Review: Shimano Saint PD-MX80 Flat Pedals | Bike Self Locking Pedals

Five Ten Freerider Pro One of the most popular flat pedal shoes recently received a few updates. Claimed weight 338g. $150 USD.

Shimano GR5 Available in sizes all the way up to 48, this is an affordable option with some sweet features. Claimed weight 400g in size 42. $100 USD.

Dan Herrigstad rides his e-bike across the Interstate 5 Bridge as part of his morning commute from his east Vancouver home to the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center near the Oregon Health and Science University campus. Photos by Nathan Howard/The Columbian var objLink = new myC_Remote.BuyLink(); objLink.LinkContent = "<span" class="btn btn-warning btn-xs pull-right btn-buyphoto">Buy this photo"; objLink.IsAboveImage = false; objLink.LinkTarget = "_blank"; objLink.Render();

Also into my third year but with EPS. Haven’t regretted it for a second. Effortless and trouble free gear changing especially when braking. I’m thinking of replacing my touring bike and I hope I can get it fitted with triple electronic shifting.

Inflation of the tyre was trivially easy. A few strokes of the floor pump saw the tyre take up a good seal with the rim. A few more strokes brought on the first of (usually) four ‘pop’ noises as the bead moved onto the retention ledge. The final pop usually occurred at 70psi.

Also into my third year but with EPS. Haven’t regretted it for a second. Effortless and trouble free gear changing especially when braking. I’m thinking of replacing my touring bike and I hope I can get it fitted with triple electronic shifting.

That said – definitely not a beginnner setup. Tightening the cleat screws even .5nm too much and you can compress part of the housing enough to give you issues with the spring. Breaking in the spring must be a hell of a time for a light rider, and if the missus moves on to them (I have bought her some, but after realising the initial learning curve she lost interest), I’ll have to break the spring in for her. Also actually finding the pedal isn’t just step down and go – you have a few cm wide circle under you foot that you need to mount so like Keo’s etc, you still need to develop muscle memory.

I’m certainly no engineer, but from what I can tell the two damaged bores are located in the thinnest part of the whole body, so I’d like to see this area beefed up a touch. The pins could also have a longer insertion depth, since the current ones are quite shallow and don’t actually penetrate the entire thread of the bore. They do use a standard M4 thread pitch, so you could always replace them with longer M4 grub screws to provide more adjustability, and potentially better support for each pin as well.

Yeah… An article written for people with wide feet needs to be written…or are there still no flats for Fred Flintstone riders?

No. I was confident with them on the first time I took them onto the road. When I said I hated them for a few weeks I simply meant that the first few times I stuck them on the trainer to play around with them the spring was stiff. Nothing more, nothing less. I was exaggerating anyway, I didn’t actually hate them. Confidence however will vary with any pedal system depending on the person, so it’s irrational to try and argue that ‘it takes a long time before you can use them with confidence’. My confidence on the road has increased since I bought them – my final bugbear on the bike was being able to clip in and out without thought, as hard or as fast as I wanted. And I’ve solved that, for 80 quid. 

The Fizik Infinito X1 shoes are incredibly stiff for maximum power transfer, ideal for racers and pedal thrashers that don’t want to give away precious power to a flexy sole, and the highly adjustable Boa dial arrangement and fit provides great comfort. Not so impressive is the high price, but if you can afford them they are a good choice. 

These are indeed awesome: I still use 520 pedals with the SH56 cleats for my commute; I don’t think they can be beaten for stop-start over mixed terrain.