Shimano PD-A600 pedal review: Single-sided gravel goodness | Bike Flat Pedals

“I like riding my regular bike and still try to commute one day a week on it,” Herrigstad said. “For me, the e-bike allows me to commute nearly every day on it. … It gives me a decent workout and, above all, I enjoy it.”

Tension is adjustable, though accessing the 3mm hex bolt is awkward. The level varies from tight, to really-friggin-tight. I certainly wouldn’t put a new rider on these pedals, because their tenacious hold can be intimidating. As the cleats wore in and I got used to them though, I steadily increased the tension to about halfway. Any more than that and you might dislocate your knee trying to unclip.

I still believe that laces aren’t the best pick for trail riding, or cross country and cyclocross racing. They hold dirt, get caught on things and are finicky to get off when you see a leech enter your shoe (perhaps too specific of an example, but the event is still fresh).

(Note: this is an especially thoughtful gift if the person you’re shopping for is a roadie, since when left to their own devices, roadies won’t do anything to help anybody.)

The pedal body is machined from one piece of 6061-T6 aluminium billet. Time reckons that makes it seriously durable on the trail. It’s certainly beautifully finished.

Flat pedals can also work as an educational tool. If you’ve ridden clipless pedals long enough, you know you can simply pull up on them to get you and your bike over an obstacle. Switching back to flat pedals forces a rider to learn how to actually bunny-hop in a controlled manner, without the clipped-in crutch.

My triple crank is Deore XT 48/36/26 . Works beautifully, I have Synchro-shift enabled which keeps cross chaining to a minimum.  The setup you see, i use for mountains with a 11-40 cass.   

Of course, to use the Pitbull pedals, you need the Pitbull cleats. These install on any standard road shoe, with three screws along the sole. Though it operates on a similar principle to the AeroLites, there is a key difference in Lohmeyer’s system: Whereas AeroLites used a plastic cleat that faced downward, the Pitbulls use a metal cleat that faces forward.

There are also practical issues that come with wearing open-toed footwear on a bike: inclement weather, muddy terrain, and the odd errant bee that may want to lodge itself between your foot and the insole of the sandal are the main concerns for the sandal-toting cyclist.

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.

The center of the pedal where the spindle goes through has a bulge that is immediately noticeable when riding. On wet trails I noticed my feet slipping around on the pedals and I never felt as confident as I did with some of the others.

Inside sits an oversized hollow steel axle, which turns on steel bearings. The platform is both wider and longer (70x90mm) than that of Shimano’s benchmark ‘Trail’ SPDs, though not as broad as CrankBrothers’ Mallet E pedals.