and just plain cooler.

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.

At the 2018 Eurobike expo, Chromag released their new Dagga DH pedals. The Dagga is their largest platform and widest stance offering, giving riders plenty of space to modulate their footing across the 24 height-adjustable traction pins. Pedal thickness is 14.3mm at the center, with sealed bearings (outer) and a bushing (inner) wrapped around a robust Chromoly axle. Designed with the help of Australian DH racer Chris Kovarik, the pedal’s main features will shine bright under the high impact-conditions of true DH.

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Taking that into account, the A600’s support platform is actually fairly wide. The four degrees of free float also feels rather, well, free — not quite as silky-smooth as a set of fresh and clean road pedals and cleats, mind you, but not too far off, either.

Shimano’s listed dimensions are a little off – I measured the usable platform of these at 108mm long and 110mm wide, and not 110mm x 115mm as claimed. Being the M/L size, these are recommended for shoe sizes from EU 43 and above. If you’ve got smaller shoes than that, the S/M size drops the platform length and width by 10mm each way.

The main difference where flat shoes are concerned is in the grippiness of the sole and the lack of cleat recess of course! This varies from manufacturer to manufacturer with the gold star award usually going to FiveTen. The soles are generally more flexible and allow more ‘feel’ on the pedals but not so much that they offer less support or are uncomfortable to wear for long periods. Some riders so say that it is possible to have a shoe that is too grippy, meaning they can’t move about on the pedals if they need to mid trail. We like a pair of FiveTens with these HT PA03 or Bontrager Line Pro pedals best.

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

Will see how the missus gets on during the summer. She’s sub 60kg and quite a new cyclist, so her experience will be more telling than mine. She’s fast though at clipping in with her Keos, but occassionally she does miss it on first go and lags behind and has to catch up. That random element is worth eliminating, especially buzzing through town as you can get separated through traffic.  

The M424 pedals are excellent for commuting. Because you don’t actually need to be clipped in to use them, you can simply stamp on the pedals as the lights go green and then clip in when you are up to speed.

With a couple of exceptions, such as Crank Bros and Time, many of the 2-bolt cleat designs (Wellgo, Ritchey, Boardman) are interchangable or, at least, the pedal design will accept the Shimano SPD cleat without too much problem. I have a couple of old sets of VP pedals that work fine with SPD cleats, but not the other way round.

That said, many bike fitters have also long loved the Speedplay system for its adjustability. Four different spindle lengths are available, along with different base plates that afford a huge range of fore-aft adjustability. Speedplay cleats are also the easiest of the four major systems when it comes to compensating for different leg lengths. Only recently has Shimano added a choice in pedal axle lengths (standard or +4mm), and it’s likely Speedplay’s success encouraged such an option.