Reviewed: Ritchey WCS XC SPD-Compatible MTB / CX Pedal | Bike Flat Pedals

A slightly more affordable version of the TIME Xpresso 15 pedals (which retail at a jaw dropping £400), the Xpresso 6’s are a little heavier (213g) but considerably more affordable.

Whether you are looking to buy clip-in or flat shoes will depend on whether you choose to ride clipless pedals or flat ones. Clip-in shoes have a recess in the sole at the ball of the foot which provides room for cleats to be bolted to in order to clip into the clipless pedals.

"I am an amateur bike rider and was pretty nervous about riding in the street," she said. "There aren’t dedicated bike lanes in this part of town and people do not respect riders, so I took the sidewalk almost the entire way."

I generally have Shimano M540 or Ultegra SPD-SL – I favour Shimano as they’re cheap, reliable, pretty much fool proof and fully servicable.

They’re not the thinnest of pedals, measuring 18mm thick at the centre of the body. Compare that to 17mm for the DMR Vaults, 15mm for the Hope F20s, 10mm for the Gamut Podiums, and 8.3mm for the OneUp flat pedals. The XT pedals do have a nice concave platform though, with the bodies measuring 20mm at the fore and aft of the platform, providing a slight bowl shape for your feet to sink into.

Mavic now sells wheel ‘systems’. If you buy a set of their wheels, they come equipped with matching tyres. It makes the shopping experience that much easier (pick some wheels, don’t worry about tyres) and, because Mavic puts as much effort into the tyres as the rest, the results are consistently good across such diverse disciplines as road, gravel and MTB. UST (Universal System Tubeless) is Mavic’s label for tubeless, both on road and off. The mountain bike side of UST has been around for many years, but the road versions are new.

For regular and technical trail riding, I use Shimano XT clipless and Specialized Comp Mountain Bike shoes.

As the M530 is to the M520, the M8020 is to the M8000. Incomprehensible Shimano numbers aside, the XT Trail pedal adds a metal cage to provide your foot with more support, and additional purchase area if you find yourself hurtling down the trail with a foot unclipped.

Here at Canadian Cycling Magazine our editors are fortunate enough to get to test out a lot of different bikes, accessories, apparel, technology and more. We also grow attached to some of what comes through the doors and come to rely on gear on our riding throughout the year. Some of the gear we use and love the most is brand new while other things have been out for a while but we just keep coming back to them. So here are 12 pieces of gear that stood out to us in 2018:

You might think flat pedals are a solved problem, but the answer is ‘not quite’. In mountain biking and BMX history, flat pedal design has zeroed in on a couple of distinct pedal shapes, but is still evolving. Let me take you through a few bits of terminology and engineering.

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.

Northwave Tribe “Reinforcements with abrasion-resistant rubber prints on the toe and heel, and a reinforced toecap.” €90.