Shimano Launches Deore XT Flat & Saint SPD Pedals | Bike Self Locking Pedals

“These were the shiniest pedals in the grouptest, both literally and metaphorically, as they were polished to a mirror finish and loaded down with almost all of the features you’d expect from a high end flat pedal.They run fully on bearings with no bushings. The crank end contains two…” Read the full review here.

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.

The wheels felt quite good in the aero sense. Not as fast as my own wheels with 60mm deep rims, but they held high speeds easily. They were laterally stiff. No rubbing or other issues to report (and at 90kg, I tend to induce such behaviour in susceptible wheels).

I started on the multi-release clip and found them to be extremely good. Never had a false release and only swapped later on to Speedplay for a better float.

The most significant stiffening is usually around the heel. This heel cup is shaped to hold your heel down in the shoe so it doesn’t slip on the upstroke as you pedal or as you walk. The toes are usually reinforced against scuffing, especially in shoes intended for mountain biking. There’s usually padding at the heel and top of the shoe for comfort. You also need to keep an eye out for lots of mesh and ventilation holes. Good ventilation will be great in the summer and, of course buy these shoes if you plan on only wearing the shoes in warmer weather. But beware as too much ventilation in winter will lead to cold feet pretty quickly. It was one of our complaints with the Shimano ME7 shoe. 

The Michelin tread does an impressive job at providing traction from clean tile floors to wet roots. The mid-foot of the sole is covered in rubber, with four lugs protruding from the heel to give a stable stance. Traction at the toes is a little limited in stock form, and you’ll want to buy some toe spikes if you’re planning on running anywhere. Like most mountain bike shoes, none of the lugs are replaceable and to date, durability hasn’t been an issue.

Shimano’s SPD-SL system has remained fundamentally unchanged for many years. Each new generation of pedals typically only receives minor improvements, often to slightly reduce weight.

Road pedal performance is often heavily influenced by the the shape and amount of contact between the cleat and pedal. The cleat on the Shimano PD-A600 pedals is miniscule, but the wide pedal helps make up for that by supporting the lugs of properly chosen shoes.

I asked Lohmeyer about this, and he claimed to have developed a shoe to specifically house the Pitbull cleats and make them less obtrusive (see image above). That may be a better option for anyone who uses these in town because the cleats are a hassle on any standard road shoe.

Flat in shape, the laces offer a little stretch, enough to help lock them in place. Annoyingly, the laces themselves are obscenely long which, I suspect, is due to Shimano using the same length lace across its full size range. Laced up and tucked through the elastic lace holder, the loops would sit over my toes and flap in the wind. Make smaller loops and the plastic crimped ends would tap against the crank arms. At least with my EU43 samples, the laces are simply too long.

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Flats as that’s what I’ve always run. Even use them on the road bike/commuter. Everyone tells me to go clipless but I like the fact that I can dismount nice and easily. Having seen various failed dismounts from people trying clipless for the first time I’m not bothered.