Review: Pedaling Innovations Catalyst Pedals | Carbon Fahrrad Umwerfer Installationssatz

Afton Keegan “Mono-directional interior shank supports your foot on the pedal during impacts, assists in energy transfer when pedaling, and reduces vibration yet flexes to allow normal walking.” $99 USD.

I run Clips on the road, and have both options for the MTB, recently gone back to flats as my shoes set up for my candy’s gave up the ghost and my only other option for now are a pair of old squash shoes!

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Most pedals will have L or R printed or embossed on them somewhere, so it’s worth taking a look before starting to screw them back in. Above all, go carefully and hand screw the pedal to make sure that it’s screwing in correctly, only using a spanner or allen key once you have it most of the way in.

Bushings are self-lubricating sleeves, usually made from metal or tough plastic, and in either case are much cheaper than bearings. They tend to require less maintenance, but they also have a small amount of stiction to overcome as they start moving. Bearings roll, so have no stiction, and may be easier to keep in service as they near the end of their lives, but tend to be more expensive then bushings.

All positive so far, but about a week into testing, and thereafter, I started experiencing an odd squeaking noise. It doesn’t appear to affect the performance whatsoever but is just a tad irritating, and I was curious to see if I was the only one. After a month of use I handed them to road.cc editor (and regular Time pedal user) Tony to use for a couple of weeks and… there was no sound from them, just plenty of positive comments. Here’s exactly what Time’s distributor told me when I put it to them:

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 however, this highlights the disadvantage of multi-release cleats since if you pulled up on these your foot would come out of the pedal. 

Wil and the clip-in crew have spent the last few months trying to work out which are the best platform clip-in pedals. For this group test, they took eight of the latest platform clip-in pedals to see what each brand has to offer. Each pedal has been tested under various riders with a variety of shoes and in a range of conditions, to determine four category winners: Best Feel, Most Durable, Best In Mud, and Best All Round.

The XC5s are available in either black (as tested) or a lighter grey/orange option. Additional laces are provided, with our black sample supplied with both orange and grey laces. The shoes span a size range of EU38-50, all in a single width option. A women’s-specific version is available too, spanning sizes EU36-44 and in a black/magenta colourway.

We’ve been testing the Deore XT flat pedals with several different shoe types, including Shimano GR7s, Bontrager Flatlines, and Five Ten Freerider Pros. All shoes have been size EU 43-45.

The Hellcats sport the iconic styling FiveTen is known for, with no visible indication that these are clipless-pedal shoes. FiveTen currently offers two color options, which seem to change from season to season. Chris Daniels reviewed the Hellcats just last year in a Red and Black colorway that no longer appears to be available.

Some people find it difficult to distinguish between the upshift and downshift buttons of a Shimano Di2 road system while wearing thick winter gloves. This is something that we hear quite a lot although other users report no issues whatsoever.