Review: The FiveTen Hellcat is a Clipless, Flat Mountain Bike Shoe | Bike Self Locking Pedals

ION RAID II The RAID II has a “Reinforced toe cap to absorb and [deflect] the forces when hitting a rock or a root.” $113 USD.

Going to unbox the missus’ set soon and try lubing the spring and see if it’s easier from the get-go (took me a while to pick up that tip). 

The cleats’ strength derives from a piece of spring steel. Basically, it’s a steel tongue that bites against the pedal. This is also where the tension and strength in the system derive. Unlike typical road cleats that adjust on the pedal, the Pitbull system adjusts from the cleat. Riders can adjust the cleat’s spring steel to make it stiffer or more flexible.

Chuck Grall, 54, of Camas works as production supervisor at a semiconductor manufacturer in Gresham, Ore. He drives a Jeep Cherokee, which gets about 19 mpg. That’s about a gallon of gas each way for his 19-mile commute.

Because they hold your feet in the right place on the pedals and keep them there, clipless pedals are more efficient than regular shoes and flat pedals. Shoes for clipless pedals have stiff soles, which also improves efficiency and comfort.

In the world of cycling, it’s common knowledge that in order to engage in "serious" riding you need foot retention, which today means using some type of clipless pedal system.

There isn’t a triple option for EPS. In fact I don’t think there’s a triple option for any e-shifting system.

And “it’s easy to become complacent”? What, due to excellent reliability? So now excellent reliability is being used as an argument against electronic shifting? Good grief I’ve heard it all now… I don’t need to constantly fettle and tinker with mechanical shifting because I fear becoming complacent… what I do like is having to spend less time fettling and tinkering with my electronic groupset and having absolutely nailed, spot on, trouble free shifting so I can fettle and tinker on new builds, oh and just ride my bikes.

As a city dweller, escaping the city limits for a mountain bike ride in the woods is one of my greatest pleasures. There’s nothing quite as soothing as leaves rustling, birds singing, and brooks babbling, all against the backdrop of voluminous knobby tires rolling over singletrack. Granted, most of my off-road exploits still take place within commuting distance of Manhattan, but were it not for the faint thrumming of automobile traffic on some distant expressway, it would be easy to convince myself I was 100 miles away from civilization.

There haven’t been many changes in road bikes in the last 50 years that actually make a big difference (electronic shifting, disc brakes, tubeless tyres, integrated shift levers and clipless pedals are my top five). I’m calling tubeless the second most important (after clipless pedals) with lower rolling resistance, lower weight, greater puncture resistance and better ride quality.

Despite the general trend for racer types to use clip-in pedals, we’re noticing that more and more everyday trail riders are trying out flat pedals – perhaps after years of using the clip-in variety. Flat pedal users cite the added flexibility as the main advantage of using flats, plus you can easily pop a foot off in the turns if you’ve pushed your talent too far. In theory, flats should also teach better technique – you can’t bunnyhop just by tugging your feet on the pedals to lift the whole bike upwards.

When using some winter shoes with cleats I also experience such squeaking with SPD (MTB style) pedals like the PD-M520s from Shimano. As the manufacturer has sensibly remarked here, a bit of teflon spray makes the sound go away (for a time of course – then rinse & repeat).